The Better Beaches Project

Administered by the Marine Farming Association & managed by Darren Clarke (MFA Environmental Mentor).

The MFA Industry Beach Cleaning Programme has been active in Te Tauihu for over 10 years.

Each year the Marine Farming industry spend around 2,000 hours cleaning beaches across the top of the south.
They collect everything they find that is inorganic from marine farming debris to what we class as “other debris” this is generally debris from recreational activities like boating, fishing, picnics etc.

We think this is an awesome effort!

However, we want to turbo charge our Beach cleaning effort and dedicate more time and resources to further demonstrate our commitment to the environment and to sustainable marine farming.

So, in 2022, Darren, the MFA Environmental Mentor started talking to the “friends of the marine farming industry”, our lawyers, accountants, suppliers, and consultants to see if there would be any financial support by way of sponsorship for us to pay for more resources to clean more beaches or to clean existing beaches more often.

And so started The Better Beaches Project…

The contributions to the project are used solely to increase resourcing and pay for vessel time and people power.

We believe this is important and we need to get it right!

In short, we want to make sure that our activities aren’t showing up on the beaches of Te Tauihu.

We will continue to do this through audits and education so that we are proactively mitigating the problem at the source.

This is about the future of our environment and our industry. We know this will be important to everyone and that everyone cares about it.

Our goal from creating this extension to the MFA beach cleaning programme is to add another 1,000 hours of cleaning per year, taking our cleaning total to 3,000 hours per annum.

Our Objectives

To become guardians of the marine environment.
To increase the number of beach cleans.
To recognise our partner organisations.
To enable the marine farming industry, as a whole, to become more sustainable.
To continue striving towards a better future.

How does it work

Associate industries are being invited to become sponsors.
The level of sponsorship level dictates the number of beaches that are cleaned on their behalf.
The MFA administers the process and arranges for a team to clean the sponsored beaches.

What do sponsors get

The knowledge that they are making a difference and helping to preserve and care for our beautiful marine environment.
Feedback on the waste collected from their sponsored beaches and proof that they are making a positive difference.
Sponsors will be recognised as part of the MFA's sustainability programme, in the MFA newsletter, the MFA website, MFA social media channels and everywhere we tell our story.
We'll also provide photographs and information for sponsors to tell their own sustainability story.

Sponsorship levels