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.