Did you know that the ocean around Britain is full of incredible marine life such as Sharks, Turtles, Eels and Dolphins? Our water provides a perfect habitat for lots of life as it is full of oxygen and food!
But through over fishing, bad fishing practices, pollution, taking resources from the sea and building around the coastline, our oceans are in a lot of danger, threatening the animals that live there as well.
SEA LIFE and the Marine Conservation Society are campaigning to encourage the government to create little pockets of protection around our coastline called Marine Conservation Zones. These MCZs will prevent damaging practices that can harm sealife and damage their habitats, sometimes irreversibly.
With MCZS, most human activities won’t change except where it might damage the special local feature or habitat. So we can carry on using these sites, but just with more care. And MCZs may be small in size, but the exciting thing about them is that it is proven they are effective.
Areas which have been protected have shown huge increases in the amount of life which thrives there, and this causes an “overspill” effect, in which the surrounding areas will also begin to recover, even if they aren’t protected.
SEA LIFE and the Marine Conservation Society are asking for your help to convince our government that we should protect our precious seas before it is too late with 127 MCZs in English seas!
We are compiling hundreds of names of those who want to save the seas and before the decision on MCZs is made, we will present the names to the government in a march across Westminster bridge!
How you can help
Help us to help them by signing your name on our petition, or entering one of our competitions
If you are a keen photographer, why not enter our photo competition showing us what you love about the British Seaside?
Or for the 12’s and under, why not tell us why you love the ocean or the seaside in a 10 line poem?
Make your entries and creative and fun as you like and be in with the chance of winning a fantastic prize!
All entries for the Poetry Competition must be submitted by 30th November
All entries for the Photography Competition must be submitted by 30th November.
Please send your postal entries (poetry competition only) to
Jenny Hickman
SEA LIFE London Aquarium
Westminster Bridge Road
London, SE1 7PB
or email them to competitions@londonaquarium.co.uk with either “Photography competition” or “Poetry Competition” in the subject line, and don’t forget to tell us your name, age and a contact number in case you win!
All images copywright Mark Thomas/MCS and Paul Taylor/MCS.