MCS taking to the waves with Greenpeace

Tonight will mark the official launch of the two-month Greenpeace expedition around Scotland's shores highlighting the issue of marine litter and some of the impacts it's having on Scotland's incredible biodiversity.

I'm especially looking forward to speaking at the event tonight along side John Sauven, Executive Director of Greenpeace UK, Richard Lochhead MSP, former Environment Minister and Tom Brock, Chief Executive of the Scottish Seabird Centre as they have all been involved with our Beachwatch project either themselves or through their staff and volunteers!

Beachwatch is our national beach cleaning and litter surveying citizen science project which has seen huge increases in numbers taking part over the past couple of years in Scotland thanks to the successful partnership working with organisations like Greenpeace and the Seabird Centre as well as Scottish Parliament with Mr Lochead being one of many MSP beach cleaners, although I have to admit I think he is definitely the longest running MSP beach cleaner as I remember meeting him at a Great British Beach Clean event run by another one of our partners WDC at Speybay nearly 10 years ago!

More recently I have been out on the beach with both Greenpeace staff and volunteers training them up in our Beachwatch project.  The Edinburgh  Greenpeace group has officially adopted a stretch of local coastline through Beachwatch with some funding from Edinburgh City Council and have started collecting that all important beach litter data for MCS. The data that is collected by our thousands of volunteers is essential for our pollution campaigns such as a current work around Deposit Return Systems, consultation responses, data sharing agreements with water companies and policy makers as well as the production of an annual report.

It was therefore fantastic to hear about the new Scottish Expedition that Greenpeace were embarking on and how the MCS Beachwatch project could be involved not just in Edinburgh, but all around the Scottish Coast!

Over the next two months Greenpeace will be using their 34m sailing vessel the Beluga II for a scientific voyage to explore the front line of ocean plastic around Scotland's rugged coastline.

The Beluga II will be taking scientists and campaigners aboard, including MCS staff hopefully  (very excited about this!), and working with organisations like MCS across Scotland to tour our iconic coastline and document how its globally important marine life is being impacted by ocean plastic pollution, from the puffins and gannets of Bass Rock, to the basking sharks of Gunna Sound in the Hebrides.

Throughout the expedition, Greenpeace will be sampling wildlife feeding waters for microplastics, gathering data to further scientific research, documenting plastic pollution on remote beaches and highlighting the effects of ocean plastic on some of the UK’s most precious wildlife.

It was around their interest in documenting plastic pollution that the Beluga II team got in touch as they had heard about Beachwatch and how some of their volunteers had already been involved.

So in a couple of hours, ahead of the launch tonight I will be out on a beach in Edinburgh with the Beluga II teams training them in how to survey beach litter using the Beachwatch survey forms. This will mean that they will be able to add data to the project from beaches that have never been surveyed before as they will be able to reach those remote and hard to get to spots around our coastline during the expedition. I'm very intrigued to see the results!

Scientists estimate that 90% of seabirds now have plastic in their stomachs and plastic pollution has been observed in the farthest corners of the world’s oceans, from Pacific islands to Arctic ice. It is therefore so important that we have more volunteers, groups and organisations like Greenpeace that can gather data and help contribute to one database that we can then all draw on for fighting the rising tide of marine litter. Thank you to all of you who already take part in Beachwatch and if you haven't had the chance to yet then please do get in touch!

We will also be joined by the Greenpeace team on Mull where I'll be running a beach clean with some local schools who have been beach cleaning for a long time and are excited to tell their story to Greenpeace and help highlight their messages about beach litter from their island.

It's going to be a busy few months but I'm extremely excited to be involved. Do keep an eye out for the Beluga II, and we look forward to seeing them both tonight and on Mull as well as the data they will be collecting.

If you have a beach clean planned over the next two months or are planning on taking part in the MCS Plastic Challenge do let us know and join the conversation online at @mcsuk.

MCS Scotland Conservation Officer Catherine Gemmell has been working at MCS for two years from our Edinburgh Office increasing engagement in our Beachwatch project as well as promoting our pollution campaigns and supporting policy work.

Our ratings on haddock in the North Sea, West of Scotland and Skagerrak explained

We publicised our latest changes to our Good Fish Guide ratings last week, with news of changes to several species and stocks including haddock, Nephrops (scampi or ‘prawns’), undulate ray and tunas. We received criticism from some quarters for highlighting the fact that our rating for haddock in the North Sea, West of Scotland and Skagerrak had changed, so we thought we’d elaborate.

The fisheries & aquaculture team at MCS works to reduce the environmental impacts that fisheries and aquaculture can have on the marine environment. We do this because we love the sea, and we want it to be as healthy as possible so that it can keep providing us all with employment, food and enjoyment long into the future.

To achieve this we try to get environmental considerations firmly incorporated into legislation, and we also encourage consumers and the commercial marketplace to ask for and support environmental improvements in the way seafood is harvested and produced.

Underpinning much of this work is our Good Fish Guide where we maintain sustainability ratings for hundreds of the most popular seafood sources. These ratings compare the relative sustainability of different fisheries and farming methods using a traffic light system, so the public can see where improvements are most needed. We have many green ratings, which promote well managed fisheries and farming methods (eg. coley, hake, herring, mussels, mackerel) as well as yellow, amber and red ratings.

Fisheries management has actually been improving a lot over the last decade, and the UK industry has helped a huge amount by developing new ways to fish more selectively and record more data. The Scottish industry has played a leading role in such work. We try to reflect these improvements in our seafood ratings as well, but sometimes these changes in management and practice take time to be reflected in the health of a fish population.

In Europe, the health of most fish stocks are assessed each year by scientists, so whenever there is a new assessment, MCS updates its ratings in the following months.

Haddock

In November last year, new scientific advice was released for haddock in the North Sea, West of Scotland and Skagerrak area. This advice revealed that a mistake had been made in previous scientific assessments and also incorporated new information that showed the haddock fishery wasn’t as healthy as thought over the last few years, and was now ‘overfished’ and subject to ‘overfishing’. It is of crucial importance to highlight that this wasn’t due to the fishers not following the rules or the scientific advice. Actually, as a result of this new advice, quotas were significantly cut for 2017 - 47% lower than originally advised for in 2016. This is a key sign of good management and is considered and reflected in our rating. If the haddock stock was in this condition without good management, it would likely rate worse.  

For any fishery, if overfishing is occurring (fishing rate is too high) and the population is ‘overfished’ (it is smaller than predetermined reference points) the outlook is generally not good and represents a high risk that the population could be further depleted. As a result, most fisheries assessed on the Good Fish Guide do not rate well when in this situation.

This haddock population though is prone to rapid fluctuations and can increase and decrease rapidly, depending on the number of juvenile fish entering the fishery. Currently, scientists are actually expecting the population to increase because of a ‘strong year class’ of juvenile fish in 2014 which are expected to grow up and become commercially fishable in 2017. So whilst the scientific status is currently ‘overfished’ and subject to ‘overfishing’, this may well change for the next assessment. However, sometimes expected changes do not materialise, so we cannot incorporate this information into our ratings at this moment but as soon as there is new scientific advice out for this fishery, we will be updating our ratings.

An ongoing consideration for this haddock population and many other UK fisheries is the large amount of juvenile fish still being caught,where further improvement is needed. Whilst a huge amount of work has been undertaken to try and reduce the catch of juvenile fish, such as through the welcome Scottish Conservation Credits Scheme, scientists still say that reducing the catch of juveniles would really help increase the size and productivity of our fish populations.

Why highlight this now?

MCS undertakes ratings updates two times a year, and we normally accompany these events with a press release to highlight changes to ratings. In its press release, MCS drew attention to several ratings changes, including improvements to fisheries including North Sea (Farn Deeps) Nephrops (scampi or ’prawns’) and Atlantic albacore. We chose to highlight the haddock ratings change in the headline because we deemed this of most public interest, given its popularity in the UK. This was not intended to lay blame or to undermine recent efforts to remedy the situation by the UK, Scottish and Norwegian governments.

We support the MSC

MCS widely advocates Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified seafood as one of the best - and fully traceable - seafood choices available, and we still do this for the MSC certified haddock fishery with a rating of 3. As our assessments are different to the MSC standard though, and often working to different time scales, our green ratings do not always perfectly align with MSC certifications, but it is extremely rare for there to be larger differences.

Latest changes to ratings for haddock from the North Sea, West of Scotland and Skagerrak

- 2 to 3 for the MSC certified trawl fishery

- 3 to a 4 for the long line and gill net fisheries

If the haddock stock was not being well managed, it would likely rate worse. MCS has not called for haddock to be avoided. We only advise this when a rating is rated 5 (red).

Yellow, and then amber ratings reflect fisheries or farming methods where improvements to the management, stock status or impact on other species (or a combination of these) is needed in order for them to secure a green MCS rating (1 or 2).

We have enormous respect for our commercial fishers, and we truly want them to have profitable businesses, built on healthy and well managed fish stocks, that can sustain thriving coastal communities. Larger fish populations mean greater catches. They also mean our fish stocks can better fulfil their natural ecosystem role as both predators and prey in our marine environment, which is under enormous pressure. These fish stocks are not just food for us, and not just income for business; they are native species in our waters which all play an important part in keeping our seas healthy, so they can continue to provide the many benefits we all enjoy.

Sandy Luk
MCS Chief Executive Officer

________________________________________

It defines who I am

“It defines who I am, who I have been and who I will be.”
Charlotte Coombes

What does the sea mean to you? What do you value about it? If it disappeared tomorrow, what would you miss?

As a marine conservationist, I have this permanent yet undefined connection to the sea that hovers at the back of my mind. Of course I do what I do because I think it’s important, but actually talking about why I think it’s important doesn’t seem to happen very often. It gets pushed aside to make room for everyday working life – reporting, meetings, deadlines. We spend so much time thinking about what we should be doing that we forget to focus on why we’re doing it.



Recently I took part in the Community Voice Method project that MCS has been running jointly with Eastern Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority – one of 10 IFCAs responsible for looking after English inshore seas (from the coast out to 6 nautical miles). EIFCA operates around the Wash, Norfolk and Suffolk. The idea of the project is to get people who use the sea involved in the management of it – marine protection is far more effective when users are involved from the start, and feel ownership of and responsibility for their local environment.

But rather than follow the same old consultation processes and public meetings that can as often alienate people as involve them, these workshops started with a different question – what does the sea mean to people? They asked fishermen, regulators, tour operators, conservationists and more from the local area and what came back was moving and inspiring. (See the quote at the beginning of this blog). Themes such as peace and beauty, job satisfaction, culture and community, wildlife all came through. These values were not unique to any one sector – everyone in the room could identify with what everyone else was saying. It was a real moment of recognition for all of us.



One local fisherman talked about the joy of getting out on the water – the moment of freedom when mobile signal disappears, that desire to be right back out there as soon as possible. (That fisherman happens to be a 17-year-old who’s also studying at college and is quietly eloquent about something I’ve struggled to define myself). On the other hand, other fishermen had spoken of their fears for the future of their sector – in the words of one, “There's no one here. We're the last. When we're dead and buried you'll have to go and get your fish from somewhere else.” Small scale inshore fishing is often a family affair, and while there clearly are some young fishermen coming in, there aren’t enough. What I learned from them both was how deeply passionate they are about what they do. How much harder it must be, then, to live in a time where you see all of that disappearing – not just your business, but your traditions, your way of life.

But there were positives. A local councillor told me she was “buzzing” because she was so inspired by the workshops, and an environmentalist had tears in her eyes because of her newfound connection with the community that depends on the thing she’s working to protect. This project is going to have a lasting impact on people.



The workshops moved us through a simple yet effective process – from values to the key issues facing the region, and then to the actions that the participants recommend to resolve them. Keeping our joint connections to the sea right at the fore, at the end they brought us full circle to talk about how those actions will support the values that we all share. It’s now up to EIFCA to take the learning from these workshops and see what can be done – but conversations have already begun and I am certainly optimistic about the future of the inshore seas of The Wash, Norfolk and Suffolk.

More than that, of the many things I learned during this process, the most important and heartening is surely this: Conservation is not a ‘them versus us’ situation – we are all in it together, and I think we make a pretty good team when we find our common ground.

See more about the project here: http://www.eastern-ifca.gov.uk/publications/community-voice-project/

Learn more about Community Voice Method here: http://communityvoicemethod.org/

Charlotte is the Conservation Projects Officer at MCS, supporting the Conservation Team on numerous projects and specialising in data and GIS. She graduated from Aberystwyth University in 2006 with a BSc Hons in Marine and Freshwater Biology, and followed this up in 2008 with a 6 month marine conservation internship with Blue Ventures, proceeded by 2 memorable months at their field site in SW Madagascar. Seeing the inspiring conservation that was happening overseas, Charlotte felt passionately that the same could and should be achieved closer to home, and was delighted to join the MCS Conservation Team in 2012. Current work ranges from seafood ratings research to SQL database design to litter data analysis.

Where do turtles have star-bellies and nest in the day? The Seychelles!

Rachel Wyatt - MCS Water Quality Programme Manager.   

Having spent the last seven years working for the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) in the UK, I couldn't pass up the chance to meet up with MCS Seychelles (MCSS) while visiting these beautiful islands. With a team of only seven staff members, it's not surprising that like us they welcome volunteers and I'm honoured to be one of them for my time here.

It didn't take long to meet the locals! At the Banyan Tree Rehabilitation Centre I was introduced to their resident Yellow-bellied Mud and Black Mud (or sometimes known as Star-bellied) turtles. They are the two species of terrapins found on the Seychelles, and while they may not be marine turtles, they can be found just behind the beaches here in freshwater wetlands and are both critically endangered. With their natural habitat being threatened by developments, pollution and invasive species it's no surprise that their numbers have declined. Luckily for them, MCSS have set up a programme to monitor their numbers and protect them.

First day on the job we headed out to the remote beaches of South Mahe to check some traps that the team had already put out in the wetlands in an area earmarked for a new tourist resort - and as if to prove that they really are rare, after checking around a dozen traps, we unfortunately hadn't caught any!

The next day we had more luck with the traps in the wetlands surrounding the rehabilitation centre. The first turtle we caught was a regular visitor and had been caught just a few days before - the staff recognised her instantly due to the unique pattern on her belly (plus the nail varnished scales used as an ID tag!) so we recorded her presence and popped her straight back. After a few more no shows we were lucky enough to capture a new individual that the team hadn't met before so she was measured, marked and recorded - I was asked to name her and since she had a unique purple colouration on her shell (only seen once before on a turtle known as Violet) I called her Viola, after my four year old niece.

But it's not just the freshwater turtles that need protecting here. The white sand beaches are a popular nesting ground for Hawksbill turtles, also critically endangered. I was pleased to find out that, unlike most other turtles, the Hawksbill turtles in the Seychelles nest during the day - no all night turtle patrols for me! So off we went to look for signs of new turtle nests and recently hatched ones. After walking along the shores of nine beautiful beaches we had recorded a new Hawksbill nest, which we found by the tracks left in the sand, and had dug up three recently hatched nests to see how many eggs had successfully hatched - thankfully all of the the eggs we found had.

The following day and back on the terrapin project, I saw first hand how the latest technology was being put into use by using drones to photograph wetlands to create habitat maps.

Again the wetlands are potential sites for developments and the team are hoping to find the areas which are important for the terrapins so that they can hopefully be retained and disturbance minimised. 

 

We also caught a very cute juvenile terrapin back at the centre - smaller than the palm of my hand!

Another day and more beaches that need to be checked for signs of new turtle activity. We found some more new tracks on the beach but this time we couldn't find any evidence that she had made a nest - maybe put off by the dry sand or natural debris on the part of the beach she had chosen. We dug several nests which had recently hatched, two were very successful and we only found empty shells but the last was a bit of a mixed bag, over 90 eggs had hatched but a further 50 hadn't developed properly. Seven hatchlings hadn't made it out of the nest, stuck under roots blocking their exit - luckily for them we dug the nest soon after the main hatch and we were able to help them out. It was great to watch them make their way happily over the stretch of sand to the sea and take their first strokes into the torquoise blue water. Hopefully some of them will return to nest one day and will find the beach as welcoming a nesting site as their mother did.

It's not all about playing with turtles though - today we spent the morning removing water hyacinths from the wetland. This invasive aquatic plant species spreads at an alarming rate. It's hot work, but it feels good to do something practical to help improve the terrapins habitat.

Even though I have been here a very short time, and have come at the end of nesting season, I have seen lots of evidence of breeding Hawksbill's here and areas where terrapins have found a refuge. But like most places they are under constant pressure, whether it's from habitat loss, invasive species or sometimes poaching. But I have seen a strong desire to conserve the turtles on Mahe. Most beaches are patrolled and monitored for turtle activity, whether by MCSS or one of the other organisations on the island. Even though I am told that the beaches have begun to be more heavily developed over the last few years I can see that when they are developed there are rules which help to limit the impact on the beach - the wetlands unfortunately seem to be more heavily impacted. But hopefully with information gathered by organisations like MCSS their impact in the future can be reduced.

Tomorrow I will go on my last turtle patrol, can't wait to see what we find!

Rachel 

Sky News joins MCS to kick-start campaign

Tonight, (8pm, 25th January 2017) Sky News will be showing a documentary called ‘A Plastic Tide’ highlighting the issue of plastic pollution and highlighting what we can all do to stop this incoming plastic tide - and even turn it around. This is just the start of their new and exciting campaign "Ocean Rescue".

MCS was approached by Sky News who were looking for filming opportunities to put together this hour long documentary, as part of their year long campaign Sky Ocean Rescue. Our Senior Pollution Policy Officer Sue Kinsey attended these first few meetings and they were very keen on our amazing Beachwatch citizen science project.

Catherine Gemmell, MCS Scotland Conservation Officer, has written about her experience working with Sky on beachcleans around Scotland and highlights what campaigns we are running that can help get you involved in tackling the plastic tides.

'Our Beachwatch project has been running for over 20 years now and involves local volunteer organisers not only cleaning a 100m stretch of beach, but they also survey it for us so we can track trends in litter on beaches across the UK. It also enables our policy officers to use this data to create effective campaigns such as the successful 5p carrier bag success that has led to plastic bags nearly halving on UK beaches – a fantastic result!

I therefore offered to organise a beach clean for Sky News to come along to in Scotland to see first hand the amazing work our volunteers do and where our data comes from. We were due to meet in Arrochar on the edge of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park at the end of December as unfortunately the local community, council and park rangers have a monumental task in dealing with huge amounts of litter on their local beach. We spoke to Argyll and Bute council, the National Park Rangers and also local B&B owner Christina who heads out and cleans Arrochar beach once a month with a band of amazingly dedicated volunteers to get everything in place. However the weather was against us and the day before Reporters Chris and Thomas were grounded in London due to fog so we agreed to reschedule for the New Year.

We all decided on the 11th of January and as I was driving up north to Arrochar with Sea Champion John after a lovely two day meeting with colleagues at Head Office. We were pleasantly surprised by the glorious sun that followed us all up the bonnie shores of Loch Lomond. However as we took the turn off for Arrochar the sky darkened, the snow started and our joy at having a sunny beach in clean in Scotland in January was soon shot down!

We arrived at Christina’s B&B and were treated to hot cups of tea and homemade chocolate brownies – I am now a firm believer that all beach-cleans in winter should start this way! I had first met Christina at the Millport Litter Symposium last year and her passion and drive to protect the marine environment is incredible, plus I was a huge fan of her lovely New Orleans accent so said she could talk to me about beach litter all day!

I discovered that she had been heading out once a month with a group of local volunteers to pick up as much rubbish from the beach as possible with the council picking it all up at the end. After my presentation on Beachwatch at the symposium she was extremely excited to start doing the surveys so we could start gathering more evidence on what types and the amounts of beach litter that was present at Arrochar. The National Park Rangers have done a fantastic job taking part in our Beachwatch surveys over the past couple of years so now having two organisers to survey the beach will mean more data and more evidence for our pollution campaigns so we can stop these litter items right back at the source and prevent them from entering the sea at all.

Unfortunately due to the weather we were unable to do a litter survey that day as we just had to nip out in between the squalls of snow, hail and freezing rain to do some beach cleaning with Thomas and Chris. There six of us altogether plus Lucy the litter picking dog who headed down to the shore.

In just the 30minutes we were on the beach before the weather drove us back inside we collected 30kg of rubbish! Everything from crisp packets, plastic bottles, cotton bud sticks to a workers helmet was picked up! Lucy was a great help and had a specialty in fetching plastic bottles for us. The local café owner invited us all in for a hot cuppa to warm up which was very much appreciated! However Sea Champ John and his work wasn’t yet done as Thomas and Chris wanted to interview me down on the beach with John beach cleaning in the background so we drank up our tea, put on our game faces and headed back down to the shore.

Luckily the sun did come out for some of the interview and Thomas and I had a great conversation about everything we were finding on the beach and what impact we did. Tonight you will hopefully see some of this conversation and yes I probably do slightly look like a drowned rat but the look kind of comes with the job ;)

We talked about how much of what we were finding is made of plastic and why this was a concern. Unfortunately plastic litter is a huge threat to our amazing marine wildlife whether it is entanglement issues, where we have all seen those awful pictures of some of our favourite sea creatures getting trapped in nets and can holders, or ingestion where we have the Leatherback Turtle visiting our shores every summer to eat jellyfish but are now getting their favourite food confused with plastic bags and are dying of starvation. Its horrific to think that due to an increasing ‘throw away’ culture we are having such a huge negative impact on our crucially important sea life.

Unfortunately its not just the bigger items that cause issues, all bigger plastic items will continue to breakdown in the marine environment until they become microplastics, essentially so small you would need a microscope to see them with! This now means that those tiny creatures right at the bottom of the food chain are eating these microplastics, which then moves up the food chain – and who is at the top of the food chain most of the time? Us! So not only is plastic an issue for our marine life it is an ever increasing concern for us too.

So what can we do about it? One of my first challenges I accepted when started at MCS two years ago was the Plastic Challenge. For the month of June you had to give up as many single use plastics as possible to help highlight the issue and to also examine your lifestyle and see if there were any long term sustainable changes you could make to decrease the amount of plastic being used. It was extremely difficult to do but I found that LUSH sold shampoo bars and deodorants that were then just wrapped in paper and I haven’t looked back since! I definitely encourage everyone to give it a go and see what changes you could make.

As we were walking along Thomas commented on the amount of plastic bottles we were finding and if there was a potential solution to cut down how many we see on the beach. I explained that it is actually a very hot topic just now as MCS is campaigning for Deposit Return Systems to be put in place across the UK. This would mean that on every drinks container, be it a plastic bottle, metal can or glass bottle, a small deposit of maybe 10p would be added onto the price of the bottle.

When the bottle was recycled either through something called a Reverse Vending Machine or handed back to a shop the deposit would be returned. This incentivised recycling is being used all over the world already and in countries that have it in place like Germany and Norway it not only decreased the amount of litter but has also majorly boosted recycling rates – a win-win! I laughed that we could actually get paid to do beach cleans if these drinks cans and bottles were worth money!

We carried on walking, litter picking and talking about our other campaigns such as our wetwipe, microbead, balloon and fishing litter campaigns and it became apparent to Thomas that even if you don’t live near the sea you can still make a huge difference to the amount of plastic entering our oceans. Volunteers are the reason we can do the work we do, whether its collecting date on beach cleans, reporting #wildbottlesightings, signing petitions, responding to consultations, reporting balloon releases or even just being aware of what you are flushing down the toilet or what you are buying during your weekly shop you can all make a difference.

And so we had made it back to the end of the beach where we packed up and headed back up to Christina’s for another very welcome cuppa and a chance to change into dry clothes! Thomas and Chris were then away to catch their flight back to London so they could finish editing the documentary which is being shown tonight and Sea Champ John and I were sent on our way with some homemade marmalade and a promise to come back for another, hopefully warmer and dryer, beach clean soon!

So when you are all watching the documentary tonight, even if you are hundreds of miles away from the coast. Have a wee think, what could I do to help turn this plastic tide?'

The travelling marine biologist - back in action in 2017!

Continuing my quest to help protect Australian marine life, I have been moving around New South Wales and Queensland attending and running events and sharing expertise with fellow colleagues. 

I kicked off the new year with a beach clean organised by Sea Shepard at Sirius Cove in Sydney. In just a couple of hours, 4000 items of litter were collected weighing 91 kg. Many of their practices and information given to volunteers was the same as the UK, as you would expect.

This was the haul from the beach you can see in the background

I then ran a stall at Bondi beach with a lovely volunteer from the UK called Lucy as part of a summer event organised by the local council promoting the Sydney marine park, trying to get as many people to sign the campaign postcard as we could. We collected 35 in total. I should have said in the last post why this is so important. Sydney's coastline is home to an amazing and unique mix of marine plants and animals, including the Weedy Sea Dragon which is only found in Southern Australia and no where else in the world. I was lucky enough to see one whilst diving off Manly just after Christmas. Like all over the planet, Marine life is feeling the pressure of fishing, pollution, climate change and development, yet less than 1% of Sydney's oceans are protected. A marine park will provide the protection that is urgently needed, so we can carry on to see incredible animals like the Weedy Sea Dragon. 

Many other organisations and charities were at the event - running a beach clean scavenger hunt and lots of local initiatives to encourage people to act sustainably. There was also a fashion show, all made of litter found on the beach. The day was boiling hot but I had a lovely swim afterwards amoungst some filming for the TV show Bondi rescue! They apparently film every day in the summer.

Me and Lucy on the stall

Fashion show selfie!

The litter fashion show having a picnic

AMCS HQ

I then made my way up to Queensland and the city of Brisbane where the head office is. I am just coming to the end of my time here and have really enjoyed being part of AMCS's work and culture. The team here are so lovely and have made my stay feel so relaxed and welcoming with a lovely lunch send off too. :-) 

Fight for the reef

I spent some time chatting with one of their Great Barrier Reef campaigners, Shannon understanding the huge pressures this iconic reef is suffering, the work that has happened so far and what is to come. It seems that 2017 is going to be a pivotal year fighting off the ever increasing threat of what could be the largest coal mine in the world called Adani's Carmichael coal mine - expected to output 2.3 billion tonnes of coal over its lifetime: enough to build a road 1 metre thick, 10 metres wide and wrapped around the world 5 times. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal is one of the largest threats to the reef because it contributes so significantly to global warming. Considering last year the Great Barrier Reef experienced its worst coral bleaching event on record, it is vital that it's stopped before its too late and our oceans reach their tipping point.

Dead coral from 2016

Community campaigning for reef protection 

Plastic Pollution

AMCS have achieved so much and work within an advocacy and community campaigning capacity. Marine plastic pollution is one of their work areas trying to ensure waste reduction initiatives (like deposit return systems) are introduced in each state as well as plastic bag bans, ensuring key threats like microplastics are addressed and raising awareness on the issue. I have been able to add to their capacity on this huge threat to the oceans by drafting top line messaging on key items of plastic litter, coming up with a new concept for their awareness poster and updating the plastic pollution section of their website. They hope to introduce these changes during the course of the year and we will certainly stay in touch, working in collaboration where possible to continue protecting our amazing oceans worldwide. I feel proud and privileged to have been part of all of it.  

Some of the AMCS HQ team. From left to right - Julie, Darren, Me, Shannon, Jimmy and Kellie

Lauren Eyles, Beachwatch Manager 

The travelling marine biologist down under

Our sister organisation across the other side of the world 

For the past couple of weeks, I have been lucky enough to spend time working with the Australian Marine Conservation Society. During my time here, based on the beautiful Northern beaches in Sydney, I have been working with one of the charity's marine campaigners to build support for a marine park in Sydney - the Hawkesbury Shelf Bioregion.

First up, I visited the office in Sydney and joined their weekly staff meeting via Skype. There are fewer than 20 staff members of AMCS and four members are based here. The rest are dotted around this huge country in Darwin on the north, Cairns on the north east, Melbourne in the south, Perth on the west and Brisbane (or Brissy or Briss-Vegas!) where the head office is situated and I will be visiting in 2017. My first thought was how do AMCS function with staff based over such a huge area? We have similar hurdles but over less geographical distance. The UK fits into one of Australia's seven states and territory's. This doesn't seem to get in the way of communication and what really stood out was the friendly staff and atmosphere during the meeting.

The commute from Manly Wharf is spectacular and a lovely way to spend the early morning and evening.

The iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge- seen on the commute

Life in Manly is very laid back and has a lovely community and outdoor feeling. Everywhere you look, there is someone surfing, playing volleyball, slack lining, exercising, walking their dog and enjoying some snacks. There is even an early morning swim everyday called 'the bold and the beautiful' (I aim to do this before leaving!) where you have to register for a fetching pink cap and make the return wild swim of about 1km across to one of the only fully protected areas in Sydney called Cabbage Tree Bay or Shelly Beach. A tranquil spot, and underwater aquarium packed full of amazing wildlife right on the doorstep. 

I attended a volunteer thank you event in Manly for 'friends of Cabbage Tree Bay'. Volunteers patrol the area to ensure that regulations are abided by- fishing and removing of marine life are not allowed in this aquatic reserve. There were so many dedicated people, who clearly appreciate and care for the area they live in a great deal- something which can be said of our own lovely volunteers.

Manly beach, looking across to Shelly across the water 

NO to plastic bags, YES to Deposit Return Systems!

Later in the week, I visited Boomerang Alliance - an organisation giving power and influence to a collection of groups all concerned about pollution. It was interesting to talk with them and that conversations are the same, even thousands of miles across the big blue. Like MCS, they see the huge value in Deposit Return Systems and are finally starting to see the benefits with New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia all announcing they will be introduced. I asked their Executive Director what was the tipping point for making this happen? He replied '13 years worth of campaigning and not giving up!' Most states have also banned plastic bags - Queensland has committed to ban the bag in 2018, just leaving NSW, Victoria and WA still to go. Their priorities will continue on these into 2017, along with microplastics which is fast becoming a worldwide plague. 

It's time for a marine park for Sydney! 

Finally, on the weekend before Christmas, I helped with some community campaigning for a Sydney marine park at the south end of Manly beach. We arrived early- it seems that the beach is most active then. We were collecting signatures from the public and business owners which will be presented to members showing that constituients in the local area support the benefits a marine park would bring. We collected 54 public support postcards and 11 businesses pledged their support during the morning. 

Support postcard 

Building support for a marine park in Sydney 

Check back in 2017, as I will be doing another of these events at the well known Bondi beach and visiting staff at the head office in Brisbane - It will be a great opportunity to share knowledge and experiences with everyone and campaigning staff. I will be working with one of their campaigners who leads on litter and plastic pollution to help them re-create materials and to shape messaging to launch a new year 'reduce your waste' campaign. 

Lauren Eyles, MCS Beachwatch Manager