As a catchment partnership we are involved in an exciting new project called WAMM; Wholescale Approach to Marine Management. This is a 16 month project being led by the Rivers Trust and funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. The aim of the project is to support a collaborative approach to the management of estuarine and coastal waters with the pilot running in Morecambe Bay.

The three catchment partnerships around Morecambe Bay, hosted by Lune Rivers Trust, Wyre Rivers Trust and South Cumbria Rivers Trust (ourselves), and the local coastal partnership, Morecambe Bay Partnership are running monitoring programmes to develop a collective understanding. The project has an overall focus on plastics, however, each partnership is also monitoring a different aspect. Here in South Cumbria we are focusing on water quality in the Arnside area. The project will develop a monitoring programme on a small catchment, trialing new techniques and monitoring outside of standard laboratory opening times. It is hoped that by using citizen science we can develop a wider catchment-scale understanding. Furthermore, if successful the aim is to reproduce this monitoring elsewhere in South Cumbria.

It is hoped that this approach between coastal and catchment partnerships (CaBA) will build knowledge and expertise across a range of issues.

If you’d like to find out more or volunteer on the project in South Cumbria please visit their volunteer pages.