An important ocean conservation campaign is being launched in Blackpool by leisure giant Merlin Entertainments and coastal champions LOVEmyBEACH.
The partnership is supporting the ‘3Ps’ initiative to avoid environmentally-damaging items ending up in marine waters or washed up on the beach.
Items, such as wet wipes, cleansing pads, cotton buds and sanitary products, can end up in the sea after being wrongly flushed down the loo. This damages marine life, pollutes the ocean, litters the beach and harms or even kills creatures along the shoreline. The initiative encourages everyone to only flush the 3Ps – pee, paper and poo – down the toilet to protect the oceans, beaches and marine life.
Environmentalist TV campaigner Sir David Attenborough highlighted the dangers of plastics and other pollutants and their damage to the ocean’s delicate eco-systems and marine life on his hugely-popular Blue Planet II series in December.
The new partnership sees Merlin Entertainments and LOVEmyBEACH joining forces to support the 3Ps initiative.
The new campaign, launched in the iconic Blackpool Tower ballroom and circus, saw team members from all of Merlin Entertainments’ Blackpool cluster attractions pledging to support it. Posters are being displayed in various locations throughout Merlin Entertainments’ attractions, including the world-famous Blackpool Tower Eye, Ballroom and Circus, The Blackpool Tower Dungeon, SEA LIFE Blackpool and Madame Tussauds Blackpool.
The aim is to encourage thousands of visitors to join the 3Ps campaign to protect and conserve beaches and oceans. Merlin team members backing the initiative can also become ambassadors, explaining and advocating the campaign to visitors.
Kate Shane, Head of Merlin Entertainments’ Blackpool Cluster, said: “This is an incredibly important campaign. When people flush the wrong things down the toilet it causes terrible problems for wildlife, it is extremely harmful to many creatures in the sea and along our beaches and coastlines.
“We’re delighted to be joining up with our friends at LOVEmyBEACH, who do such amazing work in protecting our coastal environment. The new partnership will encourage a huge number of people visiting our attractions in Blackpool to support the 3Ps initiative.
“Our teams have also been fantastic in backing the campaign and have been signing voluntary pledges. We hope this will encourage lots of other people to join the campaign to protect our beaches and oceans.”
Emma Whitlock, Fylde BeachCare officer at LOVEmyBEACH, added: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Merlin Entertainments in Blackpool. This will help us to reach an enormous audience to encourage them to support the 3Ps campaign.
“It’s a hugely-important initiative. Blue Planet II highlighted to everyone how damaging pollution is to our beaches and oceans. We see it first hand when we are working with volunteer groups on beach cleans.
“People sometimes flush the loo without thinking about what might end up in the sea or washed up on the beach. It’s a major threat to marine life along our beaches and in the water. We’re hoping large and growing numbers of people will back the 3Ps campaign to conserve our beautiful beaches and oceans.”
Merlin Entertainments plc is one of the world’s leading visitor attraction operators and a global leader in location-based family entertainment. As Europe’s biggest and the world’s second-largest visitor attraction operator, Merlin now runs more than 100 attractions in 25 countries and across four continents, attracting more than 60 million visitors worldwide.
Its partner charity, the SEA LIFE Trust, develops and supports projects to protect ocean wildlife and habitats across the world. The Trust reaches a huge audience with important messages about marine protected areas, sustainable seafood, plastic pollution and improved protection for marine life. Last year SEA LIFE raised more than £300,000 to support the Trust’s projects and partner organisations around the world.
SEA LIFE Blackpool works with LOVEmyBEACH to carry out beach cleans locally with groups of volunteers. LOVEmyBEACH aims to inspire and empower communities to take care of their local beach environment.
Emma Whitlock added: “People can show they love their beach by joining a beach clean or adopting beach-friendly practices in the home. If everyone makes small changes, we can all have a big impact on the local coastal environment and, in particular, bathing water quality.
“We work from Lytham to Knott End, covering the iconic beaches at Blackpool through to the picturesque coastlines of Fylde and Wyre boroughs. Fylde LOVEmyBEACH works with eight regular beach volunteer groups across the coast, who do an amazing job of litter picking and surveying their favourite Fylde coast beach. We know local businesses can play a key role in helping improve our beaches and seas.
“Business on the Fylde coast can get involved by supporting beach cleans, holding LOVEmyBEACH days and running their operations in a beach-friendly way, such as encouraging team members to ‘think before they flush’ and support the 3Ps campaign.”
