Courageous kayakers to clean up Bass Strait in world-first expedition

Media Release - Jarad Kohlar / 17.02.2011

In a world first, the intrepid crew will cross the notorious stretch of water in oceanracing skis, rather than sea kayaks, and collect and document rubbish along the way as part of Surfrider Foundation’s National Marine Debris Initiative.

They’re calling the quest Clean Across Bass Strait. Official Page a href="#"onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.cleanacrossbassstrait.com')"class="main">here</a>

“It has been a life-long dream of mine to paddle across Bass Strait on an ocean-racing ski,” says expedition leader and Australian Adventure Racing Champion, Jarad Kohlar, 28, who’s crossed the Strait twice before by sea kayak. “By shedding all the weight of a sea kayak, we’re able to paddle much faster and expend less energy, and that enables us to spend a few hours each day picking up rubbish from the remote beaches we stop at along the way.”<br /><br /><br />
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The team will depart Port Welshpool in Victoria on 18 February, and paddle between<br /><br /><br />
five and eight hours a day to reach north-east Tasmania around a week later – a total of 300 kilometres. Along the way, it will stop at some of Australia’s most untouched islands, including the Hogan Group, Kent Group, and Flinders Island. Rubbish collected here will be categorised, before being packed up into bags and stowed on the fishing trawler cum floating garbage truck that’s escorting the paddlers.<br /><br /><br />
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All data on the debris collected will be submitted to Surfrider’s Marine Debris Database and, wherever possible, items will be traced to their source. Armed with this information, Surfrider can work with the community, as well as government agencies and industry, to make changes in the design or use of these items, as well as legislation and educational strategies so they don’t end up on our beaches in the first place.<br /><br /><br />