UK school children get up close with basking sharks, turtles, dolphins and whales – without getting a foot wet!
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Life size marine models head to school halls as part of a unique recycling challenge
Just over 4,000 school children have been getting up close and personal with some of the amazing marine wildlife that can be found around the UK coastline.
Youngsters from Peterborough, Leicstershire, Lancaster, Powys, Carmarthenshire and North Yorkshire attended sessions of the MCS Cool Seas Roadshow, when it visited schools in those areas between September and November.
The MCS Cool Seas Roadshow gives youngsters an insight into the vast array of marine creatures found off UK shores, including basking sharks, turtles, dolphins and whales, using life-size inflatable marine wildlife props to inspire the imagination.
During the Roadshow visit youngsters found out about one of the biggest threats to some of these extraordinary creatures – marine litter. The children, mostly from Key Stage Two classes, learnt how they could make a difference and start turning the tide on the amount of rubbish in our seas and on our shorelines by recycling at home.
MCS hopes the youngsters will also join thousands of other children across the UK in the Bottle Champions Recycling Campaign – a partnership scheme between the MCS Cool Seas Roadshow and Plastics 2020 Challenge, an industry group focused on diverting plastic from landfill and preventing littering.
The partnership encourages school pupils to meet plastic bottle recycling targets. When the schools hit their target amount of bottles, Plastics 2020 Challenge supplies free netball or football kits made out of recycled plastic.
Roadshow presenter Andy Starbuck says, “I’ve been telling the children about all the great animals found in our cool seas. By introducing the Bottle Champions campaign, we can focus on the importance of recycling to reduce plastic litter found in the sea and on beaches, and that can be lethal to our wildlife.”
The Bottle Champions Recycling Campaign has already been a resounding success with schools in Somerset, Wales and Kent, where it was trialled last year. MCS Biodiversity Programme Manager, Dr. Peter Richardson, says this new initiative is particularly exciting: “Through involvement with Bottle Champions, children will really begin to understand that they can play their part in tidying up the planet. The good news is that it’s not just the schools visited by the Roadshow that can become Bottle Champions, we are encouraging lots more schools in the area to take up the challenge and earn themselves a free team sports kit.”
Schools interested in the Cool Seas Roadshow or wanting to take part in the Bottle Champions Recycling Campaign can contact Ros Davies at MCS on Coolseasroadshow@mcsuk.org or call 01989 566017.
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