Otway Ocean Care is a non-profit group based in Apollo Bay and made up of a team of volunteers focused on citizen science, education, and conservation of local marine life.
With funding from Coastcare Victoria we’ve been able to run free workshops, revegetate coastal habitats, create our own snorkel guides, and purchase marine biology textbooks that are free for locals to borrow.
The workshops are aimed at building a following and recruiting volunteers by getting people more familiar and interested in the diversity of marine life and ultimately, passionate about conservation. We’ve so far covered fish, molluscs, echinoderms, crustaceans, seaweed, marine worms and more.
Once a month we undergo sampling in the harbour and record any juvenile southern rock lobster’s we find. The VFA (Victorian Fishing Authority) uses the data to guide bag limits and maintain their population numbers.
We have just received more funding from Coastcare for our next project, ‘Waste, Pollution and Coastal Monitoring’. This will involve: workshops on waste and pollution reduction; beach clean up events; training sessions for citizen scientists to ID and monitor invasive pest species; and some group events to remove the pest seaweed, wakame.
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Location
69/71 Nelson St, APOLLO BAY, VIC 3233 -
Phone
0480 158 789 -
Email
darcy.landcare@soln.org -
Ocean Literacy Principles
1. The Earth has one big ocean with many features.2. The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth.3. The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate.4. The ocean made the Earth habitable.5. The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.6. The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected.7. The ocean is largely unexplored.
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