Celebrate Scotland’s Amazing Marine Wildlife at Marine Fest

Celebrate Scotland’s Amazing Marine Wildlife at the Scottish Seabird Centre’s Marine Fest this World Ocean Day

One of Scotland’s leading marine conservation and education charities, the Scottish Seabird Centre is hosting their fourth national Marine Fest from 6 to 10 June 2024 in North Berwick. In response to the UN’s World Ocean Day 2024 celebrations, the festival’s packed five-day programme brings together scientists, environmentalists and nature enthusiasts to celebrate Scotland’s globally significant marine wildlife and habitats.

The festival centres around World Ocean Day on 8 June. There will be a full day of activities to help people of all ages connect with the local marine environment. Zoologist, author and Springwatch presenter, Megan McCubbin, will headline proceedings with an in-person talk in the Centre at 6:30pm.

Emily Burton, Conservation Officer for the Scottish Seabird Centre said: “We’re thrilled to be celebrating World Ocean Day with visitors and the local community. We hope that the activities running throughout the day will inspire participants to get outside and enjoy the incredible marine wildlife and habitats found around the Scottish coast. With a range of outdoor events, family friendly sessions, and conservation talks, we hope there will be something for everyone.”

Other programme highlights include:

• Talks from special guest and TV presenter, Megan McCubbin, talking about her inspirational marine wildlife experiences and Phil Taylor of Open Seas chatting about Herrings from Space!
• Citizen Science and coastal exploration on World Ocean Day itself encouraging people to get out and about and engage in citizen science on the beautiful East Lothian coastline.
• Family friendly activities to give all ages a taste of the magic of the marine world with Seaside Science, Rockpooling, Storytelling, Puppet Shows and Bubbles Galore.
• A mix of adult masterclasses including seaside herbalism, marine meditation, gin tasting and snorkelling.
• A Small and Sustainable Sunday Market - Second Stories vintage clothing brings together a host of small and sustainable offerings for a special one-off, pop-up market as part of Marine Fest. Buy preloved/thrift and vintage, find that gem, and do your bit for sustainable living (Sun 9 June).

For more information, to view the full programme or book events visit:

https://www.seabird.org/events/marine-fest-2024

Image credits and captions:

• Megan McCubbin on the Bass Rock the world’s largest colony of Northern gannets ©Megan McCubbin,
• Exploring the wildlife found in the rockpools around North Berwick © Helen Pugh,
• Scottish Seabird Centre North Berwick hosts Marine Fest 6 – 10 June © Rob McDougall
• Puffin carrying sandeels to feed hungry pufflings on the local islands around North Berwick © Jamie McDermaid

ENDS

For further press information:

• Jess Thompson, Marketing Manager, email marketing@seabird.org, tel: +44(0)1620 890202.
• High resolution images can be downloaded HERE.

Notes for editors

• · The Scottish Seabird Centre is an award-winning marine conservation and education charity whose purpose is to inspire and educate people about the Scottish marine environment and motivate people to care for it by supporting conservation projects.
• · In May 2025 the Charity will celebrate it’s 25th anniversary of the opening of its Visitor Centre doors the public and over the years has won multiple awards for tourism and sustainability. It has led a range of high-profile conservation and education projects including the SOS Puffin initiative in the Firth of Forth.
• · Follow the Scottish Seabird Centre on Facebook/ScottishSeabirdCentre. Twitter @SeabirdCentre and Instagram @seabirdcentre
• · For more information on the Scottish Seabird Centre visit www.seabird.org

Key Facts about Scotland’s marine environment

• Scotland has over 18,000km of coastline, in excess of 900 islands, 61% of the UK total sea area.
• The area of Scotland’s seas is about 6 times the land mass of Scotland.
• Scotland’s seas support an amazing diversity of wildlife with over 6,500 species recorded.
• A third of Europe’s breeding seabirds are found in Scotland.
• Seabirds are one of the world’s most threatened groups of vertebrates and one in three species are globally threatened with extinction, including populations of Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) and Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) which are enjoyed by visitors to the Firth of Forth.
• Important marine species include basking sharks, dolphins, porpoises and seals. About 35% of Europe’s harbour (or common) seal population also occur in UK waters with 83% of these found around Scotland’s coast.
• Underneath the water, Scotland supports important marine habitats such as cold-water coral, kelp forests and flame shell beds (an important blue carbon resource).
• Our oceans are important natural resource for combatting the effect of climate change. 83% of global carbon cycle is circulated through the world’s oceans and our coastal habitats account for around 50% of the total carbon sequestered in ocean sediments.
• Healthy seas, however, have huge potential to provide natural solutions to the climate emergency by locking up carbon and helping the planet to cool.
• In the last 50 years we have lost 2% of the oxygen in our oceans as a direct result of climate change, this is already having a devastating impact on our marine eco-systems and if left unchecked will be catastrophic for food security the world over.