Ocean Rescue Champions

In order to create a brilliant group of cohesive young people, we did lots of teambuilding activities at the start of the programme. The 12 Champions were helped and supported by the 4 Mentors as well as our staff.  

We have three fully qualified Advanced Snorkel Instructors on our staff team so we have been able to provide high quality snorkel training for our young people.  

The Mentors completed their Snorkel Diver qualification this year and the Champions were introduced to snorkelling first with a pool session and then with subsequent sea sessions, developing their knowledge and skillset so that they are competent safe snorkellers able to use their skills to participate in active seagrass conservation. 

The group learned all about seagrass - what it is, why it is important and our work with restoring it through the Seagrass Ocean Rescue project. 

They helped with seed collection at Porthdinllaen during their Seagrass Summer Camp, learned all about the Seagrass Spotter App and how to record their sightings of it,  and they've learned how to monitor our restoration sites as well as helping to plant the seeds that they helped to collect. 

As well as this, the group have grown in confidence so that they have been sharing their knowledge on the subject with the general public on numerous occasions - including at NWWT's AGM and our annual Plast Off! Beach Clean 2024. 

It's been an exceptional year with outstanding young people who have become confident individuals and excellent representatives of North Wales Wildlife Trust and the Ocean Rescue Champions programme. 

We've had young people engaging politicians in our work by having discussions with the Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, and Rhun ap Iorwerth MS for Ynys Môn. 

The Mentors for the Ocean Rescue Champions have been brilliant volunteer helpers for the programme and even won NWWT Volunteer Group of the Year Award!

The young people played their part in seagrass conservation. During the summer, they learned what seagrass is, why it is important, and participated in seed collection at a healthy seagrass meadow which will help with seagrass restoration projects.  

During February 2023, they helped to plant seagrass seeds on the Llŷn Peninsula and even had a starring role in the "Let It Grow" episode of Blue Peter in March where they explained how to plant seagrass in hessian bags. 

Receiving a green Blue Peter badge for the Trust and all of our Ocean Rescue Champions felt like a really great way to mark our 60^th Anniversary!

The RNLI gave a useful sea safety talk to the group to teach them how to explore the sea and the coastline safely. The young people then had an intro to snorkelling in a swimming pool to learn the basics, and since then, have had lots of opportunities to get in the sea to put snorkel skills into practise.  They have even learned how to take photos and videos underwater with a professional underwater videographer! 

The group learned how they can valuably contribute to Citizen Science projects and took part in Eggcase Hunts, a Nurdle Hunt, Shoresearch and a Sea Watch as well as being shown how to use the Seagrass Spotter app.

The young people have been out and about at various events to talk to people about what they have been up to as Ocean Rescue Champions and spread awareness about the importance of seagrass and marine conservation in general, including taking an active role in our annual big beach clean - Plast Off! in January 2023.