Tangaroa Blue, a marine debris tracking organisation, has opened a file on the Japanese pipe pillow fillings that have washed ashore across the regions beaches.
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With sightings of the plastic cylinders rising throughout the year, the organisation hopes to locate the source of the pollution through ocean modelling.
Tangaroa Blue has urged the community to report sighting of the waste by sending the date, GPS location and number of items found to info@tangaroblue.com.au.
Jo Power of Plastic Free NSW said she first noticed the plastic pieces in March at Cunjurong Point.
She has “no idea” where the product has come from, but hopes they are from a one-off pillow gone overboard on a boat, rather a container from a ship carrying the niche product.
“Tangaroa Blue are interested in anything that washes up,” Jo said.
“Anything peculiar they will take note of for future reference.
“Because these are so random we should be able to track where they have come from, but we need people to report it.”
The straw-like plastic pieces have been sighted at North Mollymook, Racecourse Beach, Narrawallee Beach, Conjola and Cunjurong Point.
”I’ve still been finding them last week,” Jo said.
“Twenty here, 20 the next day. I have a jar full just from the original collection.”
Shoalhaven City Council’s environmental health manager Shane Pickering said work by pro-active community groups to clear the pollution has been fantastic.
“They do so much all the time and have been magnificent cleaning up our beaches,” he said.
“It is the perfect size to be ingested by our marine life, so it is important to remove them as they can be quite nasty out in the ocean.”
Take 3 for the Sea, sea guardian Monica Mudge said she was devastated by the plastic washing onto our shores.
“I feel like crying,” she said.
"I know how harmful that type of plastic can be for the environment.”
The pipe pillow filling poses a great danger to wildlife and people are asked to collect and bin any pieces spotted.
‘When you look at all the whiting in the lakes and the birds it would be so easy for them to pick it up and ingest it,” Jo said.
“It’s scary.”