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MORNINGTON PENINSULA ISIC CATCHMENT WORKSHOP SUCCESS!

We had a fantastic day for our Mornington Peninsula Catchment Workshop this week with a chilly morning turning into a beautiful sunny day! Our Ambassadors began the day at the beautiful Narambi Reserve with Mandy explaining how the stormwater drains lead to the litter catchments to trap as much litter as possible from flowing into our creeks, rivers and ocean. Pat, Jesse and Chris from Melbourne Water explained the huge costs such as for staff and transport to collect the litter from traps all over Melbourne, and then lifted a litter bag out to show Ambassadors what happens when litter is discarded in our parks and streets.

Ambassadors then had a great time undertaking a Healthy Waterways Workshop which included a water pollution testing lesson, and a hunt for macroinvertebrates and identifying their tolerance to pollution in the filtration watershed! They learned how important these wetland filtration systems are to trap the pollutants that cannot be caught in the litter traps such as oil, and the dangerous chemicals from our lawns after residents blow grass clippings and leaf litter into the gutters.

After lunch we headed off to Mornington foreshore for a lesson on beach litter surveys, followed by a litter collect, sort, and report session focusing on the sources of litter, and how to report litter collections on the Litter Stopper App.  We finished the day off with a whale identification session and Ambassadors tested their skills against their peers to correctly identify the whale flukes.

All in all a fantastic day once again and we would like to thank our fabulous partners at the Mornington Peninsula Shire, the awesome folks from Melbourne Water, and of course the ISIC teachers and parent/carers for transporting the Ambassadors to the Workshop.

If you would like to know more about our ISIC Marine Ambassador Program please contact Education Director Mandy Robertson at the Dolphin Research Institute.

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