mcs in wales
events
Plastic Bag free Wales
Since giving a presentation at the PLANED 'Message in Waves' event in January the MCS Pembrokeshire local campaign to get Pembrokleshire plastic bag free has really taken off and not just in Pembrokeshire! Over the last two months, there have been talks in Cardiff, Bridgend, Newcastle Emlyn, Porthcawl and Fishguard. For more information on the campaign visit the MCS Adopt-a-Beach website
Langland Beach clean.
11 volunteers helped MCS Welsh officer survey and clean Langland beach, Gower on Sunday 13th January. Like most beaches in the UK Langland is not cleaned over the winter period and the beach had high litter levels with 13 items per meter surveyed. Due to the strong onshore winds the beach a fridge and door were washed up on the beach.
The next clean will be on Sunday 27th of April starting at 11.30.
CCW Marine and Freshwater monitoring Conference
Jean-Luc Solandt gave a presentation at this conference about the surveys which have been undertaken onboard Environment Agancy vessel 'Vigilance'. MCS staff and volunteers have monitored the waters around Wales and Cornwall for mega fauna such as basking sharks and marine mammals. We've been lucky enough to see backing sharks, common dolphins, harbour porpoise and bottlenosed dolphin.
Aberystwyth MSc. Students campaign for better marine protection
Aberystywth MSc. are hoping to raise awareness of marine conservation issues at the University. The students were fired up after a presentation given by Gill.
Cardigan Soroptimists
The Soroptimists of Wales seem to be unstopable in their quest to adopt beaches under the MCS 'Adopt-a-Beach' project. After giving a presentation to Cardigan local group plans are afoot to adopt a local beach. The ladies also signed the MCS 'Marine Reserves Now petition' and the 'Skomer Marine Reserve Now'.
SeaSwansea Event
National Waterfront Museum was once again the site for the event - complete with pirates, muskets and cannon fire, which Tallulah the Turtle braved to bring the message home about Welsh biodiversity species around the welsh coast.
Mr &Mrs Turtle - proud adopters of MCS Adopt-a-Turtle also signed the Marine Reserves Now petition.
Have you signed up yet Marine Reserves Now
Thanks to MCS Volunteers JJ and Judith for their help with the event.
Royal Welsh
For the first time MCS was part of the Royal Welsh show.
Despite the weather, MCS supporters, Welsh Assembly Government members and everyone who visited the marquee, joined in supporting the Marine Reserves Now campaign. For more photos of the campaign click here
Emma and Trudie at the Royal Welsh - still smiling despite the mud! Thanks also to Sue for her help with the event.
Jane Davidson Minister for the Envrionment Welsh Assembly Government shows her support for Marine Reserves Now campaign
Megafauna survey
Gill was lucky enough to take part in a vessel based survey onboard the EA Vigilance and recorded a seal, harbour porpoise, severla pods of common dolphins and three basking sharks - one of which was the first recorded so far east in the bristol channel. Click here for the press release.
Darwin Event
Another event was held at Pembrokeshire College as part of the Darwin Science event. Five schools attended and each played the biodegration timeline game. All the schools also sent their thank you messages to the singer Pink who is did the Party for Animals Welfare gig in Cardiff.
Pembrokeshire Fish Week
Several events were planned for the week including school visits and beach events. However the much anticipated snorkel safari was cancelled due to bad weather but will hopefully be back next year..
BBC Springwatch event
Swanseas National Waterfront Museum was the setting for the BBC Breathing Places event as part of the Springwatch series. Tallulah the turtle join in the fun in the Coastal theme tent.
The event was well attended and Iolo Willams gave his support to the Marine Reserves Now campaign
Thanks to MCS Volunteers JJ and Judith for their help with the event.
Welsh Soroptimists unite
Three talks were given to Welsh Soroptimists groups in Newport, Caridff and Abervagenny. the groups have kindly supported MCs and hope to do Beachwatch this year and also supported the Marine Reserves Now campaign.
welsh environmental link - wel
As well as raising awareness the new MCS Welsh officer will be lobbying for the new marine bill to the Welsh Assembly and attended the WEL meeting to give a presentation about the MCS in Wales and the WOW roadshow.
darwin event pembrokeshire college
As part of the Darwin Centre educational activities, an event was organised with local schools to promote national Science week. The event was featured on Radio Pembrokeshire and the star of the event TV presenter, Monty Halls, gave the children a thrilling talk showing footage of his 'Great Ocean Adventures' show. The Welsh Officer met with 120 school children and distributed information about marine wildlife around Welsh shore. For more information on the Darwin Centre please visit http://www.darwincentre.com/ For further information on Monty Halls please visit http://www.montyhalls.co.uk/ Details of Pembrokeshire radio can be found at http://www.radiopembrokeshire.com/index.php
national museum of wales marine weekend
The NMW held a free marine themed event open to the general public in March. There were many activities and the event was attended by the MCS welsh officer who, as well as distributing awareness raising materials on the marine environment, also held a competition to guess the numbers of eggs in Talulla the leatherback turtles nest. Over 90 people contributed but the winning guess 82. Thanks to everyone who took part. For further details on the National Museum of Wales, please visit http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/home/
wise event
Tom Luddington, Pembrokeshire Outdoor Centres and Tour Boats, organised an event at Pembrokeshire College and the Welsh Officer attended and gave short presentation. WiSe is a scheme set up to deliver training and accreditation for operators of registered passenger and charter vessels who wish to view marine wildlife. The event was well attended by over 30 wildlife tour operators from Pembrokeshire and surrounding areas. For further information on training days and the WiSe scheme please visit http://www.wisescheme.org/
pembrokeshire local group
The Welsh Officer met with several groups from the Pembrokeshire area to co-ordinate events in the forth coming year and to introduce the Welsh Ocean Widlife Roadshow project. A MCS Pembrokeshire group is to be set up at the end of April.
The new MCS welsh officer has been in post full time since January 2007. If you would like the Welsh Officer to attend a planned event, please Click here.
