This summer I am swimming the English channel as part of a 6 women relay team, the "Surfrajets". I wasn't planning to do any fundraising, but because I receive so much joy every day from our amazing sea, I'd love to give something back and contribute to its recovery. Training for this challenge brought my focus to what really matters.

And so I have chosen to support the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project – the UK's largest marine rewilding effort.

Our beautiful sea really needs it. I've been swimming almost every day and can sadly testify that Sussex Bay is now almost devoid of life. ☹️ But I'm told it wasn't always like this.

Vast kelp forests once supported an extraordinary diversity of marine life in Sussex Bay. They absorbed carbon, filtered the water, protected our coastline from storms, and provided essential habitat for countless marine species. By the mid-1980s, however, 96% of these kelp forests had disappeared. Now we're working to bring them back.

Today, 300 km² of seabed is protected from trawling under the Nearshore Trawling Byelaw. This is the first step in restoring kelp forests and other vital marine habitats for the benefit of nature, fisheries, coastal communities, and our planet.

Let's help restore our kelp forests—for the love of the ocean, for future generations, for Sussex dolphins and for all the other wondrous beings with whom we share this beautiful blue planet. 💙🌊