Marine Conservation Society (Uk) South East Local Group

The MCS SouthEast group is part of the National organisation, the Marine Conservation Society.

Involving people in our fight for the oceans recovery is core to the MCS work

Whether you join us, donate, or support one of our many projects and campaigns, you can help our seas and wildlife recover. We champion the need for marine wildlife protection, sustainable fisheries and clean seas and beaches. Check out the quality of the beaches in the south East region from the MCS Good Beach Guide.

Marine litter: The marine conservation society is campaigning for action on marine litter. We are calling on Goverments to take the lead and publish action plans to reduce marine litter by 2011.

Balloon Releases – Just a reminder that MCS are continuing to campaign against mass balloon releases used for other charitable events. The campaign is called ‘Don’t Let Go’. Although not against using balloons to promote events, when released, many find there way into the sea where they can be eaten by turtles and sea birds, causing serious injury and death. The amount of balloon debris found around our coasts has tripled in the last ten years. A coloured leaflets and posters with details of this campaign are available from the MCS head office.

Most balloon manufactuers state that their latex balloons are fully bio degradable. But how long do they take to degrade? A latex balloon has been left to grade within a beaker of water in direct Sun light while being monitored by a web cam, view it's progress here.

Fishing for a future

Some fishing methods take far more fish than we use – discarding alarming quantities of unwanted, young, dead fish back into the sea, and some fishing activities can seriously damage our fragile seabed habitats, killing other sea life such as dolphins, seals and birds in the process.

The MCS is working with all aspects of the fisheries and aquaculture industries to try and find solutions to these problems.

You can help. Use our new Supermarket survey to find out how well your local supermarket does on sustainable seafood, and download the Pocket Good Fish Guide to help advise you on choices when you next shop.

Is fish farming the answer to the growing world food gap?

Nearly half of all our seafood is now farmed, but sadly farming the most popular fish uses more fish as food for the fish farming process than it actually creates for our consumption.

Find out more about our work with retailers, governments and the aquaculture industry and all about MCS work with fish farming at Aquaculture - what we do.

Marine turtles are endangered

Turtles are an ancient group of reptiles that have witnessed the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, with the earliest marine turtle fossils dated at about 110 million years old! Seven species of marine turtle now swim our oceans and all are included on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species. Some marine turtle populations around the world are in danger of extinction. Unsustainable exploitation, accidental entanglement in fishing gear, marine pollution and habitat destruction are all to blame.

What needs to be done?

MCS believes that we humans should learn how to live in the marine turtles’ world without endangering them. While we cause problems for turtles, we can also provide the conservation solutions, so MCS strives for a people-centered approach to marine turtle conservation and management.

Wildlife protection

We are collecting information from the public about basking sharks via basking shark watch, marine turtles and jellyfish in UK and Irish waters. We are also partners with the Seasearch project that uses volunteer divers to record underwater wildlife.

If you have seen basking sharks, marine turtles and jellyfish in UK and Irish waters, please click on the image above to report your sighting online to MCS. If you are interested in finding out more about Seasearch, click on the Seasearch image above.

Click here to find out more about basking sharks, marine turtles and our national Jellyfish Survey.

MCS wildlife protection in action

We are working to protect our precious seas and wildlife, and there are lots of ways for you to get involved. We are campaigning for marine protected areas in the UK, studying the amazing wildlife in our seas, and working on frontline conservation projects involving local people in the stewardship of their marine resources, both in the UK and abroad, with our coral reef projects.

To secure a future for our seas and our most threatened species and habitats before they are lost forever the Marine Conservation Society:

• Protects endangered marine species great and small, and the habitats they live in.
• Campaigns for pollution-free seas and litter-free coastlines.
• Promotes sustainable seafood choices to consumers to protect fish stocks for the future.
• Tackles over-exploitation of marine resources by working to achieve ecologically sustainable management of our activities.
• Involves thousands of supporters in actions to survey and protect . our marine life.