Taking a stand for marine life
Schools
St Mary’s College Year 6 students have been learning about 'Sea Shepherd', an organisation that uses direct action to defend marine wildlife and protect their habitat in the world's oceans.
As part of their Civics and Citizenship project, the class contacted Jenni Wyrsta, a long-time advocate for dolphins and moderator of the official Port Adelaide Dolphin Watch Group on Facebook.
Old Scholar Georgia Tibbenham, who is Sea Shepherd Education officer, visited the Year 6 class and spoke about many of the projects she is involved in and what students could do to help.
Students learned that dolphins are under significant threat from discarded fishing gear and other pollutants in the Port River.
Mr Pastro, Antonia and Georgia Tibbenham (old scholar Class of 2012) at Sea Shepherd Adelaide.
They wrote letters and sent drawings to the deputy premier and Minister for the Environment and Water, Susan Close, calling for support to protect the dolphins in the Port River.
Some students attended beach cleaning sessions at Semaphore, Garden Island, Henley Beach and Mutton Cove with class teacher Matt Pastro and Eileen McCabe, Information Resources coordinator.
Year 6 students attending weekend clean-ups included Madi Gibbins, Scarlett Jones (and her younger sister Phoebe), Emelia Kranixfeld, Antonia Lambrakis and Maddie Letts.
Madi said she hoped beaches and oceans would be cleaner in the future.
“Helping the dolphins and cleaning up our coasts is a message we must convey,” she said.
Scarlett agreed: “We need to make sure the dolphins have a safer environment.”
Minister Close replied to the students thanking them for their work and updating them on the State Government’s investigation into the possible causes of recent dolphin deaths.
Jump to next article
Comments
Show comments Hide comments