Adur will be one of the leaders in the United Kingdom when it presents an exhibition celebrating the official World Oceans Day. The event will take place on Saturday 5 June 2004 in Shoreham-by-Sea, on Coronation Green at the start of the Adur Festival.
In
June 1992, over 150 Heads of States signed the Convention on Biological
Diversity at Rio de Janeiro. They did so to express a shared belief that
action must be taken to halt the worldwide loss of animal and plant species
and genetic resources. World Oceans Day was first declared as 8th June
at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Events
will occur all around the world on and around this day.
Get close up to a live lobster, hands on with a live crab, and meet close-up some of the fascinating life from sea off the Sussex coast; the exhibition of marine life to celebrate World Oceans Day occurs on Coronation Green, Shoreham-by-Sea, all day on Saturday 5 June 2004, is your chance to bring the whole family for a day out beside the river Adur. Admission is free and there are plenty of other things to do as the exhibition is part of the opening day of the Adur Festival. Other events include live performances of musicians, sculptures (Teresa Martin), processions, a trip to the top of St. Mary de Haura, Norman church towering 25 metres above the centre of town.
Badge-making and colouring competitions, dolphin exhibits and talks, the touch table run by the West Sussex County Council Rural Strategy Unit, computer information and experts to pose questions to, the Sussex Sea Fisheries District Committee, and other exhibits by divers and bird watching groups, a photographic exhibit of shingle plants of Shoreham beach and Widewater Lagoon (by Dave and Marion Wood), all housed in a much bigger and better marquee than in previous years. Marc Abrahams a Brighton vet will be helping with the exhibits this year in addition to the popular Len Nevell of the British Marine Life Study Society.
“If the weather is fine, a walk across the footbridge from Shoreham beach is an attractive proposition with the flood tide filling up the River Adur around midday .and lapping against Coronation Green which is on the southern side of the High Street by the river right in the middle of town. It is safe for children right next to the river. We have been fortunate with splendid weather in the last four years, but even if it is overcast and cloudy there will be plenty for all the family and children to see and do,” says Andy Horton of the national study group, the British Marine Life Study Society based in Shoreham.
“World
Oceans Day events will occur all around the world, but the Shoreham is
an innovative event, unlike any others in Britain. I wish I had the
opportunity when I was a child to have a close look at what lives in the
sea off Sussex, and I pleased to bring this event for the children of Sussex
and enough for children, parents and all age groups. ”
British Marine Life Study Society
Len Nevell will devote his energies in explaining about the lobsters and spider crabs from the display of a handful of live animals.
Peter
Talbot-Elsden will present the unique shrimp table as part of the booklet
he has published on the British shrimping industry.
The
will be other British Marine Life Study Society members with their specialist
interests. .
Seasearch, the nationwide marine biological recording scheme will be presenting an exhibition as well as the Shoreham and the Sussex Ornithological Societies.
There
are talks about dolphins and other events.
Andy
Horton will present the local marine life aquarium display.
Becalmed
Becalmed
is an additional Adur Festival event run by the Shoreham Mental Health
Association on the oceans theme to fit in with Adur World Oceans Day.
Education
For
serious students who wish to explore the subject in more detail we can
provide more information from the British Marine Life Study Society library,
web sites and internet forums.