On Dec 4th 2009 NARC were invited to the Welsh Council For Voluntary Action annual awards dinner in Llandudno after being nominated by Claire Palmer Community Section of the Milford Haven Port Authority. This is the most prestigious awards event in the voluntary sector and NARC were winners in their category and deemed “The most admired voluntary organisation in Wales”. An absolutely fantastic way to end 2009 and a perfect fitting for the groups 5^th year. A huge thank you to Claire Palmer and the MHPA for the nomination and support in 2009. 

                   

We are extremely pleased that 2009 is our fifth year anniversary and that we have been able to continue to carry out underwater clean-ups at a number of locations throughout the county. We have planned over 20 dives for this year including a first visit to Lydstep Haven and a clean-up of Milford Marina to coincide with fish week. We are also hoping to get out to the Smalls and to squeeze in a river clean up near Haverfordwest so fingers crossed for some settled weather! Check out the events calendar for more details.

To celebrate our fifth year we are aiming to secure funding for some new leaflets raising awareness of NARC and marine litter with some site specific leaflets at angling hotspots where we know there are impacts upon habitat and wildlife.

We are off and running for 2009 with a river clean-up in Haverfordwest and a trolley fest at Western Way already in the bag. A great effort by all and a lovely sunny day to boot! Please check out the NARC in Action 2009 page for more details and photos! Hobbs Point once again highlighted the problems of fly tipping in the Haven after we found a huge array of litter during our first saltwater clean-up of the year.

                


After helping the Milford Haven Sea Cadets clean their training pond last month we had our first dip in Skomer MNR for this year.  This event was held in support of World Oceans Day 2009. A great effort by all the volunteers who helped remove over 200 weights and 500 hooks whilst also releasing entangled spider crabs, dogfish and pink sea fans. Some fairly settled weather and fantastic viz greated us at Stackpole on Sunday which was an improvement on the water clarity we found at Milford Marina the previous day! Over 20 volunteers turned the weekends clean-ups into a very successful end to June so please check out the Narc in Action page for more details shortly. The windy weather has once again put pay to our dives over the last two weekends. We are hoping to clean Hobbs next weekend with Stackpole to follow this month. Fingers crossed for a late summer! Click here for more details.

     

We were really pleased to hear that Pembroke School supported world oceans day this month and as well as designing marine bags for life, drawing fish and creating sculptures from beach litter the pupils of the art dept in year seven wore blue for the day and raised over £100 towards NARC! A fantastic effort and we were honoured to be chosen as a local group involved in marine conservation. We have assured the pupils that we will be spending their contribution on air fills to cover the upcoming clean-ups in the county. We are looking forward with interest to World Oceans Day 2010 and what other amazing things the Pembroke School Art Dept will come up with. (Photo - Dave Kennard and David Jones from NARC with the pupils of Year 7 Art Dept receiving a cheque)

                           

A big thank you to Blaise Bullimore and the RAG of the Pembrokeshire Marine SAC for providing the bulk of our funding once again allowing us to carry on with another year of underwater clean-up events. Also a huge thanks to Claire Palmer and the Milford Haven Port Authority, Keep Wales Tidy, the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, Action Earth, Chevron, South Hook  and the Pembrokeshire County Council for funding us for 2009. Check out our funders page for further information.

Well we think that is it on the diving front for 2009. It has been a great year with more clean-up events than ever before, even after the weather forced a few re-arranged dates. Thanks to all our volunteers who have once again given up so much time over the year! Even with the diving out of the way we are putting the finishing touches to our new leaflet and hope to develope some site specific leaflets over the winter including some tackle tips provided by the WFSA. Other plans include expanding the tackle bin scheme and possibly arranging some clean-up dives outside Pembrokeshire.

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Please note that this is our new site and we are still updating and adding information while we go. Thanks to Mark Deane at Celtic Diving who donated and looked after the old site!