We have had an exciting event this month, i collaboration with A Rocha Kenya and Turtle bay Beach Club we held our inaugural Local Ocean Day

We had a total of over 250 school children and community groups who participated in the day’s events which included a beach cleanup, sand art sculpture competition and quiz for school children.

The beach clean-up covered a wide area from Blue Bay Hotel to Plot 28 (A Rocha Kenya). A total of 50 plastic bags were filled with non-biodegradable rubbish collected from the beach such as plastics, glass bottles and flip-flops. This was the first time we had covered such a long stretch of beach during a cleaning exercise.

The Sand Art Sculpture competition was stiff with 21 entries from 10 community groups and 11 schools.. The overall six winning teams in this competition were awarded with prizes donated by A Rocha Kenya, Local Ocean Trust, Turtle Bay Beach Club and Gelato Ice Cream Shop. The overall best winning team, Dongokundu Primary had designed a mangrove and turtle sculpture. This depicted the day’s theme of instilling in the local community an appreciation of their marine environment and an understanding of the interrelation between the mangrove ecosystem and their importance in providing a foraging habitat for juvenile green and hawksbill turtles in Mida Creek.

School children from all 11 schools gathered at Turtle Bay Conference Hall in the afternoon for the final of the ASSETS inter-school quiz between Malanga and Mijomboni Primary Schools, as well as the 3 winners of a best essay competition about the local bush meat trade in Arabuko-Sukoke forest.  The winners were awarded with prizes donated by Nature Kenya and Turtle Bay Beach Club, including a Dhow trip for the winning school. Whislt very hot and sweaty out in the sun we had a great day and look forward to doing it again next year