Jersey Marine Conservation | Kevin McIlwee

After meeting so many interesting individuals at Jersey Surf Film Festival, we wanted to connect and work together in order to restore health to our oceans and improve the water around Jersey.

We spoke with Kevin McIlwee, who runs and organises Jersey Marine Conservation, all on a voluntary basis.

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Jersey Marine Conservation have a year round programme of surveys, talks, remote beach cleans, exhibitions and educational workshops. In 2019 JMC started seabed surveys which place a huge role in the conservation of Jersey’s marine areas. JMC also play a role in educating our community about the importance, and current decline, of healthy habitats using their amazing touch tank. The touch tank allows you to get up close and personal with a range of fascinating marine creatures that are resident to Jersey waters.

With Kevin’s main mantra being ‘Conservation not Conversation,’ we were impressed by his aims and all the steps he has taken so far to make islanders and the States aware of the condition of water in The Channel.

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Kevin was generous enough to tell us a little bit about his organisation and the important work they are conducting…

“Living on such a small island, it is crucial that we get to know all of the people we can connect with for the greater cause. It’s also very important that we actually take steps to make a difference, rather than discussing a plan then not following through. The amount of people who are willing to help here in Jersey is impressive: Kevin said that he has had lots of help from volunteers, who have helped to achieve amazing things and highlighted the initiative as something that people should support and follow. Kevin thinks that by creating an initiative that is attractive for people to follow, such as a Blue Planet Jersey theme, this would help endlessly in moving actions along.

It’s also important to bear in mind how people find out about initiatives like this - these days, with the generations who are going to make a difference in the future, it is the power of the internet and social media that will encourage people to become part of a larger-scale movement.

Most people aren’t aware of the activities that take place in our local waters, for example dredging which no one knows the long-term effects of, or how long it will take for a seabed to recover. There aren’t any environmental strategies to police activities like dredging, which means that people can get away with it. Ideally, there would be a way to police things like this; we discussed some options which included a rib or using drone technology to keep tabs on illegal fishing methods. We also appreciate that these are expensive methods, but by policing these activities and catching people, this will deter more people not to get involved with this. To learn more about this, we would benefit by doing a study of the seabed and seeing a before and after of dredging.”

Images by Matt Porteous, Nina Bequia Powell and Matt Sharp

Website - www.jerseymarineconservation.org

Facebook - JsyMarineConservation