Western Ecology Tour: Get W.E.T for Science
They say that if you can dive in the UK you can dive anywhere, but what does this say for the British Coastline and Diving? That’s a question that’s going to be answered by a team of avid and passionate divers and Biologists from across the UK during the upcoming summer of 2021.
The Expedition is being led by Andy Clark (Andy The Northern Diver) of @fancy_a_brew_podcast, along with a team consisting of photographers, camera operators and biologists. They are embarking on a British diving expedition known as the Western Ecology Tour (W.E.T). The aim of the expedition is to travel to the northern reaches of Scotland and dive at Loch Carron & Loch Duich and then travel South along the West Coast to the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales, and finally onto Pembrokeshire, diving the best the west has to offer.
The expedition is looking to live life in a minimalist way, camping and cooking out in the open air.
The teams aim is not just to dive sites, but to tackle conservation issues and shed light on projects up and down the UK, they have three projects which the trip will be focusing on. These projects include the Shark & Skate Citizen Science Scotland, Project Seagrass, and Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaners (NARC). The team will be accompanied with a Biologist or expert that works on each of the 3 projects to aid and guide the team, but also help shed extra light on the critical conservation work being carried out.
The team are also aiming to gain media coverage with the support of sponsors, and will include a series of live blogs for Scubaverse. This will be used to promote the unique range of life that lives around the UK, and advertise the projects and charities that the team will be working with.
Shark & Skate Citizen Science Scotland
The Shark & Skate Citizen Science Scotland Project is headed up by Dr Lauren Smith and is set up to obtain vital information about various Shark and Ray species found in Scottish waters. There has recently been a discovery of an Egg laying site for the critically endangered Flapper Skate, this Skate species was once known as the Common Skate, but their numbers have been reduced so much that they are now classed as a Critically Endangered species due to the disturbance of their breeding grounds. Dr Lauren Smith and her colleagues are working to have the site listed as an official Marine Protected Area, this would help reduce disturbance and damage to the breeding site and eggs as fishing activities would be prohibited from within the site.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/sharkandskatecitizensciencescotland
Project Seagrass
The Project Seagrass element is led by Jake Davies, his work is focused on the conservation of Seagrass Ecosystems by informing the local communities to the presence of the Seagrass meadows that hug the Welsh Coastline, and educating the public to the vast importance that this habitat plays in our Oceans health. Seagrass is the only true plant in our oceans, this habitat is home to a whole host of animals from Rays, Seals and Seahorses and is vitally important in our fight against Climate Change.
Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaners (NARC)
NARC is supported by Charlie Young, and it is an award-winning Charity that has been fighting to keep the British Coastline litter free since 2005, and was the UK’s first underwater clean up group. NARC consist of volunteer divers who devote their own time and resources to carry out these clean-up operations and to raise awareness of the impacts of pollution on local wildlife. Divers involved in the project are armed with scissors, bags and trays in order to collect as much rubbish as they can, the team have found a huge range of rubbish from the seabed which varies from mobile phones, bikes, chairs, skateboards and a kitchen sink! The most abundant rubbish however is that of discarded fishing gear such as nets, fishing line and lobster pots, anything collected is then cleaned and recycled wherever possible.
The Expedition is hoping to raise over £6,000 using a mix of corporate sponsorship and crowd funding using their JustGiving page which can be found here: www.justgiving.com/
Donations are being used for 2 areas of the expedition, the first is a hope that £2000 per project be raised, with the money going towards equipment and the running of their operations one of which is for supplies and costs such as site entry and fuel, and the other being. Any further funds would be to supplement the overall cost of the expedition for such things as fuel, campsite entry and air fills.
If you’d like any further information and to keep up to date with Expedition Wester Ecology Tour check out the webpage https://andythenortherndiver.com/expedition-wet/
