Auckland Council is appealing to boaties and leisure craft users to be waste-wise on the water to conserve our oceans and coastlines.

Here are our top tips for being waste-wise in the Gulf:

1. Fill up reusable water bottles for your trip.
2. Take a covered rubbish bin on board. Put all your litter in it. Particularly non-recyclable plastics, cigarette butts and fishing line. Dispose of your rubbish in your bin once onshore again.
3. Take another bin for recycling. Put all your recycling in it. Glass bottles and jars, aluminium cans, steel and tin cans, plastic containers labelled 1, 2 and 5, paper and cardboard. Put these items in your kerbside rubbish bin once onshore again.
4. Remove any unnecessary packaging before you head to sea. Re-pack snacks such as potato chips, nuts, or dried fruits into reusable containers and leave the soft plastic packaging behind.  Avoid plastic wrap by wrapping your sandwiches in reusable beeswax wraps or storing them in reusable containers.
5. If you see rubbish floating by, scoop it out of the sea, even if it's not yours. It’s just one of the things you can do to Be A Tidy Kiwi.
6. Fish heads and frames have a lot of food on them. If you don't want them, give them to someone who does!
7. Fish with reusable lures and hooks. Try to avoid using homemade, single-use lures, made with soft plastics.
8. Save your shellfish or fish scraps to make your own berley, rather than buying berley in a plastic bag.

Check out the summer waste services available on Aotea Great Barrier Island and for Waiheke Island.

Caring for our Coastlines

According to Camden Howitt from Sustainable Coastlines, after collecting more than 1.5 million litres of rubbish from their coastal clean-ups, they have identified a list of top offenders found in the ocean, on beaches and in estuaries.

Howitt encourages Aucklanders to especially take care in disposing of these items, which they have dubbed ‘The Filthy Five’:

1. Plastic of unknown origin - these are bits broken down over time at sea/on the beach, to the point where the product they came from is no longer recognisable.
2. Food wrappers and containers
3. Plastic bottle caps and lids
4. Plastic bags
5. Polystyrene / foam

Some weird and wonderful things also show up during the clean-ups, according to Howitt.

“Over the years, we have found almost everything imaginable on our beaches. From dentures to messages in bottles, to a brass artillery shell, to loads of asbestos. That said, the most concerning and damaging items are also the most common: over 75 per cent of what we find are single-use plastic products.”

“It's up to all of us to protect this place we love. We encourage people to do their bit to put waste in its place, keep plastic out of our oceans, and make sure our beaches are litter-free, the way they should be,” says Howitt. 

Check, Clean, Close

Pests like to hide so it's important to check, clean, close before you head out on your boat to the Hauraki Gulf this summer. 

Find out more here.