Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is calling on the Government to introduce and implement a National Marine Litter Strategy to stop the ever-increasing tide of rubbish washing up across our shores.

You can sign the petition on Downing Street's website here

2009 Report - Environmental Educational Talks Thanks to the support of Global Ocean, SAS has this year delivered an increased number of educational talks in learning institutions across the country in 2009. These talks have been given in schools, universities, high education institutes and environmental establishments such as the Eden Project. The talks have been delivered to all age groups from primary school level through to further education establishments.  

As you know, the SAS talk focuses on current campaign areas and local issues relating to the environmental protection of the UK’s coastlines, seas and associated wildlife and recreational users.  The presentations highlight the problems and promote the sustainable achievable solutions that SAS current call for in reducing environmental degradation of our coastline nationwide.  The talks outline what SAS is doing nationally and locally along with effective examples of SAS using science at the heart of its campaigns.  These sessions also provide tangible actions that can be taken by the audience in tackling marine pollution as well as complementing the cross curricular syllabus' at the primary and secondary levels. 

Global Ocean continues to support Ocean Alliance which works on the frontline of quantifying manmade pollution in our oceans. Their boat, the Odyssey, is the only sailboat worldwide to house a marine mammal cell culture laboratory. In 2010 they will be releasing a 5 year global  toxicity study on marine mammals for public distribution.   This study is very relevant in a world where some people are still eating marine mammal meat.  The report highlights the fact that most if not all marine mammal meat is unsafe for human consumption since it contains ominously high levels of chromium and mercury contamination.

An exciting time for Ocean Alliance, close to releasing the preliminary results from the Voyage of the Odyssey with an 88 page report that will be circulated worldwide.

Ocean Alliance was founded in 1971 by biologist Roger Payne. Led by Dr Payne and Chief Executive Officer Iaian Kerr, Ocean Alliance collects a broad spectrum of data on whales relating particularly to toxicology, bioacoustics, behaviour and genetics.

Working with that data we give information to policy makers, politicians, non-governmental organizations, educators and students about ocean pollution and the health of sea life, especially marine mammal populations. Our data is the basis of many conservation success stories.

Our longstanding scientific partner is the Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology who conduct state-of-the-art research aimed at understanding how environmental toxicants affect the health of humans and marine animals.

This mission is accomplished through the pursuit of a number of key objectives, including conducting innovative and multidisciplinary research in toxicology and molecular epidemiology to further our understanding of disease in humans and marine organisms, particularly as they relate to cancer, asthma and reproductive / developmental effects.

A key component to this work is the development of ‘Cell lines’ from different species we encounter. To develop a cell line one needs the freshest sample possible – ie the sample needs to be taken from the animal and put into culture within 24 hours. In most cases the Odyssey is more than 24 hours from a cell line laboratory, and this is often compounded by delays created by new international regulations involving the transportation of living cells across international borders.

To solve this problem the Ocean Alliance is building what might be the first ever cell line laboratory at sea. With this floating laboratory samples can be collected and put into culture within hours. “The opportunities presented by this laboratory are enormous”, say Dr Wise.

The first comprehensive report from the Voyage will soon be sent to over 2,500 people and all those involved with the voyage. While the Odyssey visited over 120 ports and 22 countries - many of these countries / people do not know how the work that they did fits into the bigger picture.