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Icom Support Kayaker Project To Clean Up Cornwall Beaches

Icom UK are supporting Charlie Francis, the Project Co-ordinator for OceanPositive Paddle in their efforts to clean up remote beaches around Cornwall. She will be paddling out of Cornwall to remote, inaccessible beaches and small coves whilst documenting her journey with photos, blogging and filming. Icom have supplied her with an IC-M25 to keep her safe and in contact with support throughout.

Global environmental issues have always been in the forefront of Charlie’s mind and are the reason why she has started this project. She said “There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. Of that, 269,000 tonnes are on the surface while 4 billion plastic microfibres per square kilometre litter the deep sea. Programmes such as ‘Blue Planet II’ have brought global environmental issues to the public’s attention, but, what can we do closer to home to start making a difference?”

Kayaking out on the ocean will be no easy feat, what with strong tides and wind. The IC-M25 will be perfect as it is small, waterproof, easy to operate as well as being buoyant, making the VHF handheld an excellent companion on her journey. Along with the IC-M25 she will also be using kayaking clothing supplied by Fourth Element, who Charlie works for as Warehouse Manager, which uses recycled material to make their apparel as well as kayaks made by Islander Kayaks made from 100% recycled materials in the UK.

This will be a yearlong project, Charlie will be documenting, surveying and collecting the amount of litter that has been washed up on shore and then return in 2019 to see if the amount has changed. With her results she will pass them onto local marine conservation groups in the bid to raise awareness of pollution whilst also having film clips for the Paddle Expo 2018 in Germany (October 5th – 7th) and hopefully for the Ocean Film Fest 2019.

Everyone at Icom wishes Charlie and the OceanPositive Paddle project every success!

You can follow Charlie and her journey on social media and with her blog:

https://oceanpositivepaddle.wordpress.com

Icom UK Marketing - marketing@icomuk.co.uk