EXCLUSIVE: In Hearts Wake Reflect On This Weekend's Melbourne Marine Clean-Up

Announcing last week that in conjunction with the release of Ark they'd be heading to waterways around the country to eliminate marine debris, the fantastic humans in In Hearts Wake have reflected on the first We Are Waterbourne initiative, having taken to St Kilda Beach last Friday.

The band and a handful of their fans amazingly picked up 4,200 pieces of rubbish in only 30 minutes in St Kilda, while at Bondi Beach they removed 5,000 pieces of rubbish.

The band's vocalist Jake Taylor said, "Today was amazing, perfect weather. The fact we made a difference in the area — we got to clean the area and then we got to play in the area, was pretty amazing. I learned there’s a lot more rubbish and marine debris under your feet than you would know. There was over 4,000 pieces collected in 30 minutes. In a square metre, I would find at least 10 cigarette butts just moving my hands through the sand. I’d love to do this around the world, I’d love to continue this with my band.

"How marine debris harms our planet and harms our wildlife is insane. Putting the planet first really does make a difference. Huge thing is it’s not just about picking the marine debris up, it’s about learning its source. We sorted into groups where it came from — whether its consumer, cigarette butts, straw and interestingly enough there was pieces that the council had discarded and trashed, for instance zip ties and council fencing that Ben’s group found. So if we find the source, we can stop it at the source."

Singer and bassist Kyle Erich added, "I believe the issue of marine debris is so important as it’s a direct response to the effect humans have on the world, in the most direct way we can be, in a way we can pick up what was dropped and left behind."

Guitarist Ben Nairne says, "It was so much fun. The weather was perfect! Usually Melbourne weather sucks, but the sun came out and it was really nice and everyone who came along was really enthusiastic about it. I wasn’t sure if people were doing it just to hang out with us – which is cool – but they were genuinely psyched on picking up rubbish, which was awesome and everyone learnt a lot from it as well. They weren’t sure about certain things you could recycle and couldn’t, and they leaned about that to take away. Lots of positives."

Check out some photos of the St Kilda clean-up below. All photos by John Hatfield.