500 fish to help restore EU fish stocks for future generations

Welsh Sea Champions Andrea Wijnaendts, Lauren Hughes and Cassie Bye are getting 500 people involved in the Paint-a-Fish campaign!

They have just set out on their mission to reach their target of 500 fish, and so far have already got 52 fish painted at Bangor University. As marine biology students and recent graduates, the team of three are giving talks, presenting the campaign at the end of lectures and have a stand at the university library. They are hoping soon to get schools in the area involved too.

The fish from the Paint-a-Fish campaign will be uploaded onto a website to build a “virtual fish stock” that will call on EU leaders to protect fish stocks and end overfishing.

Click here to find out more about the campaign and get in touch with your coordinator for support if you would like to promote the campaign.

Busy with beach art at St. Bees!

Beach lovers at St. Bees created a sand menagerie of marine wildlife to highlight just how amazing our seas are!

Sea Champion and MCS Trustee Kay Foster manned an MCS stand at the Wildlife Trust's Beached Art event to help spread the message about marine conservation.

From basking sharks, starfish, and minke whales to cuttlefish and turtle hatchlings, there were some truely amazing entries into the beach art competition. 

Kay focused on promoting our turtle projects by helping children make turtle hatchlings out of old egg boxes!  Hands on activities like this are a great way to engage familes allowing you to talk about what's out there and what anyone can do to help protect it. 

If you'd like to run this activity at an event near you, download our activity sheet.  



Turtle hatchlings on the beach at St. Bees!

Tallulah laid how many eggs?!

Tallulah, our lifesize inflatable leatherback turtle, is becoming rather a celebrity! She is travelling far and wide accompanying our Sea Champions at events all over the country.

 She's a great talking point to introduce our turtle projects, and here’s a great idea to interact with people at your MCS stand - a competition to guess how many eggs Tallulah laid!

At 50p a go, not only did people learn a little about turtles, but £32 was raised at the recent Bristol Festival of Nature. Every penny counts to help save our seas!

The lucky winner was Daniel Jones from Wiltshire, who guessed just 3 eggs away from the overall total and won an Adopt-a-Turtle gift.

To run this competition at your event, all you need is a box full of ping pong balls which look very much like turtle eggs!

Oceans on a Plate!

Sea Champions Tammy Palmer and Clare Johnson attended the World Oceans Day event at Looe Monkey Sanctuary where they ran all sorts of kids activities to celebrate our oceans.  From 'Ocean's on a Plate' to marine quizzes, the kids were entertained whilst parents had the change to pledge for marine protection in our UK seas.

Sea Champion Tammy Palmer running kids activities for World Oceans Day!

Litter Pick Panic!

Brand new litter awareness activity ran by south west Sea Champions!

Sea Champions Tammy Palmer and Clare Johnson had lots of fun with the new educational game “Litter-Pick Panic!” It’s a great way to educate kids about litter, by recreating the Big-Beach Clean-up in a single paddling pool! All you need to make your beach is a paddling pool, some sand, a few pebbles and some clean and varied rubbish (...but please don’t remove these from a real beach!). After explaining the threats litter poses to marine wildlife, particularly plastics, give the kids 60 seconds to clear the rubbish, after which you can look at the types of rubbish and where they might have come from.

Are you thinking of manning your own MCS stand at an event? Why not run a “Litter-Pick Panic!" activity to attract people to your stand. Get in touch with your Volunteer Coordinator for support.

Any more ideas for children's activities to highlight our key themes of marine protection, sustainable fisheries and clean seas and beaches? Comment below to share your ideas with Sea Champions across the nation!

"Litter-Pick Panic" in action!