How volunteering is helping Sea Champions discover their coast

"My name is Islay, I’ve started my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) award. I’m really excited to take on new experiences and just have a bit of fun! OK, knowing me, I’d have a lot of fun!

First of all you need to set it all up. For example: filling in your chosen activities, timescales, and assessors. This all takes time, and to be honest, I really wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing or not, or what I even should be doing! But it all became clear soon enough. My leader helps me out through it all - and some amazing parents to guide me! If you achieve a DofE award, it counts toward your progress and careers/jobs, and a good thing to have under your belt. If you're up for the challenge, then have fun and enjoy it! It is optional, and I promise you, it's not extra work!!

For DofE, there are 3 sections: volunteering, physical, and skills (there’s also expedition, but the leader sorts that one out – you go out with a group of friends for at least two days and one night). For my volunteering section, I have chosen to volunteer for the Marine Conservation Society. There are various things that I have considered – doing the Big Seaweed Search, joining in with litter picking events, organizing litter picking events, or even just litter picking on my own (with family). Whether I either organize an event or just do it on my own, I’ll follow the litter survey and that way I can track my progress. This also means that I’m learning about it and thinking about it more in depth. When I do the Big Seaweed Search or go out litter picking, I go to local beaches where I live in south Devon. This is also good because I am learning even more about my local beaches.

I care about the Marine Conservation Society – recently my mum joined one of their litter picking events whilst my dad, brother and I were litter picking at the other end of the beach. We also got to join in with them a little bit! Then when it came to my DofE choices, I was deciding what to do for my volunteering activity. I’m interested in marine biology and I want to take that as an idea for my career path. So overall I thought, well then maybe I should volunteer for the Marine Conservation Society! And it was a great choice! It allows me to learn more about my local environment and care for marine wildlife. I want to help as much as I can with the Marine Conservation Society and my local marine environment.

I want to make a change to the world – I want to help to stop global warming and climate crises and to help the sea. I love the sea! It’s the best thing in the world for me. My family say that I’m a mermaid! I love swimming in the sea and snorkelling is the best! I appreciate the wide diversity of aquatic life and what it means to our world. If we don’t take care of everything we will lose all the immense beauty of the sea. The sea gives us half of our oxygen to breathe for starters. And the plastic pollution is preventing that from happening. So we’re basically just causing ourselves all sorts of huge problems.

That’s why I’m volunteering for the Marine Conservation Society. It’s a start, and I’m looking forward to helping out with anything, and everything! For my skills section of DofE I’m doing marine biology – I go rock-pooling and see what animals I can find (sea-snails, hermit crabs, starfish). So far my most exciting find has been a group of starfish (cushion stars) ­– seen in the wild for the first time in my life! This is how great DofE can be! I have begun to create fact sheets about all of the different rockpool creatures I find. This is a great learning curve for me.

I believe I have made good progress so far and I’m only in the first few weeks of my Bronze DofE. I’ve joined in the Big Seaweed Search and I’ve also gone litter picking with my family – my friend is doing beach cleans as well for her DofE so we might organize a big beach clean together. I’m really excited to carry on, and to experience the adventure that lies ahead. Watch this space for my updates!"