Environment News
World Oceans Day
On Thursday 8th June, MGC Celebrated World Oceans Day with an under the sea themed display erected by the environment team running along the length of the external corridor from the portables to the gym. Images of sea creatures in pristine environments contrasted with those stuck in nets or swimming in plastic pollution with captions “Make the Ocean Great again” and “Don’t be a tree hugger, be a SEA hugger”, which reminded us that the phytoplankton and algae in the sea provide us with more oxygen than all the forests on “Earth” combined. Why is our blue planet called Earth? After all, ¾ of its surface is covered by sea!
At lunchtime, we welcomed Sally Bolton from the Marine Stewardship Council who talked to our students about Sustainable Seafood and how to be a good Ocean Steward. All visitors were treated with as much sustainable canned SkipJack Tuna as they were willing to eat, donated by the MSC certified John West!
We concluded World Oceans day by finishing off our papier-mâché life sized Yellow fin Tuna piñata. We couldn’t bring ourselves to burst the tuna on the day, so we plan to host an end of term piñata ceremony using fishing “poles” to symbolise the great work conservation organisations like the MSC, Greenpeace and the Australian Marine Conservation Society have done to increase awareness about sustainable fishing methods. For more information about Pole and line fishing and other ways you can make an informed seafood choice as a consumer, head to the AMCS webpage or download their Sustainable seafood app.
Happy Word Ocean Day!
Below is an image of a beautiful invasive sea star cannibalising another invasive sea star in our own aquarium at MGC. MGC holds a permit to collect these invasive pests (and other creatures) from the bay so that our students may learn more about the ecology and adaptations of these incredible creatures. The invasive sea star (Asterias amurensis) arrived in Melbourne in the ballast waters of international cargo waters in 2005 and has exploded in numbers to such an extent that scientists calculate this species to make up more than 50% of the biomass in the bay. In other words, if you took every animal out of the bay and made two piles: “Northern Pacific Sea stars” and “Everything else”, then there are more invasive sea stars than sharks, rays, crabs, mussels and seahorses!!!!
A huge Thank you to Lucy Skelton, our passionate Middle School Environment captain for leading her team of Ocean defenders to pull together a great celebration and awareness raising event.
Repower Australia
Yarra Climate Action Now (YCAN) would like to invite members of your school community to a Repower Australia event featuring Ross Garnaut, who will be sharing with us his vision for energy storage, baseload renewables and a realistic path to zero emissions.
This is important information for those of us who hope to secure a safe environment for our children and future generations. It will be held at Bargoonga Nganjin, the lovely new library in North Fitzroy, on 29 June. See attached flyer for more details.
If you could print out the flyer and put it on a noticeboard, or mention the event in your school newsletter, we would be most grateful.
Eventbrite registration link is:
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/repower-australia-with-ross-garnaut-tickets-34775418212