Ocean trail to be created in Telford to highlight need to protect marine life

Telford & Wrekin Council and the British Ironwork Centre (BIC) have announced a new partnership to create the schools’ ocean trail.

Every day, ocean and marine life are exposed to a number of hardships, many of which are directly impacted by humanity.

The partnership between the council and the BIC comes in the same year that Telford welcomed the iconic Knife Angel to the town centre.

It was created at the BIC and resides at the centre when it isn’t travelling as part of its national anti-violence tour.

The school’s ocean trail project will feature 30 fish sculptures which have been made at the BIC and have been primed and readied to be painted and decorated by school pupils in Telford and Wrekin.

Each participating school will paint and decorate their own fish using their chosen design.

Once the project is completed and all of the fish have been decorated, the plan is to create a sculpture trail at Telford Town Park.

The trail will then allow people, young and old, from all over the country, to reflect upon the way people interact with the ocean.

Last year, Telford & Wrekin Council declared a climate emergency, acknowledging the seriousness of the issues around climate change both locally, nationally and globally and committing to tackle them locally.

The council has committed to go carbon neutral by 2030.

Councillor Carolyn Healy, Telford & Wrekin Council's cabinet member for climate change, said: “We are so excited about this new project, in partnership with the BIC.

“This will be a great opportunity for school pupils across the borough to learn about the impact we are all having on our oceans.

"Even living this far from the sea, our actions still have an impact on marine life and those impacts will affect all of us.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the British Ironwork Centre for providing these fish to us for this project and can’t wait to see what the finished trail looks like next year.”

Clive Knowles, chairman of the BIC, said: “We are really pleased to be working in partnership with Telford & Wrekin Council on this project.

“This marks one of several new climate awareness projects we hope to conduct alongside Telford & Wrekin Council, now and in the future.”