A croundfunding campaign has been launched to fund a dive expedition along the British coastline to highlight ocean conservation efforts.
Expedition Western Ecology Tour (#ExpeditionWET) is the brain child of Andy Clark, a British Sub-Aqua Club Diver and host of the “Are You a Scuba Diver — Fancy a Brew” podcast.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still a huge world issue, staying in the U.K. seemed the most sensible approach.
Drawing on his military expedition diving experience, Clark has assembled a team of marine scientists, underwater photographers and videographers and logistical support to make this a real mission.
Starting in the northwest of Scotland, ExpeditionWET will travel over 700 miles (1127km) in 10 days down to the Ll?n Peninsula in North Wales then onto Pembrokeshire.
The first dives will feature Dr. Lauren Smith and Chris Rickard to investigate the work of Shark & Skate Citizen Science Scotland. After Rickard discovered the flame shell beds of Loch Carron had been dredged and the egg case laying grounds of the flapper skate were under threat, a lot of work has been done to protect these vital inshore areas.
The second phase will feature Jake Davies at Porth Dinllaen to see the work of Project Seagrass. Per hectare (2.47 acres), these seagrass meadows hold twice as much carbon dioxide as rain forests and can sequester about 27.4 million tons of CO2 annually. The folks at Project Seagrass are currently working on resewing seagrass beds around the U.K.
Finally, the expedition will lands in Pembrokeshire with David Kennard and Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaners. Local marine biologist and popular YouTuber Charlie Young will be using her presenter skills to spotlight the work of NARC, who were the first of their kind around the U.K.’s shores, retrieving lost fishing gear and fly-tipped rubbish.
Highlighting and promoting the work of these three projects in print and digital media is the first aim of the expedition; the second is to raise money to enable their work to continue. To that end, you can access the expedition’s crowdfunding page at justgiving.com.
For more details, you can check out the expedition website at thenortherndiver.com.
(Remember: This is a crowdfunding campaign, so you are helping to fund the development of a project, but not a finished product. Please make sure you research the project before spending any money.)
(Image credit: Andy Clark/Instagram)