2019 Roadshows....The Shetland Isles part 2 Shetland Marine Wildlife Roadshow

All the experiences of the previous week were absorbed into creating an engaging Shetland roadshow...best described in a letter to participating schools from the roadshow organisers in Shetland, Jan and Pete Bevington of Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary....see Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary online with website, facebook and twitter pages...they are doing brilliant work in Shetland protecting wildlife

Thank you so much for hosting the Shetland Marine Wildlife Roadshow with Andy Peters from The Whale Workshop last week. Andy managed to perform his hour long educational show about sea creatures and the danger they face from plastic pollution in front of 1,258 school students aged from P1 to S4 from 18 schools the length and breadth of the isles.
The show included an introduction to cetaceans, seals, turtles and sharks, featuring his incredible collection of life-like and life-size inflatable marine animals. Students and teachers alike learned about how to identify them, how they breathe, what they eat, and the threats they face from human activity.
The show engaged the audience with an activity to demonstrate how echo location works in whales and dolphins, and a litter picking challenge, which brought out the competitive side in everyone who took part (and the audience too!).
We hope that everyone who came along took home the message about the importance of cleaning up beaches more than once a year during Da Voar Redd Up, as plastic does not just stay on the land waiting to be collected, but washes back out to sea where it can kill fish, sea mammals and birds indiscriminately.

The 5 days of school roadshow was followed by a weekend of public shows, allowing parents to see for themselves the roadshow that so enthralled their children during the school week.  Feedback was 100% positive, and schools are taking onboard ideas suggested during the roadshow to be proactive and start adopting local beaches, initiate change in attitude towards single-use plastic usage, have plastic pledge days, and lots more initiatives....the schools really have a huge part to play in shaping attitude and stimulating public awareness, and the roadshow obviously opened many eyes to the threat that plastic pollution poses to wildlife and the environment.  Job done ! 

Some feedback comments from teachers  : -     

“I really enjoyed it.”
The facts were really good.”
“It was interesting.”
“The models were cool.”
“It was exciting, amazing and it was just wow!”
“A fantastic delivery which really engaged all the audience of all ages. Getting Andy up to Shetland was a really good move.”

A big thanks you to Jan and Pete Bevington of Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary who made the Roadshow happen, to the sponsors who contributed various sums of money to pay for everything, especially to major funder Sea-changers and to Northlink Ferries who provided free return passage for roadshow car and myself.  Also to the people of Shetland who engaged so willingly with the important messages about protecting the environment and its precious wildlife....without which our lives would be immeasurably less interesting and enjoyable. Shetland's marine wildlife could well be a huge part of its future economy and it all needs to be safeguarded !.

see     https://twitter.com/wildathillswick?lang=en-gb       also     https://www.hillswickwildlifesanctuary.org/   and   https://en-gb.facebook.com/HillswickWildlifeSanctuary/         for lots of reportage and pictures of the roadshow and to see all the other ongoing related Marine Wildlife stories and events..some of the twitter feeds are

https://twitter.com/wildathillswick/status/1126353830113890305     for roadshow at Aith

https://twitter.com/wildathillswick/status/1126353053542748161     for great litter pick challenge at Aith High School

https://twitter.com/wildathillswick/status/1126725585420439552     for Unst and Yell Roadshows

https://twitter.com/wildathillswick/status/1126726173562511362      for Northern Isles Postman's 2 minute litter pick

https://twitter.com/wildathillswick/status/1126728189982662658      for video of teachers doing a great litter pick challange at Mid Yell Roadshow

https://twitter.com/wildathillswick/status/1127561684544053248       for public roadshow at Hillswick and brilliantly fast litter pick

https://twitter.com/wildathillswick/status/1127524630988840961       for more on public roadshow at Hillswick

see also some other media reportage of the Shetland Roadshow at    

https://en-gb.facebook.com/NorthLinkFerries/posts/2164679523650264

https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2019/05/02/youngsters-set-for-exciting-w...

https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2019/05/02/plastic-whales-on-tour-to-raise-aw...

and there are lots more if you do an online search for Shetland Marine Wildlife Roadshow

see   https://www.sea-changers.org.uk/   whose large grant gave the impetus that the roadshow needed to become viable

Click on pictures to enlarge them