Sea Champion Vicky completes the Big Sea Swim!

Congratulations to Vicky Saunders from Rayleigh in Essex who completed the MCS Big Sea Swim 1km event and raised £325 to help save our seas, shores and wildlife!

Not only has Vicky been swimming for our seas, she regularly helps out at Beachwatch events at Jubilee Beach in Southend and she's organised a Big Blue Day at her work place where they had a dress down day and cake sale raising a further £200 for MCS.

Thank you Vicky!

Sea Champions across the UK are busy planning Blue Mile events. Fancy having a go at kayaking or stand-up paddleboarding? Or perhaps you’d prefer swimming, or surfing, or even walking beside a river? Or what about a “blue” cake sale? Interested? Then check out www.thebluemile.org and help us raise a target of £50,000 to help protect our seas, shores and wildlife.

The Big Sea Swimmers getting ready to take on the challenge!

 

 

Scottish Sea Champions get their running shoes on!

Seven runners, representing seven species of turtle complete the Together for Turtles challenge

Seven Edinburgh based Sea Champions have each ran a marathon between North Berwick and the Tay - a total of 183 miles! All in order to raise funds for our work with turtles through the MCS Turk and Caicos Islands (TCI) Turtle Project.

Each team member of the “Together for Turtles” team ran for one of the seven species of marine turtle worldwide, of which leatherback, green, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley and loggerhead are endangered and visit UK waters. 

The "Together for Turtles" route started in North Berwick, passed Edinburgh, up the entire Fife coastal path to the Tay, and back again to Leith. Each participant ran a 26.2 mile section of this and the next runner carried on from that point on the following day.

Matt Barnes, who represented the Green turtle, and ran from Leith to Kinghorn talks about the highs and lows: 

“After training throughout a heatwave, I set off remembering the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion as I gained pace. However, just after I began, the skies darkened, the thunder roared and the lightening brought torrential rain. This was to be the theme of the week with our biggest team skill being how to run forward while not drowning in the horizontal water hitting our faces!"

"The team were great and brought enthusiasm for the cause but most of all a sense of humour as the conditions were ridiculous. Some highs were team members running past hauled out seals on route and even our trial angling bins on the beach being used by someone as we ran by. Lows were realising the coastal path had eroded onto the beach in some areas meaning we were running on sand! Forget images of Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff prancing on sun kissed shores these were rain soaked runners stumbling on beaches ridden with Sewage Related Debris".

It’s not over yet, Sea Champion Neil Madigan, our very own Chris Hoy, will be cycling the entire route back on the 17th August to cement the challenge in history. So if you haven’t shared, shouted on donated it’s not too late!

If you want to be involved in something similar next year, get in touch with Matt Barnes matt.barnes@mcsuk.org

The Together for Turtles team are still collecting sponsors at www.mcsuk.org/url/togetherforturtles

 

40 tyres collected from Scottish beach clean!

Sea Champions Sarah Conner and Al Reeve, with the help of volunteers, collected a whopping 40 tyres from a summer beach clean at South Queensferry.

The team conducted a 100m Beachwatch survey, recording the types and amounts of litter.

"Looking at the types and sources of litter washing up on our beaches, we can run targeted litter campaigns to influence policy makers and change people's behaviours to try to stop it getting there in the first place" says Matt Barnes, Sea Champions Volunteer Coordinator for Scotland.

Twelve bags of litter were also collected, weighing 11 kilos, and also a plastic patio chair and car exhaust.

More of our beaches need to be cleaned and surveyed! If you'd like to get involved and survey your local beach, sign up here, or get in touch with your Volunteer Coordinator.

40 tyres, a plastic patio chair and car exhaust amongst the litter collected at the South Queensferry summer beach clean!

Surfing Sea Champion writes for MCS

Sea Champion Charlie Johnson from Chippenham has just published the first of several articles for UK surf magazines to inspire sea lovers to take action to look after their surf spots.

"I've been surfing for 4 years, I love the sea and hate the abuse it gets. I especially hate smoking on the beach and littering of course." says Charlie.

Writing for surf magazines is a great way to highlight the fact that surfers can do all sorts of things to look after their waves.

Read Charlie's first article here!

Are you a writer? Are you passionate about saving our seas? If so, get in touch with your Volunteer Coordinator and we can help you get your articles published.

Meet the Brownies!

Sea Champion Natasha Ewins tells us about her experience supporting marine themed activities with the Brownies...


"When a friend asked me to run a marine evening for a group of Brownies, I suddenly had a "like they have on TV" vision. You know, the one where everything turns to chaos—crying children and tantrums galore with you standing at the centre about to have a meltdown? Ok, perhaps that’s a little dramatic—how bad could a group of 7-10 year old girls be? Nonetheless, I realised I was going to need some help!

Luckily there are lots of Sea Champions in the Bristol area interested in teaching children about marine conservation. Enter Sea Champs Emily, Naomi and Helen. Emily was keen to have a chance to coordinate the evening and she did a fantastic job.

We arrived at the village hall and after a quick run through in the car park, a speedy A-Team style set up operation ensued. Shortly after the Brownies arrived, everyone settled and twenty pairs of expectant eyes were upon us.

Emily started us off with a great introduction explaining the work of MCS. Then the girls split into groups. One group donned tabards and litter pickers and helped us clean up our indoor beach for Litter Pick Panic, learning about where the litter had come from and how long it takes to break down. (Quick note, if you ever need to entertain a 10 year old just hand them a litter picker. Cautionary side-bar, this also causes high levels of excitability and shrieking!)

Meanwhile, back in the main hall the other group was discovering how dolphins use echolocation to find their food. The girls made a circle with three of them standing in the centre. One played the dolphin who was blindfolded and two others were fish. To play the game the dolphin shouted "dolphin", the fish shouted "fish" and the dolphin had to try and find the fish. Think Marco Polo with fins!

The two groups switched so everyone had a go at both activities. Then we brought all of the girls back together for "Paint-a-Fish". This is a brilliant campaign that engages the younger generation in the protection of fish stocks by colouring in a fish to be part of a huge virtual fish stock being submitted to the EU. Calm descended upon the hall as the girls furiously coloured away amongst a mass of felt tip pens and googly eyes.

Then at the end of the night there was just enough time to hand out a few MCS badges and stickers and join the brownies as they stood hand in hand in a circle, reciting the Brownie Promise."

A huge thank you to Sea Champion Emily for coordinating the evening and to Naomi and Helen for their brilliant support. Apparently the girls were telling all of their friends at school about it the next day!

If you'd like to find out more about running a similar evening or any of the activities we used then please get in touch with your Volunteer Coordinator.

Sea Champions hosting a "Marine Evening" with their local Brownie group

Solent is 92Kg lighter when it comes to litter…

Sea Champion Charlie Johnson recalls her beach clean experience: 

“There were smiles all round as the sun finally showed its face just in time for the clean and survey at Bournemouth’s Solent Beach, targeted by volunteers armed with bin bags ready to battle marine litter.

The volunteers split off into groups and embraced the sea air and beautiful sunshine bouncing off the water as they went about their mission to help the environment and keep their beach looking tip top.

Amongst the litter collected were the all too familiar sights of plastic wrappers and bags which cause the environment no end of problems. Then there were the glass shards and bottle tops under rocks and the sand just waiting to cause harm.

With rope, paper and lollipop sticks included in the long list of non biodegradable materials lying around, bin bags were soon filled. Though there was nothing out of the ordinary collected on the day by removing this litter the group have successfully given the ocean and coastline a bit more breathing space and quite probably saved the lives of many of Dorset’s sea creatures. The data collected from that day will also be used to highlight the issues and help MCS take further action.

It took 40 volunteers, from the local area, just over an hour to relieve the beach of 92 kilos of marine litter. Which goes to show—taking just an hour out of your life can make a real difference. We must remember though, when it comes to the environment and litter, it is possible to win a battle, though the war is far from over.”

 

Sea Champion inspires kids with Maya Plass!

More than 300 school children have been learning about the marine environment at the Ecover Schools Blue Mile event in Plymouth. 

Sea Champion Alex Milden joined forces with BBC Springwatch presenter Maya Plass to lead hands-on lessons about seashore creatures for youngsters in a waterfront ‘classroom'.

Linking sport to the environment was a sure way to grab their attention, with kayaking combined with a beach conservation workshop, a Plastics Lab designed by Plymouth University and a mini tour of the National Marine Aquarium.

For many of the Year 6 and Year 7 children, this was the first time they had ever been in a kayak – and it proved a big winner!

Alex kindly donated three full days of his time to lead these children's workshops - a big thank you and well done for making the workshops such a success!

Take a look at a short video of the Ecover Blue Mile schools event here, and photos of the event here.

Would you like to try your hand at kayaking? Or have a go at stand up paddle boarding? Then register for your own Ecover Blue Mile where you can walk, swim or paddle a mile to raise funds to save our seas, shores and wildlife.

Or are you keen to inspire the next generation about our amazing marine wildlife and conservation issues? You can find out about becoming a Sea Champion at www.mcsuk.org/seachampions

 

Sea Champion Alex inspiring kids at the Ecover Blue Mile schools events on the Plymouth waterfront.