Scilly Wildlife Trust running crowdfunding campaign
The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust has started a crowdfunding campaign to help finance some ambitious plans for the coming year.
The Trust, which takes care of 60% of the islands, has several projects in the pipeline for 2018, including more beach cleans, recycling plastics and even an underwater webcam.
The organisation has now started its 'Love the Sea; Love Scilly' campaign, promising that 'to protect the incredible marine environment of the Isles of Scilly, we will inspire, educate, help and promote all things sea'.
The Wildlife Trust posted on its fundraising page: “Plastic waste is a global problem & our coastlines feel the effects of it EVERY DAY. None more so than on islands which are ideal "harbours" for this floating debris. Marine litter can kill our seabirds & seals & cetaceans such as dolphins & porpoises. The Isles of Scilly are a Marine Protected Area but they are not protected from the scourge of plastic pollution which washes up on the shores. Our project will support the local community to become champions of the environment & help them to look after our precious coastline.
“We will organise regular beach cleans, provide opportunities for individual action and also for businesses to do their bit. We will send rigid plastics collected on our beaches away for recycling & provide collection points where people can safely dispose of marine debris they have collected themselves. We will also collect data on the marine environment so that we can plan more activities to conserve it; this will include monitoring of seabird & seal populations, installation of an underwater web-cam & citizen science projects such as Shoresearch.
“We'll also work with local fishermen to help them collect & recycle ghost gear and we will run fun events and activities for our visitors to show them the wonders of our marine environment.
“Please help us help our precious marine environment by contributing towards our Love the Sea; Love Scilly project. It's time to act; we hope you will agree?”
Support the Love the Sea; Love Scilly campaign here.
The Wildlife Trust has also signed up to Amazon Smile, which allows people to automatically support a charity of their choice every time they shop at Amazon, at no cost to them.
It recently took delivery of reusable cups (above) as a part of its Plastic Free Scilly campaign.
The Great Scilly Beach Clean 2018 is scheduled to take place this weekend, with 12 cleans on St Mary's and whole island coastal/beach cleans on St Agnes, Bryher, Tresco and St Martin’s.