Marine Litter/Clean Seas Project

Project Description:

The aim of the project is to raise awareness and change behaviours to reduce marine litter through a creating an iconic steel sculpture of a sea bass filled with plastic litter on the Amroth sea front. Linking with Keep Wales Tidy & PCC to support the UN Clean Seas Campaign, to coincide with the Visit Wales Year of the Sea 2018 and the Volvo Ocean Race being hosted in Wales in May/June the Clean Seas pledge part of the project will not simply focus on litter which has already ended up in the sea, but will address land-based pollution which represents over 80% of the source of marine litter.

Project Outcomes:

The project itself was innovative with Gideon Petersen’s ‘Bertie the Sea Bass’ sculpture highlighting the environmental issue of plastic pollution in the sea.  Residents, local businesses, local school children and representatives from other coastal communities in Pembrokeshire all came together for the unveiling of the sculpture.  Local schools collected the plastic bottles that fill the sculpture and the children took part in a competition to guess the number of bottles taken to fill the sculpture.  Visitors to the sculpture have been encouraged to make a personal pledge to reduce their use of single-use plastics and care for the environment and to mark this by taking a ‘selfie with Bertie’.  The sculpture has solar lighting within so that he glows at night.

Local businesses came together into an informal network around the issue of plastic and care for the local environment, with some contributing financially to provide dog waste bags along Amroth front.

“Designed by local sculptor, Gideon Peterson, the Clean Seas sculpture represents a 15ft by 5ft sea bass constructed from stainless steel and filled with plastic. It is designed to make a striking impact to communicate the need to turn the tide on plastic. Amroth and Saundersfoot will be the permanent homes for the sculpture but it will also be available for display in coastal communities across Pembrokeshire.”

Lessons Learned:

The main lesson learned was project management.  The Community Council worked well as a team with the Support of PLANED to make the project happen.  Even with hindsight, I am not sure anything would have been done differently.  We feel the project has achieved its aims very successfully.