Salcombe Sea Safari

Learn To Sea has had a great new aquatic adventure! Now, Maya has teamed up with Anna Turns from Whitestrand Boat Hire to run Salcombe Sea Safaris. Salcombe estuary is a very unique and special place - so much so that it's classed with the conservation designation - a Special Site of Scientific Interest (SSSI). It has a whopping 6 m tidal range and boasts some incredible marine wildlife. It has seagrass beds, corals - yes corals!, dolphin visitors, 4 of the 14 found Bristish intertidal fan mussels, mackerel and scallops all residing in it's safe and salty waters! (It has no river input but is a sunken valley - it's this sheltered salty area which makes it such a great home to so much wildlife.)

We had a great day out with some visiting families and were even able to show them some plankton from a special net which we had dragged behind a boat. The "soup" which we found was amazing - teeming with widlife which is shown in the image with the small pot. It had mini jellyfish (in image above), lobster looking creatures, fish eggs, phytoplankton - responsible for producing more than half of our atmospheric oxygen. I was even able to bring the plankton home and put it under the digital microscope and take some pictures - not great ones. But it does give you an idea of what's all around you when you take a dip!

Fred the Monkey & his albatross friend even made an appearance to talk about marine conservation & the effect of litter in our salty world. It's sad to think that there are places in the world where there is more plastic than plankton!

It was a brilliant day out, or "best day ever" as young Jake said. We hope to run more through the Summer holidays too!

Learn To Sea Awarded Grant for After School Club

Learn To Sea has kindly been awarded a grant by the Aune Conservation Association for an after school club to run for 5 weeks at Aveton Gifford Primary School. Here is the press release...

"Integrating land and sea: ACA awards education grant

The Aune Conservation Association (ACA) is very pleased to announce the granting of one of its John Crawford Environmental Awards to Maya Plass of ‘Learn to Sea’ for the delivery of a series of workshops in which Aveton Gifford primary school children will explore the Avon (from source to sea). It is hoped to run the programme after school later this year, with the possibility of subsequent extension.

Maya’s aims fit very closely with the ACA’s charitable objective of advancing the education of the public in the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of the river Avon in the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. More specifically, the ACA hopes the programme will encourage, in the next generation, the passion and commitment to conserve our Avon.

The workshops will start with the question “Where does the land end and the sea begin?” Through various field trips and activities it is hoped the children will learn that there is no clear separation. At the very least, they will gain a greater understanding of the local river and it’s relevance to their every day lives.


Note to Editors:

More details of the Environmental Award scheme may be found at www.auneconservation.org.uk or by contacting Stuart Watts at 01548 810373.

Maya Plass can be contacted at www.learntosea.co.uk or 07811 349966."

This is a wonderful opportunity for the children at AG and also for Learn To Sea.

Fred the Monkey

Fred is a very special monkey. He has travelled to many countries and seen many beautiful things and amazing marine wildlife. In 2009 he was with Ron Hirschi on Midway Atoll. This is part of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. (http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/) , Midway is 1250 miles West of Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is an incredibly important marine mecca and demonstrates some of the best marine wildlife that can be seen on this planet. It is home to Hawaiian Monk Seals, Green Turtles, Tiger Sharks and amazing coral reefs. Due to it's remote location it has very little impact from tourism, recreation or humans. For that reason it has amazing marine wildlife and is also a marine protected area. It is everything you would imagine from an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

What you might not imagine is the daily quantity of rubbish that is washed up on to the shores of the golden beaches. Whilst, very few people have ever and will ever visit Midway, humans have still left their mark. The Pacific Gyre ( a vast current) transports, circulates and concentrates rubbish in to an area that is called "the Pacific Garbage Patch". It doesn't take long to find images of the Hawaiian Monk Seals entangled in nets and to see what effect it has. On the island, Laysan albatross' nest - here, they have found a safe haven undisturbed by humans where they can rear their chicks in safety. The albatross will soar for thousands of miles collecting food for their chicks. They love squid and will scoop it out of the water, return to their chicks and regurgitate the food for their offspring. What an amazing sign of devoted parenthood! But, as you may have guessed, the chicks are then accidentally fed lighters, bottle tops and rubbish. Many chicks do not make it past 3 months.

Some may say, "So what effect does that have on me?" Well, perhaps you can separate yourself from the fate of the chick but we may all be unwittingly consuming toxins from oceanic plastic. As plastic breaks down and is ingested by barnacles or fish any chemicals on the plastic can absorb in to the flesh and build up in the food chain. What will the effect of this be in decades to come? It's worth not leaving it to experimentation and try doing something about it now.

This is where Fred came in. Ron was so effected by this that his idea was to send Fred the Monkey around the world with a resource box to educate and inspire change on the issue of marine litter.

Fred is now here in the UK. He has already been on a New Year beach clean with myself and the Aune Conservation Association. Here, we found litter from China and a vast array of plastics from cattle medicine tubes to frisbees. He has also visited Blackawton Primary School to inspire the children there to create a project / idea to help with the marine litter issue. So, I will continue to update on Fred's progress but more can be found at http://www.soaronhirschi.blogspot.com/

If you would like to hear more from Fred please do get in touch, or if you are interested in hosting him he would love to see the rest of the UK. info@learntosea.co.uk

Top Photo: Blackawton Primary School children with some soaps provided by http://www.devonnaturals.co.uk/ to show how we can reduce our plastic consumption by choosing household items without plastic packaging.

Top Left Photo: Fred with a beer holder caught round his neck after a beach clean on the Avon. N. B. No harm occured to any monkey in the taking of this photo. He was removed from this restriction without any harm or injury. I'm not sure the same can be said for much wildfowl in our estuaries and around our coast in the UK and all over the world.

Marine and Coastal Access Act

Great news for our seas and oceans! Here, in the UK what was the "Marine Bill" has been passed as an act! Here, begins a great future for our coastal waters and the beginning of a legal framework which will allow and support the protection of our seas and oceans.

More to follow...

The Age of Stupid

It has been a while - apologies for the delay in confirming that yes it was a short snouted seahorse!

This December is an important month for our global environment. World leaders from 192 countries will be meeting to create a global deal on climate change. The 4 essential requirements for this international agreement are:
1.) How much are industrialised countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?
2.) How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions? 3.) How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed? 4.) How is that money going to be managed?

We are all too aware now that our climate is changing. The evidence is all around us both locally and further afield. There is an increased frequency of “freak” weather events – tornadoes, tsunamis and earthquakes appear to be a more regular occurrence. Our climate is certainly changing with wetter Summer’s and seasonal inconsistencies. It’s difficult to understand how it is changing & how to predict the change but it is changing and rapidly beyond the course of Nature’s global cycles. There are many predictions about the effects but we are sure change is afoot - there are now established organisations to reduce the impact of climate change in the UK and abroad. The Maldives are already in discussion about where their refugees will reside when the islands are gone. Indeed, estimations predict that global warming could create 150 million “climate refugees” by 2050.

Sea level is rising and our ice caps are melting. What else is the future of our seas and oceans as far as climate change goes? Well, firstly it’s important to reiterate that our atmospheric oxygen comes from trees and plankton. Scientists theorise that up to 50% of atmospheric oxygen comes from phytoplankton in our seas. It may surprise some to know that the sea acts as a great source and sink of atmospheric gases – both good and bad! As well as the contribution to the “Greenhouse Effect” the ocean absorbs more than 25% of carbon dioxide emissions. In response to this the ocean is becoming more acidic. Extreme ocean acidification could make it harder for anything that needs a shell to grow and for organisms to breathe and reproduce - some will be more sensitive than others such as giant squid and there could be economic impacts on fisheries such as the shellfish industry. Could ocean acidification affect this important powerhouse that is phytoplankton? We can’t be sure but it’s another reason to do something to minimise the impact of our wasteful ways.

On Tuesday 1st December at 7.30pm there will be a showing of, “The Age of Stupid”. This is the new four-year epic from McLibel director Franny Armstrong. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

It’s a great film and whilst it may seem a tad heavy leading up to the Christmas period it demonstrates real glimmers of hope. There are demonstrations of how we as a global and local community are becoming far more aware, pro-active and considerate. Locally, in the South Hams we have the second highest recycling rates in England, Modbury was the first plastic bag free town our beach cleans are well attended and we should be proud and encouraged by our collective efforts. It’s not all doom and gloom! In view of the Copenhagen conference I thought it might be timely to show this film and to voice our support to the UK government for reduction in emissions. Learn To Sea is putting on this video free of charge but donations will be welcomed to cover the costs of the license and use of the village hall.

Whilst our UK representatives are making decisions about how the UK can reduce any impact of climate change, I hope that watching this film might also spurn us on to making further commitments for the future. Please do come along.

Seahorse Pic

I think this may be a Short Snouted Seahorse that is found in British waters - I am waiting for comfirmation. For more info on seahorses - visit www.theseahorsetrust.org

Seahorses on the strandline

Well, if it's not Portuguese man of war it's seahorses! What an amazing Summer of discoveries. Today I was working with the British Trust of Conservation Volunteers. I was running a workshop on marine litter and we were looking on the strandline for mermaids tears / plastic pellets (I'll explain in a later blog) when I discovered a small dried seahorse. Seahorses keep their shape amazingly when they die due to their bony plates. Sadly, these dried seahorses are sold in curios shops - I would ask that you do not buy these as there is a high chance they weren't found on a strandline! So not only pipefish in the pools but seahorses too...strange to discover one today after having written about them only days before on this blog! It's hard to say where it came from - it could have been washed ashore from some distance or closer to home - how exciting it would be to find a local patch!

What will get washed up next?!