Arming Sea Champions to inspire the Marine Conservationists of the future

Over the last year MCS Education Officer Jenny has been busy developing a suite of schools workshops which impart important messages about marine conservation to younger generations. Once the workshops had been tried, tested and tweaked it was time to take them wider and teach others how to deliver them. Brilliantly we have a cohort of Sea Champions volunteers who are really keen to do this so last December we ran our first education training days in Bristol, Edinburgh and London.

Jenny took the Sea Champions through how to teach three of the MCS education workshops: the “Oceans Alive” assembly, “Beside the Sea” aimed at Key Stage One and the “Aliens of the Deep” for Key Stage Two. Everyone got stuck into the activities and had a go at delivering the workshops. Although there was a mixture of backgrounds and abilities the volunteers were very supportive, giving encouragement and tips along the way. There were plenty of those great moments that happen when people share their experiences.

At the end of the session everyone pledged their next steps by completing the sentence, “If I do one new thing after today I will….” Ed, Jules and Matt (our Volunteer Coordinators) are now excited to be supporting the Sea Champions as they go out to schools in their local community to deliver these workshops and inspire the Marine Conservationists of the future.

We'd like to say a big thank you to Marks & Spencer for the funding support that enabled us to run the training days.

Plastic challenger wins PM award

Fantastic news alert! Our amazing Sea Champion Emily Smith - who helped pioneer our 'Plastic Challenge' - has only gone & become the latest person to receive the Prime Minister's volunteering 'Point of Light' award which recognises outstanding volunteers!

Emily Smith, 26, inspired hundreds of people to get involved in her ‘Plastic Challenge’ campaign after she decided last year to give up plastic for Lent. Emily is a keen sailor and became increasingly frustrated with the volume of litter she encountered in UK waters. To raise awareness about the impacts of plastic litter in particular, Emily created the ‘Plastic Challenge’ and gave up single-use plastics to highlight how dependent we have become on packaged goods. The ‘Plastic Challenge’ was so successful that earlier this year the Marine Conservation Society rolled out the campaign across the country, encouraging hundreds of people to use less plastic.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Emily’s Plastic Challenge has inspired people up and down the country to cut back on the amount of plastic they use and has raised awareness of the positive impact they can have on the oceans. I’m delighted to name her the 168th UK Point of Light.”

Emily said: “I’m very grateful to receive the Points of Light award as part of my role in the Marine Conservation Society Sea Champions programme. The Plastic Challenge has gone from strength to strength and I’m overwhelmed by the support it has received from the public. The Plastic Challenge allows people to directly make a difference by reducing their own plastic footprint, whether it’s using reusable shopping bags, giving up bottled water or living completely plastic free. There has never been a more important time to protect UK marine wildlife and I hope the Points of Light award will encourage more people to volunteer with the Marine Conservation Society.”
Well done Emily!
The Plastic Challenge will kick off again next year - watch this space.

Sea Champion Emily Smith teach Brownies about our amazing marine life.

 

No need to visit the seaside to help with our wildlife sighting programmes!

Live a long way from the coast? Or prefer to keep your feet dry? There are many ways to help us with our wildlife sightings programmes without the need to be at the beach.

We’ve received a record number of jellyfish sightings this year, with more than 1,300 by the end of August. This is an amazing number of sightings, but all of this data needs to be verified before we can upload it to our live map. Sea Champion James Price has been invaluable in helping us keep up with this rapidly growing jellyfish database. Meanwhile Sarah Briggs from Tooting has been helping us update our database on pink seafans.

It’s not all about data - Sea Champions have been giving talks to local sub aqua clubs to encourage divers to transform their dives by taking part in Seasearch surveys.

And it doesn’t stop there – Lizzie Prior created a Bioblitz survey form for key marine species found on our strandline and in our rockpools. She helped us trial the survey with hundreds of people at the Plymouth Ocean City Festival at the weekend with Sea Champions Manager Justine Millard, where they found cushion starfish, blennies, snakeslock anemone, shore crabs and lots lots more!

Get in touch with your Volunteer Coordinator, if any of this interests you. We particularly need volunteer speakers who want to encourage local communities, such as dive clubs, to get involved in our wildlife sightings programmes. If you're keen to help us spread the message, you'll receive training and support, and well as some great resources.

Sea Champion Lizzie's "rockpool ramble" at the Plymouth Ocean City Festival.

Meet our office volunteers!

Giving the gift of time at MCS HQ

Sea Champions Cassie Greenhill and Rebecca Adams alone donated around 400 hours of their time volunteering at head office through the summer! Joined by Carol Scarisbrick, Shona Palmer, Jane Meadows, Andrew Goodes, Mary-Lou Wheeler, Izzy Godden and Harriet Robins, the team provided logistical support for the Great British Beach Clean. From risk assessments, helping with promotions, to getting permissions from beach owners and sending out equipment, ahead of our biggest beach cleaning weekend yet!

Cassie and Rebecca also helped us research and contact companies to enlist their support for the Great British Beach Clean and have been an amazing help packaging up and sending out our campaign promotions to new outlets. They even went on a trip with our Pollution Policy Officer, Dr. Sue Kinsey looking for microplastics in cosmetics.

We always need help with things in the office – Mary-Lou Wheeler has been helping out with all sorts of things from putting together Seasearch packs, ensuring our Beachwatch information is up to date and accurate, plotting our priority Beachwatch beaches on Google maps and composing our first report on endangered species to help us with our 30 Threatened Species appeal. Anna Starley has been an incredible help sorting out our image database, whilst Cassie and Rebecca have also been researching events for Sea Champions to attend including Dorset Seafood Festival and Bournemouth Blue Mile.

It doesn’t stop there - several Sea Champions have also been user testing our new website and Natasha Riches gave six weeks of full time support to the fundraising team with lead generating.

If you’d like to help in our office, sign up to the Sea Champions forum for the latest volunteer opportunities.



Sea Champions Carol, Rebecca and Lizzie hard at work at MCS HQ

MCS supporter awarded title of Miss Earth Devon!

Twenty-four year old beauty queen from Torquay, Susana Barnard to compete in Miss Earth UK Grand Finals this month.

The Miss Earth pageant sees young women from all over the world compete to be titled ‘Miss Earth’ in order to become an ambassador and be able to campaign for environmental protection and conservation across the globe.

Susana will be representing Devon and will be competing against young women from all over the UK in order to be titled Miss Earth England, in Birmingham on 21st September.

In the meantime, she'll be using her new found fame to raise awareness of the state of our seas and is raising funds to help us protect them. Susana will be completing her first ever SCUBA dive, whilst collecting litter from beneath the waves.

"I am urging people to just take more care and notice of the sea. Don’t neglect it. Protect it. Keep it clean. The sea is home to millions and millions of creatures, some of which we eat. It is arguable that we could possibly be eating contaminated fish because they could be feeding from contaminated plankton and of course only because we contaminate their habitat” says Susana.

You can follow Susana’s journey by liking her Facebook page ‘Miss Earth Devon 2014’, or by sponsoring her underwater challenge.

Susana Barnard, photographed at Meadfoot Beach by John English of The Owl and The Pussycat Photography.

Summer Blues? We certainly got them!

The Ecover Blue Mile went back to its roots this summer! From Aberystwyth to Broadhaven, Kintyre to Queenford, schools, groups, companies and individuals took part in Go Blue! 

Go Blue! was all part of the wider Ecover Blue Mile which encouraged people to do whatever they could, for as long as they could for our fabulous marine environment ...whether they were on it, over it, under it or near it – the sea was the focus for people going blue!

Sea Champion Shell Duddy, from Norfolk, took to the water in her local pool raising £105 to save our seas: "The swim went really well, I really enjoyed it. I managed to swim 74 lengths of a 25m pool." That’s over a mile in less than an hour!

Sea Champion Shell Duddy swimming a mile in less than an hour to raise funds to save our seas

Summer is not over yet! Why not try your hand at stand up paddle boarding or kayaking in the upcoming Ecover Blue Mile events in Plymouth, 13th – 14th September?

Or why not organise an Ecover Blue Mile event of you own? Check out some of these fab achievements:

Laura Truelove from Aberystwyth University Surf Club raised £70 at their
Stand-up Paddleboard event.
 

Donna Martin walked the Kintyre coastline raising £40

Chapel Haddlesey Primary School, Yorkshire took part in a one mile walk around the grounds dressed in blue and raised £30 

 

BBC Springwatch presenter Maya Plass led a dive to clear away rubbish in the sea and on the beach at Babbacombe in Torquay.

 

Find out more about the Ecover Blue Mile

 

 

A windy walk in Wales for the bank holiday weekend

We've been picking the brains of the Sea Champions team as they spend lots of time out and about by our fabulous coastline. They've come up with some great walks for you to try this summer.

Here's the third of four walks, this time in Pembrokeshire.

Where: Dale round St Anne’s head and along to Marloes beach, Pembrokeshire

Walked by: MCS Sea Champions Manager, Justine Millard, partner Steve Hervey and Iolo Williams, her faithful four-legged furry-faced companion!

Parking: Large car park in Dale for £3 per day

The walk: A 7 – 8 mile circular walk from Dale going around St Anne’s head. The last mile or so up the coast makes it worth the effort as you will be rewarded by amazing views of Marloes beach.

Things to see along the way: Gorgeous views, lots of lovely little coves and beautiful, secret golden beaches, stunning views, sea, sea and more sea, and oh, did I mention the views?!

Some interesting tidbits: You start off walking east towards the coast! You then go west, north and south! Mill Bay - The actual place where Henry Tudor landed on 7th August 1485 on his way to defeat Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and to become King Henry VII. His army was simultaneously arriving at Dale Roads in a fleet of 55 ships that docked at this Historic landing point.

Places to eat: The Griffon Inn at Dale is a great place to finish and admire the sea view, whilst enjoying a refreshing drink and some lovely food alongside fellow walkers, kayakers, cyclists and happy dogs!