This World Oceans Day we teamed up with the central Wildlife Trusts team to create an exciting new video to celebrate our incredible underwater world.

We are incredibly lucky here on the Isles of Scilly in that our beautiful island home is shrouded in and protected by more designations than you can shake a stick at!  The entirety of the Isles of Scilly archipelago is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).  Scilly is in fact the smallest of the UK's 46 AONBs, assigned this status for its sheer beauty and value for wildlife.  Scilly is also a key European Marine Site, a designated Heritage Coast, and home to a whopping eleven Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs), as well as a further six offshore of the archipelago.  But that's not all...check out this handy infographic below to see all of the amazing ways our islands are protected.

However, not everywhere is as fortunate as Scilly to be designated such high levels of protection and our oceans need our help.  With climate change, marine pollution, over-fishing and other negative factors threatening the delicate balance of our marine ecosystems, the time to act to save our oceans is now!  Here are a few simple ideas on how you can do your bit to help our big blue planet and the millions of creatures that call our oceans home!

• Participate in a #2MinuteBeachClean - spend just 2 minutes of your time picking up litter from your local patch, whether that's coastal or not (80% of marine litter originates inland!) and you will be doing the world of good for our ocean life!

• Swap out single-use plastics for reusable water bottles, coffee cups and straws!  #PlasticFreeScilly

• Sign a petition to help protect our big blue planet:
  • Here at The Wildlife Trusts, we want to set the 'gold standard' for our seas and we're asking for your help!  We are calling on DEFRA to enstate stricter Marine Protected Areas known as Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) to save our oceans and their wonderful wildlife - https://action.wildlifetrusts.org/page/61642/data/1
  • This World Oceans Day, Campaign For Nature is calling on world leaders to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030 - https://www.campaignfornature.org/petition/?SQF_WOD=%3Cworldoceansday%3E

• Consider becoming a Friend of Scilly Wildlife to help us protect our oceans.  You can find out more here: https://www.ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk/appeal/friends

Remember, saving our oceans isn't down to a few people doing things perfectly...it's about lots of people doing as much as they can, so any little bit that you can do to help our big blue planet really will amount to a big difference when we all work together!  Thank you.