Ocean Public Awareness Award: We won!

Posted on: May 5th, 2022

We are very excited to announce that Sarah Cunliffe won the Public Awareness Award in the Ocean Awards 2022! Watch below to see the award presentation and get a taste of the film she made in support of the Help Our Kelp campaign.

The Ocean Awards are a partnership between Blue Marine Foundation and BOAT International. They exist to recognise and celebrate the work of individuals, community groups, organisations and businesses dedicated to restoring the health of our oceans.

The Public Awareness award recognises the individual or group that has done the most this year to advance marine conservation objectives, including public literacy about marine conservation issues, be it through campaigning and advocacy, the mainstream media, art forms, or educational programmes.

The Help Our Kelp film was created alongside a campaign to raise awareness of the depleting kelp forest and rally enthusiasm for a new byelaw to prohibit trawling in the area.

Kelp once stretched along 40 km of the West Sussex coastline, providing vital habitat, nursery and feeding grounds for many marine species and locking up huge quantities of carbon. Since 1987 however, over 96 per cent of Sussex’s kelp had been destroyed due to years of destructive trawling and other human pressures.

The restoration of kelp has been a passion piece of our founder, Sarah Cunliffe, for many years. In just a few weeks, she and the team created a film to tell the story of the loss of that underwater forest.

We were nominated alongside some incredible programmes, projects and people – you can read about all the awards and nominees on the BMF website.

Watch the full award ceremony.