Going into Year 6 at school, but taking on the marine world, Lake Cathie’s Shalise Leesfield is continuing her crusade to rid the Hastings of fishing line.
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It all began with Shalise’s passion for marine life and the environment, and after she began to discover mass amounts of discarded fishing line she decided to make it her mission to clean up the Hastings.
“I love dolphins and marine life and when I found out how bad forgotten fishing line can be for the animals I wanted to become a voice for them.
“Lots of people talk about how bad plastic is for the environment but what many people may not know is that it can take up to 600 years for fishing line to decompose in the environment.
“But what people may also not know is that it is really easy for people to properly get rid of the fishing line,” Shalise said.
Since the installation of two Seal the Loop fishing line collection bins in Lake Cathie, Shalise says there has been a dramatic reduction in fishing line left in the water.
“I empty the fishing line bins every week and on average I collect three or four handfuls of fishing line each time.
“This also means that when I check the shore lines there is less and less fishing line I can see which is really awesome,” she said.
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Shalise also says that when people ask her what she is doing, or when she tells people about the dangers of fishing line for marine animals they are often surprised.
“I don’t think a lot of people understand how much damage one little piece of fishing line left behind in the water can do, but since the bins were installed it is also teaching people there is a good place to put them.”
Shalise has also started an Instagram page @shalisesoceansupport where she documents her trips to collect the fishing line in the bins and is sharing her journey with people all over the world.
“I have recently started an Instagram page so that I can share with people all over the world the importance of not throwing fishing line into the ocean and it has been really great connecting with people everywhere.
“I post blog videos of me collecting the fishing line as well pictures of the things that I collect in the bins.”
Shalise hopes that in 2018 that more bins will be put at different places in the Camden Haven.
“Young people need to stand up and make a difference as we are the next generation of leaders, so this year I hope that we can get a few more bins installed in other places.”