News
Underwater relay challenge in memory of BSAC diver raises £1,700
UK Divers from Ribble Valley SAC have raised money in memory of one of their club members by swimming more than five miles beneath the surface of Coniston Water in Cumbria.
After months of training, 16 members of the club spent eight hours covering the entire length of the lake underwater to remember Duncan Priestley, of Accrington, who passed away, aged just 59, in August 2013 from cancer.
Eight buddy pairs of divers from across Lancashire used a relay system to travel the five and a half mile Lake District site last Sunday (July 13) with the aim of hauling in at least £1,000 for lifeboat charity the RNLI.
But, according to the club’s Training Officer Fiona Imlach, who was part of the challenge team, things went so well that they’re hoping to end up with double that amount.
Fiona, 50, said: “Before we even started about £1,200 had been donated online, we had £500 in sponsorship pledges and we made another £200 on the day from our members making a collection around people watching us from the shore, sitting in local cafes and walking around Coniston village.
“Things went very smoothly with the challenge. The first divers went in at 6am and the last one came out at 2pm, which was much less time than we thought it was going to take. We started from the end of the lake furthest away from Coniston and gradually worked our way northwards towards the village.”
Each member of the team did two 30-minute dives at 5 ½ metres with a break of four hours in between.
“Each buddy pair used a compass and trailed a surface marker buoy so the safety crew on the surface could see exactly where they were. We had two RIBS with the second one ferrying the next pair of divers with 15 people in them.
“Visibility wasn’t too bad in the water and the buddy pairs could see one another quite clearly. For Coniston, which can be very cold, the water was surprisingly warm. It was 17C while the air temperature was just over 20C.”
Fiona added: “We attracted quite a lot of attention from people around the lake and the great thing was that Duncan’s widow Joan and their grandson Joseph, who is 11, were both there to watch the challenge.
“They thought that what we were doing in Duncan’s name was amazing and I think they were overwhelmed by the effort we put into it.
“From our point of view it was certainly a fantastic day and a great club activity. I’m proud of the way all the members helped each other.”
Last year the club raised more than £2,200 for Pendleside Hospice in Duncan’s memory after taking on what Fiona describes as a few silly underwater challenges.
She explained: “Duncan Priestley was one of the club’s most active members and was a hugely popular guy who was always up for a laugh. That’s why, last year, we decided to do ‘silly’ things underwater to raise money for Pendleside Hospice where he spent his last days.
“The hospice was fantastic and even arranged for him to marry his partner, Joan, which was very kind of them. Duncan was born in Rawtensall and lived in both Nelson and Accrington. He had two children from his first marriage but had a long term relationship with Joan who he met at Accrington and Rossendale College where they both worked.
“Last year we did all sorts of sponsored silly things such as holding an underwater gym session, played underwater draughts, one diver wrote 100 lines, one ate as many different fruits as possible and one munched his way through a pile of sausages!
“We are thrilled with the amount of money we have raised so far and we’ve decided, as a club, to continue fundraising and make it an annual event in Duncan’s memory with a different charity benefiting each year.”
For more information on Ribble Valley Sub Aqua Club, click here.
The Ocean Cleanup, the global non-profit project, has removed a verified all-time total of ten million kilograms (22 million lbs.) of trash from oceans and rivers around the world – approximately the same weight as the Eiffel Tower.
To complete its mission of ridding the oceans of plastic, The Ocean Cleanup uses a dual strategy: cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) to remove the plastic already afloat in the oceans, while stopping the flow of plastic from the world’s most polluting rivers.
Through cleaning operations in the GPGP and in rivers in eight countries, the cumulative total of trash removed has now surpassed ten million kilograms. This milestone demonstrates the acceleration of The Ocean Cleanup’s impact, while underlining the astonishing scale of the plastic pollution problem and the need for continued support and action.
While encouraging for the mission, this milestone is only a staging point: millions more tons of plastic still pollute our oceans and The Ocean Cleanup intends to continue learning, improving and innovating to solve this global catastrophe.
This announcement comes as governments from around the world meet to continue negotiations to develop a new legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution at INC4 in Ottawa, Canada. Representatives of The Ocean Cleanup will be in attendance and the organization will be urging decision-makers to collaborate towards a comprehensive and ambitious global treaty which addresses plastic at all stages of its life cycle and in all marine environments worldwide, including in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
It is encouraging to see that the need for remediation is reflected in the various options for potential treaty provisions. It is essential that the final treaty contains clear targets for the remediation of legacy plastic pollution, and reduction of riverine plastic emissions.
Tackling plastic pollution requires innovative and impactful solutions. The treaty should therefore incentivize the innovation ecosystem by fostering innovations that make maximal use of data, technology and scientific knowledge – such as those designed and deployed by The Ocean Cleanup.
‘After many tough years of trial and error, it’s amazing to see our work is starting to pay off – and I am proud of the team who has brought us to this point.’ said Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. ‘While we still have a long way to go, our recent successes fill us with renewed confidence that the oceans can be cleaned.’
The Ocean Cleanup was founded in 2013 and captured its first plastic in 2019, with the first confirmed catch in the GPGP coming soon after the deployment of Interceptor 001 in Jakarta, Indonesia. After surpassing one million kilograms of trash removed in early 2022, the non-profit project has since progressed to the third iteration of its GPGP cleaning solution, known as System 03, and a network of Interceptors currently covering rivers in eight countries, with more deployments set for 2024.
About The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup is an international non-profit organization that develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal through a dual strategy: stemming the inflow via rivers and cleaning up the legacy plastic that has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup develops large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. This plastic is tracked and traced through DNV’s chain of custody model to certify claims of origin when recycling it into new products. To curb the tide via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup has developed Interceptor™ solutions to halt and extract riverine plastic before it reaches the ocean. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup now employs a broadly multi-disciplined team of approximately 140. The foundation is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
For more information, visit: theoceancleanup.com and follow @theoceancleanup on social media.
Marine Life & Conservation
Steve Backshall to headline Shark Trust’s flagship event: For the Love of Sharks
Join a host of amazing, shark loving, speakers including Steve Backshall and the Shark Trust team for an evening celebrating shark conservation at the Royal Geographical Society in London this November.
Date: 29th November 2024
Time: 6-10pm
Location: Royal Geographical Society, London
Tickets: https://www.sharktrust.org/Event/flos24
The event will be a celebration of all things shark. Those lucky enough to get hold of tickets will hear from engaging guest speakers with a passion for sharks.
The line-up includes (*subject to change if unforeseen circumstances arise)
Steve Backshall: One of television’s busiest presenters, BAFTA award-winning wildlife expert Steve has been passionate about the wild world ever since he was young.
Steve’s impressive TV career has taken him all around the world, investigating a wide array of species and environments. Steve has filmed over 100 hours of children’s wildlife programmes with the BAFTA award winning Deadly 60 franchise and recently, with Sky Nature, for his new series ‘Whale with Steve Backshall’. He has been a patron for the Shark Trust for 10 years.
Simon Rogerson: is a photojournalist specialising in natural history, diving and the sea.
He is editor of SCUBA magazine, the official journal of the British Sub-Aqua Club. Simon started his career as a crime reporter but gravitated towards his ‘less depressing’ interest in underwater exploration, joining the staff of DIVE magazine in 1999. In 2005 he was named ‘Editor of the Year’ in the PPA’s Independent Publishing Awards. Simon also works as a freelance writer, contributing frequently to the Sunday Times and Telegraph, in addition to BBC Wildlife, Esquire, and a host of international diving magazines. He is the author of a book, Dive Red Sea, published by Ultimate Sports. Now based in Berkshire, Simon has been a Patron of the Shark Trust for 20 years.
More speakers to be announced soon. Head to the Shark Trust website to learn more.
The evening will also allow guests the final chance to see the Oceanic 31, shark art exhibition. Some of the artwork will be auctioned/raffled at the event, while the rest will be auctioned online to raise money for the Shark Trust Oceanic Programme.
For the Love of Sharks is an evening with something for everyone who is interested and fascinated by sharks. Join the Shark Trust, their Patrons, Trustees and Staff, along with a host of supporters for this celebration of shark conservation.
For more information or to buy a ticket: https://www.sharktrust.org/Event/flos24
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