I contacted Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s Wilder Wight Communities Project team who offered to support us. They found me an amazing young artist called Hannah Millgate who offered to create the drawings. Dr. Roger Herbert, a marine biologist based on the Island and a Professor at Bournemouth University along with the Isle of Wight Natural History & Archaeological Society, provided us with a list of important flora and fauna that we would find on Bembridge beach.

Hannah, Voluntary Communications Officer with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, started drawing and then sent the drawings round to us all. They were perfect!

My partner (David) and I with support from others designed the layout and worked collaboratively with the Bembridge Sustainability Group, Tina - Wilder Wight Communities Officer, Blue Seas Protection and Roger Herbert. This got us through the design and production of the two marine wildlife interpretation boards - something none of us had ever done before.   

Somebody suggested using the Sir David Attenborough quote: “No one will protect what they don’t care about and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”  This quote totally encapsulated why we were doing these boards and so this quote went on one of the two boards along with a quote on the importance of our local seas from Roger. We worked with the Sign Company, in Newport Isle of Wight, to get the boards to print after gaining funding from Bembridge Parish Council. 

Glynn, a member of our Sustainability Group had a beach house next to the steps going down to Foreland beach (in Bembridge) and he offered to put the boards on his fence. On a warm day in July 2023, Glynn, David and I put the boards up and a Wilder Wight Communities plaque which we were awarded by Tina.

Lots of people stop to look at and comment on the boards -which have all been really positive and sparked a lot of people’s interest. Because of this, Bembridge Parish Council have funded 2 more boards which will go up in Spring 2024 near the Life Boat Station. 

By doing this project, we all learned lots about our local marine life and passed this information on to our wider community. We developed our ability to work as a team and we learned how to do a significant project on a shoestring - not bad for a first project!  

Thanks to: Kelly Wetherick (former Wilder Wight Communities Officer) and Tina Whitmore (Wilder Wight Communities Officer) at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, to all those who helped us, Bembridge Parish Council for the funding and to Hannah Millgate for her amazing drawings. 

Please go down to our beaches in Bembridge and have a look. 

Lindsey Newberry