Ever wondered what pesticides lurk in your fishing hole? Here’s the opportunity to find out.
Nominate Your WaterwayOzFish Unlimited has partnered with RMIT on their Pesticides Detectives program, we are giving OzFish Members and Chapters across Australia the opportunity to discover what pesticides are lurking in their local waterways, potentially impacting your fish. The study will focus on streams, wetlands and estuaries (where there is mud to sample, not sand).
Pesticide Detectives is a national Citizen Science research project investigating the occurrences and concentration of pesticides in Australian waterways. It is funded by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Business and undertaken by the Aquatic Environmental Stress Research Group (AQUEST) based at RMIT University.
How Do I Get Involved?
1. Nominate your waterway by completing the details in the Site Nomination FormA nomination of up to 3 sites per landuse type.Know the latitude and longitude of the site. You’ll need to nominate a coordinator to be the point of contact to send the sampling kit to and to be able to coordinate the collections and return the samples in the requested timeframe.All instructions and equipment will be provided (except for a shovel).2. Send in the nomination form no later than Monday 16 September to [email protected].
A complete Instruction manual is available to review on what the project entails and what’s involved. If you are unable to help this round, there will be two other sampling events happening at the end of November to February and a final collection in April 2020.
What Happens Next?
RMIT will be in touch if your site is selected for sampling. Don’t worry if it isn’t selected in the first round, it may be selected in the second round.If selected, your nominated coordinator will receive a ‘mud sampling kit’ in the post with directions for collecting your samples, that will need to be returned to RMIT by return post for analysis.Results will be provided back to you by RMIT and/or OzFish HQ.If your site does not get selected for the project, OzFish HQ will be in touch to assist in further investigation of your site.
GET INVOLVED NOW
Nominations are due soon, please get them in by Monday 16th September. If you can’t make this deadline, sites will be considered for another collection late November to February 2020 and April 2020.
FIND OUT MORE
NEED HELP?
Talk to your local OzFish Chapter President if you have any questions or contact Cassie, OzFish Director of Habitat.
CONTACT CASSIE