Sustainable sailing with The Green Blue
With many of us relying on the ocean for business and pleasure aboard our vessels, it’s paramount that we ensure the protection and safeguarding of our waters. Sustainable sailing is key for the ocean’s cleanliness and survival through this best practice boating.
North Devon Marine Project friends, The Green Blue, play a vital role in promoting sustainable recreational boating for cleaner, healthier waters. The Green Blue is funded and supported by our other project supporters, The Royal Yachting Association and British Marine. In 2005 the two organisations initiated and launched The Green Blue as a joint project to recognise the growing importance of sustainable boating and to build on its existing environmental work.
The Green Blue aims to clean up recreational boating by:
– Raising awareness of key environmental issues and sustainable boating best practice
– Providing tailored information, guidance and an array of resources
– Delivering environmental talks, webinars, educational activities and RYA instructor training
– Promoting more environmentally sustainable products and services
– Working closely with government bodies and agencies
– Developing partnerships and projects with other organisations, trusts, charities and businesses
In July 2021, the North Devon Marine project joined The Green Blue, RYA and Ocean Conservation Trust amongst others aboard our own vessel, Muhuhu, in Plymouth Sound to monitor the vital seagrass beds being conserved as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES Project. It was great to see floating signage for sustainable anchoring points around the area of the seagrass site and that it was being adhered to, even during a huge-scale event like SailGP. Want to know how you can help protect vital marine environments while boating?
Sustainable Anchoring & Moorings: Protecting our Marine Habitats
Next week, The Green Blue will be hosting three webinars as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES Project. If you’re a recreational boater and you want to learn how to anchor, moor and sail more sustainably, then these webinars are just what you need.
The three ‘Sustainable Anchoring and Moorings’ webinars aim to provide an insight into the ReMEDIES Project and the importance of sensitive seabed habitats, like seagrass, at some of the project’s seagrass sites. Each of the webinars will have speakers from partner organisations in the project who have local knowledge of the environment at each of the seagrass sites.
Attendees will also discover ways in which the recreational boating community can help to safeguard these habitats through anchoring best practice and the use of Advanced eco-Mooring Systems (AMS).
Webinar Content:
•An introduction to the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES Project
•Why protected marine habitats like seagrass and maerl are important
•The threats to these marine habitats
•Anchoring best practice and the use of AMS to help boat users safeguard seabed habitats.
•Local ReMEDIES Project work
•Q&A
Webinar Dates:
14th Dec – 7:30-8:30pm – Falmouth and Helford Rivers
Kate Fortnam (The Green Blue)
Esther Hughes (Natural England)
15th Dec – 7:30-8:30pm – Plymouth Sound and Estuaries
Kate Fortnam (The Green Blue)
Ruth Crundwell (Natural England)
16th Dec – 7:30-8:30pm – Solent Maritime
Esther Farrant (Ocean Conservation Trust)
Lindsey Hollingworth (Natural England)
Kate Whitton (Marine Conservation Society)
Register for FREE on The Green Blue website.
