Sea Spurge Remote Area Teams (SPRATS) is an environment care group founded in 2007, using a volunteer adventure conservation model.
The initial primary purpose of the group, made up of a number of teams, is to remove the invasive sea spurge flowering plant.
[1] The group was founded by Dr Jon Marsden-Smedley, a research fellow at the University of Tasmania's School of Geography and Environmental Studies.
[3] Sea spurge has a toxic sap, and critically the plant changes the shape and ecology of the coastal dunes, pushing out shore nesting birds,[1] and also negatively impacting Aboriginal heritage sites.
[5] SPRATS aimed to establish and maintain an eradication zone for sea spurge (Euphorbia paralias) and marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) along 600 kilometres (370 mi) of southwest and southern Tasmanian coastline from Macquarie Harbour to Cockle Creek.
[7] As of June 2010, SPRATS expect to have cleared sea spurge from 90% of the shore between Strahan and Cockle Creek, 25% of Tasmania's coast.
SPRATS has also eradicated the few blackberry infestations found along the coastline, monitored for other weeds, recorded information on rare and threatened shorebird species, for example, little tern, fairy tern, hooded plover, red-capped plover, pied oystercatcher, and orange-bellied parrot, and Aboriginal cultural sites, for example, petroglyphs, stone arrangements, middens, and hut sites, and the usage of the area by other users.
On the longer hauls food drops are used so that the volunteers only have to carry one week’s worth of supplies, they also have to bring their own hiking and camping gear.