It was our pleasure to welcome Nigel Beacham to speak to our children. Nigel talked about the Santa Maria Manuela and this beautiful ship's mission to spread a love of the sea and with that a passion to care better for the sea.
He shared his and his family’s love of the ocean, why and how we rely so much on it, and the impact of our actions on the ocean.
Through a demonstration of over fishing using sweets and very keen, happy volunteers, we could easily see how over fishing depletes the fish stock and puts the oceans resources at risk and it was fantastic to hear the good news about organisations such as Ocean Azul Foundation, which are working hard to create Marine Protected Areas.
Nigel described working with scientists on the Santa Maria Manuela on an environmental mission and told the children that what they are learning at school –the maths, science and the skill of storytelling – are all skills that can be used in life and indeed were being used on the ship. He encouraged the children by telling them that the more they throw themselves into something that interests them, the more they’ll get out of it.
It was eye opening to learn about tracing plastic pollution and inspiring to see marine litter picks, and to find out about the marine wildlife and ecosystems being studied. And of course the Westbourne House pupils loved the personal messages of encouragement for the environmental work they are doing at school and home both from Bear Grylls and incredible world-class surfer Joao Macedo.
