In Cornwall you can't help but be inspired by the sea surrounding our coast. If you love the sea and the wildlife that lives beneath it, please read on...
The long awaited Marine and Coastal Access Act finally became law in 2009, a huge leap forward for marine wildlife conservation. It provides the opportunity to manage and conserve the marine ecosystem as a whole. This is a truly momentous time in the history of our oceans and a significant step towards achieving ‘Living Seas’, our vision in which wildlife thrives from the depths of the ocean to the coastal shallows. Our seas have a remarkable capacity to recover, but only if given the chance.
Why do we need your help?
We have successfully secured funding from grants and local businesses for our Living Seas work, but we still need an extra £19,500 to achieve our goals over the next year. You can help create ‘Living Seas’ by making a donation today.
Why is our Living Seas work important?
Cornwall is renowned for its rich marine life and is home to many habitats from rocky shores to kelp forests to eel grass meadows. Our seas are home to the world’s second biggest fish, the basking shark, stunning coral gardens, orca whales and the charismatic bottlenose dolphin. Atlantic white-sided and Risso’s dolphins are also seen off our coasts, as are majestic leatherback turtles. They all need our help to survive against the many threats they face.
Marine conservation is very different from land-based conservation, we cannot buy the seabed and declare it a nature reserve. We will only succeed if wider measures are employed. Our role must be that of watchdog, lobbyist and partnership builder, working with Government, marine industry and the public. Our marine environment is precious, we cannot allow our seas to die.
Let’s take action now and do something our children and grandchildren will thank us for. Let’s set the marine environment on the road to recovery. If we don’t, species we love could become extinct from our Cornish seas, and we could loose this rich tapestry of life forever.
How your donation will be used
If we can raise the additional £19,500 from your support, we can:
- Conduct 100 diving surveys to gain a clearer understanding of our underwater species and habitats.
- Conduct 1000 cliff-top surveys from around Cornwall’s coast to monitor and record marine mammals. The more we find out about the populations and distributions of marine species, the better we can protect them.
- Actively use data collected through our surveys to ensure that Marine Conservation Zones really will protect wildlife.
- Lobby the Government for the best possible protection for rare and endangered species and their habitats, to ensure the Marine and Coastal Access Act delivers its conservation goals.
- Continue working towards preventing marine mammals getting accidentally entangled in fishing nets, by maintaining our relationship with the fishing industry and through running our Marine Strandings Network.
- Promote marine wildlife to all through 20 local educational events, inspiring people to take ownership of their seas and do what they can to help protect them forever.
How much to donate
- £10 will pay for 10 marine wildlife identification guides to be used at events
- £50 will pay for one dive survey to be carried out
- £500 will buy a telescope to be used for our cliff-top surveys
Please help us to protect your coast, your oceans and your marine life for the future by making a donation to this appeal, thank you.
Please enjoy the following image gallery, showing just some of the marine wildilfe your donation will help us protect:
