British Naturism Adopts the Marine Conservation Society as its Charity for 2007 and 2008

The Marine Conservation Society – the BN President’s Charity of the Year 2008

I am pleased to announce that we have adopted the Marine Conservation Society as our charity of the year and will be joining with them to raise awareness and money for their great causes. The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is the UK charity caring for our seas, shores and wildlife. MCS campaigns for clean seas and beaches, sustainable fisheries, protection of marine life and habitats, and the sensitive use of our marine resources for future generations. Through education, community involvement and collaboration, MCS raises awareness of the many threats that face our seas and promotes individual, industry and government action to protect the marine environment.

We feel that there is a good fit between our activities and the goals of MCS and want to encourage members, clubs and others to get involved. The first big event will be MCS' Coastal Challenge, a nationwide event. The UK has over 18,470 km (11,477 miles) of beautiful coastline and the idea is to match this distance in sponsored events by World Oceans Day, 8th June 2007. You might take a sponsored coast-to-coast challenge, walk your favourite stretch of coastline, or check out their regional events listing for a fun run near you.

To get everyone involved in this challenge, British Naturism have set aside the first May Bank Holiday weekend (5th – 7th May) to “walk our favourite stretches of coastline”, i.e. as many naturist beaches, official and unofficial, as we can. This is also a good way of raising the profile or our beaches – and thus gaining support towards more such places – and there is bound to be plenty of press coverage. The intention, of course, is to walk nude, but the weather will have a role to play in that, no doubt. You can be sponsored to do a walk anywhere at any time but we think that it will be much more sociable and better from the media point of view if groups walk each beach at a specified time together. Therefore, we need volunteers to come forward to agree to be the Walk Leader. If you like the idea, select a beach and a time that weekend and let me know at president@british-naturism.org.uk. Through the website and e-zine we will let people know where to be and when. Let’s make this a great start to our relationship with MCS.

The 'Somerset Strolling Bears' will be running an event at Budleigh Salterton, details can be found here. A walk is also taking place along the South Coast on 2nd June. Please get involved if you can, sponsorship forms can be downloaded here.

BEACHWATCH - 15/16 SEPTEMBER

MCS have many other projects such as Beachwatch and Adopt-a-Beach See here for details of how you can get involved in the BN part of this project in September.

MCS will also have a presence at many of our events too. Many of you will have already met them and heard about their work at the BN Alton Towers Naturist Weekend and our thanks go to them for donating an “Adopt-A-Turtle” prize for the Treasure Hunt.

If you have any ideas for making the very best of our new President’s Charity, let me know.

Pat Thompson

President

Quick Facts’ about MCS & the marine environment:

More about our seas, shores and wildlife:-

65% of our fisheries are being fished beyond safe sustainable limits;

Less than 0.002% of our UK seas are totally protected from all forms of extractive activities (eg. fishing, dredging, dumping). Scientists recommend at least 20% be totally protected;

Over 1,900 items of litter are collected on an average kilometre of UK beaches - this rubbish eventually finds it's way into the food chain.

In order to overcome these specific challenges:

MCS promotes sustainable consumption of fish via our fishonline website and our Good Fish Guide.

MCS promotes the conservation of our threatened marine biodiversity by campaigning for Marine Reserves

MCS co-ordinates the biggest and most influential project in the fight against marine litter in the UK