SCUBAHUB
Cayman Islands Divers take action
Golden Lion SAC clean up
Marine Champions rise to Action
BSAC MARINE CHAMPIONS HAVE marked the first year of the project with a packed summer of Action Weekends.
Designed to bring together BSAC’ s growing network of Marine Champions and their club members in a range of citizen science and environmental activities, the summer saw a total of 89 events organised over a series of Action Weekends.
This summer of action also saw 281 members, led by their club’ s Marine Champion, step up to champion the marine environment and galvanise others to get involved.
The four Action Weekends, supported by Sea-Changers, took place in May, July,
August and September and were also used to encourage further activities throughout the summer. Activities included partnership work with the Shark Trust and the Wildlife Trusts as well as BSAC’ s own citizen science initiatives, the Great Seagrass Survey and
Operation Oyster. Marine Champions were encouraged to organise beach cleans and underwater litter picks as well as their own environment projects, such as marine surveys. Many clubs also made the most of their summer dive trips to incorporate‘ diving with an environmental purpose’ into their diving and snorkelling plans.
Just some of the summer of action success stories include Cayman Islands Divers cleaning up an inaccessible beach of polystyrene waste following a wreckage and East Cheshire SAC devising a summerlong marine survey using their homemade Baited Remote Underwater Vehicle( BRUV) and then sharing their knowledge with other Marine Champions. Other highlights include Flintshire SAC’ s new sponge monitoring project, Stafford SAC’ s very first Coastal Action Weekend, Burghead SAC’ s flapper skate sighting and Corby & District SAC’ s monitoring of the River Nene.
BSAC’ s Environment Chair, Katherine Knight said she was delighted by the
Milton Keynes SAC
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