"Dirty Beach" fundraiser a great success

Sea Champion Hannah of "March of the Mermaids" joined forces with artists Lou McCurdy and Chloe Hanks earlier this week for the "Dirty Beach Party" in Brighton - an evening to highlight the perils of plastics in our seas and to raise funds for MCS.

Lou says: "It was a great atmosphere for a great cause, and we raised just under £200 for MCS. There were plenty of pirates, mermaids and sea loving folk who danced the night away. We were very appreciative and lucky to have eminent DJs, a fantastic pirate band, face painting, an upcycling craft stall, a pirate magician and an amazing burlesque star to compere it all! We celebrated the sea in style and look forward to more fundraising nautical shenanigans events in 2014!"

Big thank you from the MCS team - it sounds like it was truly a night to remember!

If you're keen to fundraise for MCS in the new year, check out our fundraising resources.

The "Dirty Beach Party" in Brighton highlighted the issues associated with litter in our oceans and raised almost £200 for MCS!

The Great Nurdle Hunt!

Scottish Sea Champions are taking part in the "The Great Nurdle Hunt" to find out how widespread "nurdle" pollution is around the coast of the Forth. 

What on earth is a nurdle?

Nurdles are plastic pellets, about the size of a lentil, that are the raw material used to make nearly all plastic objects. They get into our seas through accidental spillage and mishandling by industry, where they are often mistaken for food by animals like seabirds fish and crustaceans.

Sea Champions Sarah Conner, Susie Burnet, Jackie Leeds, Jenny McAllister, Lesley Anderson, Margaret Harrison, Peter Stevens and Kimberley Hahn have been recording nurdles during their Beachwatch cleans around the Forth Estuary - a designated Special Protected Area largely because of the birds that live and breed around it, many of which have been shown to ingest plastic.

"The Great Nurdle Hunt" has been set up by a group of local residents concerned about the continuing presence of plastic pellets and other marine litter around the Forth.

 

Reporting nurdles is helping build up an evidence to show the local plastics industry the extent of the nurdle pollution.

 

Image: Clare McIntyre

Festive frolicks in Ross-on-Wye

Each Christmas, the "Gresleys" community in Ross-on-Wye sees the whole street, young and old, getting together for the "Christmas Switch On", when the homes on the street simultaneously switch on their plentiful Christmas lights whilst raising money for charity - this year for the Marine Conservation Society, St. Michael's Hospice and the Hope Trust.

It all kicked off with an explosive firework display over the darkened street, signaling the families to run inside to switch on their light displays - which this year included a seagull in a pear tree!

Around twenty houses on the street got together for two hours of mayhem, entertaining hundreds of Ross-on-Wye citizens who came to enjoy no end of Christmassy fundraisers. From "guess the weight of the Christmas cake", cakes, sausage rolls, mulled cider and cranberry juice to "hook a Christmas bauble", "throw a snowball through a letter box" and "throw a hoop on the snowman's nose" amongst many more activities.

Thanks go to the Gresleys community for their tremendous efforts, and to MCS staff members Sue Ranger and Peter Richardson.

Do you have any Christmassy activities planned? If so, let us know!

Our very own Peter Richardson dishing out mulled cider!

Hundreds of people turned out for the Gresleys annual "Christmas Switch On" - this year raising funds for MCS!