NORTH Coast Nature Savers is a new organisation founded by Woolgoolga marine scientist and conservationist Sean Samer.

“My aim with Nature Savers is to involve the community in learning about the natural environment that surrounds us, and ways we can help protect and look after it,” Sean told News Of The Area.

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“When Covid hit, I was living on a remote island in the Maldives working as a marine scientist and conservationist and due to the virus had to come back to the Coffs coast where I am from.

“North Coast Nature Savers is an opportunity for me to share my experience, knowledge and passion in the hope of bringing the community together to look after our amazing coastline.

“Since I was born, nature and specifically the ocean have always been a huge part of my life.

“From the age of five I knew I wanted my life to revolve around the ocean’s creatures and working to protect our planet.

“The Coffs Coast is changing with the population rising fast and development increasing as a result.

“Over time we will see the impact on our natural environment because of this; we may already be seeing early signs of this now.

“We have one of the most special and unique coastlines here; from the Great Dividing Range to the Solitary Islands, we are lucky to have this on our doorstep to experience and enjoy.”

The first event Sean is organising is a beach clean, at Woopi.

“My work has taken me to some of the most polluted beaches in the world, the worst I’ve seen being the Maldives and Indonesia.

“We have it good here in Aus as our beaches are amongst the cleanest in the world.

“That being said, you can still find rubbish and debris on our coast, and most of the time you can pick up what you find easily and bring it back to a bin with one hand.

“It’s a simple and effective way of helping our coastline and its animals and inspiring other people to do the same.

“The first beach clean event will take place by the end of January at Woolgoolga main beach and is on standby due to current weather and Covid concerns.

“The clean-up will be open to everyone including families and kids (encouraged) and we will basically walk along the beach and dunes collecting any rubbish that we find.

“After we clean the beach, we will bring the rubbish back to a spot to go through and divide it into categories for entry into the marine debris pollution database.

“Once a date has been chosen, I will post the event with information on our Facebook page and Instagram, so follow and stay tuned.”

Sean is seeding ideas for future workshops and events reaching out to organisations/projects in the area to collaborate with.

He’s looking for some passionate and knowledgeable locals who may want to help get things running.

“If you are interested and would like to know more, please flick me an email at northcoastnaturesavers@gmail.com or get in touch via social media.”

By Andrea FERRARI