James Norton and Rebecca Adlington in Kent swimming challenge
Actor James Norton and Olympic swimming gold medallist Rebecca Adlington are set to take part in a 10-hour swim relay challenge on the Kent coast to raise funds for marine conservation.They will plunge into the cold waters at Joss Bay, Broadstairs, at 07:00 BST on Friday.All proceeds raised will go towards the Blue Marine Foundation, a charity dedicated to restoring the ocean to health by addressing overfishing.Ms Adlington said: "I'm thrilled to take part in the Wild Blue Swim Challenge at such a stunning location as Joss Bay and to be joined by so many swimmers united for a cause that truly matters is amazing."
Mr Norton added: "Like everyone, I'm in awe of the ocean. "It's wild, powerful, and under threat...this [challenge] is about protecting biodiversity and reconnecting with the natural world before it's too late."According to new research from Blue Marine Foundation, these has been a 92% global reduction in seagrass meadows and a 95% decline in native oyster reefs over the last century.All proceeds from the swim will go towards funding vital projects focused on reviving of both these underwater ecosystems.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
James Norton and Rebecca Adlington take part in 10-hour charity swim
Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington and actor James Norton have taken part in a wild sea swim for a marine conservation charity. On Friday, the two were among those to take the plunge in a 10-hour endurance ocean swim at Joss Bay in Kent, to raise money for the Blue Marine Foundation, a charity committed to addressing overfishing. Ahead of the event, they shared their earliest memories of the sea and pressed the importance of allowing future generations to 'experience the magic of healthy seas'. Ms Adlington told the PA news agency: 'I've always felt a deep connection to water, so when the opportunity came up to support coastal restoration through this event with Talisker and Blue Marine Foundation, it just felt like a natural fit. 'As a swimming challenge, this one stands out because of its direct impact on protecting and preserving marine life, with £150 from every kilometre swum helping to fund essential conservation work.' The two-time gold medal swimmer added: 'I hope people see this event as more than just a challenge, it's a call to action.' A report published by Blue Marine Foundation in July 2024 noted a 92% UK reduction in seagrass meadows and a 95% decline in native oyster reefs over the last century. Happy Valley actor Norton said: 'Like everyone, I'm in awe of the ocean. It's wild, powerful, and under threat. 'Taking a stand is about protecting biodiversity and ensuring future generations can experience the magic of healthy seas.' He added that his family goes by the mantra 'you'll never regret a swim' but admitted he had never been involved with this level of endurance swimming. New government regulations came into force on Friday which give water industry regulator Ofwat the power to retrospectively prevent bonuses paid in cash, shares or long-term incentive schemes to chief executives and chief financial officers for breaches of environmental, customer service or financial standards in a given financial year. Ms Adlington did not have a direct challenge for water companies in the UK but added that the Blue Marine Foundation was committed to coastal regeneration and improving UK waters. Ahead of the event, Norton said: 'My earliest memories of the sea are going on day trips to Scarborough. 'My whole village would cram into a coach and head to the beach for a day of fish and chips, rock and candy floss.' For every kilometre swum by participants at Joss Bay between 7am and 5pm on Friday, Talisker, who are supporting the event, will donate £150 to the foundation. The company has also pledged a further £112,608 to Blue Marine Foundation through sales of a limited edition whisky.
Powys County Times
5 hours ago
- Powys County Times
James Norton and Rebecca Adlington take part in 10-hour charity swim
Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington and actor James Norton have taken part in a wild sea swim for a marine conservation charity. On Friday, the two were among those to take the plunge in a 10-hour endurance ocean swim at Joss Bay in Kent, to raise money for the Blue Marine Foundation, a charity committed to addressing overfishing. Ahead of the event, they shared their earliest memories of the sea and pressed the importance of allowing future generations to 'experience the magic of healthy seas'. Ms Adlington told the PA news agency: 'I've always felt a deep connection to water, so when the opportunity came up to support coastal restoration through this event with Talisker and Blue Marine Foundation, it just felt like a natural fit. 'As a swimming challenge, this one stands out because of its direct impact on protecting and preserving marine life, with £150 from every kilometre swum helping to fund essential conservation work.' The two-time gold medal swimmer added: 'I hope people see this event as more than just a challenge, it's a call to action.' A report published by Blue Marine Foundation in July 2024 noted a 92% UK reduction in seagrass meadows and a 95% decline in native oyster reefs over the last century. Happy Valley actor Norton said: 'Like everyone, I'm in awe of the ocean. It's wild, powerful, and under threat. 'Taking a stand is about protecting biodiversity and ensuring future generations can experience the magic of healthy seas.' He added that his family goes by the mantra 'you'll never regret a swim' but admitted he had never been involved with this level of endurance swimming. New government regulations came into force on Friday which give water industry regulator Ofwat the power to retrospectively prevent bonuses paid in cash, shares or long-term incentive schemes to chief executives and chief financial officers for breaches of environmental, customer service or financial standards in a given financial year. Ms Adlington did not have a direct challenge for water companies in the UK but added that the Blue Marine Foundation was committed to coastal regeneration and improving UK waters. Ahead of the event, Norton said: 'My earliest memories of the sea are going on day trips to Scarborough. 'My whole village would cram into a coach and head to the beach for a day of fish and chips, rock and candy floss.' For every kilometre swum by participants at Joss Bay between 7am and 5pm on Friday, Talisker, who are supporting the event, will donate £150 to the foundation.
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘It was our hope spot': scientists heartbroken as pristine coral gardens hit by Western Australia's worst bleaching event
The Rowley Shoals are on many a diver's bucket list. The three coral atolls, hundreds of kilometres off the Western Australian coastline, are teeming with pristine coral gardens that for a long time, unlike many of the world's reefs, had escaped the ravages of global heating. 'I've seen a fair bit of death and destruction, but Rowley Shoals was always the place that was still standing,' says Dr James Gilmour, a research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. 'Just the sheer abundance of life is incredible. It was our hope spot. It's the reef I love more than any other. So this was super emotional.' Starting in August 2024, an unprecedented heatwave has swept across Western Australia's reefs, turning corals white from the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo all the way to Ashmore Reef, about 1,500km north-east. Now, teams of government scientists are reporting widespread coral death, which they say is the worst bleaching to hit the state. There are still areas of live coral, and some bleached coral will recover, but as scientists gather data, the scale of mortality has left many shocked. At Rowley Shoals, Gilmour, who has been researching corals for 30 years, says a visit in mid-April presented a devastating and confronting scene. 'It was several weeks after the peak heat stress. Some corals were still bleached white, but most had died. We saw that over vast areas,' he says. 'The structure is still there but they're now all covered in algae. Everywhere was dead coral skeletons.' Coral bleaching describes a process whereby the coral animal expels the algae that live in its tissues and give it its colour and much of its nutrients. Without its algae, a coral's white skeleton can be seen through its translucent flesh, giving off a bleached appearance. Mass coral bleaching over large areas, first noticed in the 1980s around the Caribbean, is caused by rising ocean temperatures. Some corals also display fluorescent colours under stress when they release a pigment that filters light. Sunlight also plays a role in triggering bleaching. Corals can survive bleaching if temperatures are not too extreme or prolonged. But extreme marine heatwaves can kill corals outright. Coral bleaching can also have sub-lethal effects, including increased susceptibility to disease and reduced rates of growth and reproduction. Scientists say the gaps between bleaching events are becoming too short to allow reefs to recover. Coral reefs are considered one of the planet's ecosystems most at risk from global heating. Reefs support fisheries that feed hundreds of millions of people, as well as supporting major tourism industries. The world's biggest coral reef system – Australia's Great Barrier Reef – has suffered seven mass bleaching events since 1998, of which five were in the past decade. The sandy-bottomed reef lagoons – usually alive with colourful branching corals and fish filling every space – are now 'huge fields of staghorns, all dead,' Gilmour says. 'The outer slope drops from a few metres to 50 metres and it's like looking down the side of a cliff. You can usually see the life down there – the sharks swimming. But this time we looked down the side of the mountain and you didn't see life.' Gilmour says the temperatures at every reef north of Ningaloo reached as high as or higher than ever recorded. 'We've never had every major WA reef affected in a single event. This is the worst coral bleaching event recorded for WA reefs.' Dr Chris Fulton, a principal research scientist at AIMS, has been going to the World Heritage-listed tourism hotspot of Ningaloo since 2008. After a research visit in late January when corals were turning white, he and colleagues returned last week. 'It was a real shock and a lot of us were deeply affected,' Fulton says. 'You have the desert going right to the water's edge and you can just step off the shore in to a spectacular reef that you don't get anywhere else. These natural features are comforting. So imagine if they've all been painted white. Every shape and size of coral colony are being affected with bleaching and mortality.' Fulton spends hundreds of hours a year diving and, usually, the water temperature isn't something that registers. 'But we were all struck by the massive heat in the lagoon,' he says. Ningaloo has bleached badly before, in 2010/11, but Fulton says this year is worse. Temperature loggers in the water showed it was up to 3C above normal – levels that can be devastating for corals. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email After surveying one personal favourite spot, known as the Oyster Stacks, Fulton says he emerged 'bawling my eyes out'. 'I couldn't believe how bad it was – but then there's a resolve to document what's happening.' Fulton says the seaweed meadows used by fish as nurseries have fared OK, but the fish that feed on coral – such as the Chevron butterfly fish – are crowding around the few surviving corals. 'They're often the pretty fish, but they're usually the first to go. They literally starve to death, and we're starting to see that already. I'm not optimistic they're going to survive.' One bright spot, says Fulton, is that some individual corals across a wide variety of types had managed to survive when others of the same species had died. 'I'm astounded by that,' he said. 'So it's a genuine source of optimism.' Elsewhere along the WA coastline, the story of coral death is repeated. At the Kimberley Marine Research Station, intern and recent university ecology graduate Tara Thomsen, from Melbourne, says even though temperatures have started to fall, there is still bleaching 'I've found it pretty heartbreaking, coming to this beautiful part of the world with pristine areas but seeing in some places the reefs reduced to rubble. It's pretty sad,' she says. Phillip 'Bibido' McCarthy, coordinator of Bardi Jawi Rangers, says there are 50 or 60 small islands off the Dampier Peninsula, many with big reefs. 'We've had a big impact right through the coastline,' McCarthy says. 'We can see the whiteness even off the boat ramp. It's quite terrible. Our resources come from the ocean. These habitats are where the fish grow. I'm 56 but I've never seen anything like this.' Dr Thomas Holmes coordinates the marine science program at the WA government's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Reefs have been monitored from the air and in the water. He says the heatwave started to reach levels to bleach corals in December. At Ningaloo, bleaching is still unfolding. 'I'm not afraid to use the word unprecedented,' he says. 'We have never seen this in recorded history, whether it's the period of time – it started getting hot in December and some places are still bleaching – or in how hot it's got. And it's unprecedented in scale.' Dr Claire Spillman, principal research scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology, confirms marine heatwave conditions started in WA as early as August 2024 and are ongoing in central and southern parts of the state's waters. Australia's ocean areas have warmed on average by 1C since 1900, and several WA ocean areas have seen their hottest months in this latest heatwave. 'Warming events like the one we are seeing now off the WA coast are becoming more frequent,' Spillman says. Helping fuel the heat, too, has been an accumulation of warmer water in the far western Pacific, which pushed down the WA coast to become part of the Leeuwin current running south. About 90% of the extra heat trapped by rising levels of greenhouse gases has been absorbed by the ocean. Gilmour says the sheer scale of ocean heating is something corals in the region have never had to deal with. 'When you're out there it looks like everything is dead, and it's overwhelming. For Rowley Shoals it will take 10 years [for some recovery] – if we don't get another severe bleaching event. But of course, we are going to get one. 'What really worries me and others is not so much the loss of the corals and reefs, it's that we have reached the point where all these ecosystems are in the same situation. 'And what does this mean? 'This is what 1.5C above the preindustrial [average temperature] means. Things will get a lot worse before it gets better, and that's what makes me sad.'
