Championship Tour surfers help to restore Jan Juc coastline

CHAMPIONSHIP Tour surfers Sally Fitzgibbons and Lakey Peterson have helped local environmental groups to get their hands dirty in the hope of preventing erosion and restoring nature along the Surf Coast.

The World Surf League (WSL) One Ocean coastal restoration activation was held at Jan Juc Beach on Monday afternoon, with the pair of Championship Tour surfers joining the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners, Jan Juc Coast Action and the Surf Coast Shire to learn more about the local ocean landscapes.

During the event, the group planted indigenous groundcover and removed marram grass and coastal tea tree from the area.

The removal of the introduced species will encourage Indigenous species to be reintroduced, and thus dissipate the energy of the ocean as it moves towards the hightide mark, allowing natural processes to occur, creating new sand banks for surfers.

Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority conservation supervisor Scott Hives explained the positive impacts of reintroducing native species into the dune systems amid erosion was one of the biggest challenges facing beaches along the Great Ocean Road.

 

“Indigenous species such as pigface, knobby club-rush and hairy spinifex gradually return incipient dune zones to a low-lying angle and as the energy comes in from the ocean, it is dissipated up that slope,” he said.

“Species such as coastal tea tree and marram grass change the dune system resulting in what we call ‘cliffing’, where the swell comes in and hits the straight edge… creating an unstable environment which is suspectable to further wave erosion and subsequent coastal recession.

“Over time that leads to a deterioration of our dune systems.”

Mr Hives said it was fantastic that the WSL were continuing to contribute positively to the environment at world championship tour events across the world.

“To have two of the world’s leading surfers in Sally and Lakey out there lending their hand to these restoration works goes a long way in helping educate our communities about the importance of dune health,” he said.

“Learning about and restoring coastal ecosystems is important today and for the future of the sport and our incredible coastlines.”

For more about the WSL’s One Ocean initiative and its activities around the world, head to worldsurfleague.com/wsloneocean