On May 17th, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) led their most extensive national day of action to date.

Across 43 locations, thousands of ocean defenders took part in synchronised Paddle-Outs, all rallying around a single, urgent call: #EndSewagePollution.

SAS revealed that, in 2024, Scotland’s waters endured 23,498 recorded sewage discharges, lasting a combined total of 208,377 hours.

However, these monitored incidents represent just 6.7% of the national sewage infrastructure. The remaining 93.3% of overflows remain untracked by Scottish Water, according to SAS’s analysis.

The organisation believes the true extent of sewage pollution is significantly underreported, as the vast majority of the network remains unmonitored.

To raise awareness and demand accountability, SAS urged swimmers, surfers, and all who value clean water to take part in a UK-wide protest on Saturday.

Ella and I joined headed to Nairn Central Beach, one of the many protest sites, where participants gathered to express their growing frustration.

SAS continues to demand full disclosure and comprehensive monitoring, warning that without greater transparency, the true scale of Scotland’s sewage pollution crisis will remain hidden.

Last year , I did a wee interview with Shain Denovan from Scottish Coastal Clean Up for their Shaping Our Shores documentary whilst we were all busy cleaning beaches around the Wester Ross Marine Protect Area.

When Shain asked, “What can an everyday person do just to kind of help reduce the plastic in the oceans?”

Finlay’s reply was two fold!
“It sounds boring and simple, but stop using as much plastic it can be difficult in some circumstances but just reduce the amount you’re using. On top of that not everyone lives by the sea so not everyone can do a beach clean, but even just doing a litter pick would around your local area is so important because at the end of the day no matter where litter ends up it will go through the sewers or wherever and it will eventually end up in the sea. So just doing a litter pick in your local area will make a massive difference!”

The interview went live yesterday – 

If you live in the North West Highlands of Scotland, or if you are vising the are would like to get involved, please do get in touch.

Rounding off 2024 here’s an Interesting article from The Ferret . I was at this meeting;- My thoughts are…

Friday 13th December 2024. Climate strike week 314. 6 years ago I took part in my first school strike for climate action.

Over the past five years our family have removed 15 tonnes of rubbish for our beaches. Nice wee article in The Ross-shire Journal on 6th December.

The COP climate process is completely broken It is time for developing countries and vulnerable island nations to boycott the whole charade and never return Money for climate mitigation has been promised for decades by the developed countries who are responsible for the bulk of global warming. Just empty promises.

By continuing to attend COP the Global South legitimise the whole process when clearly there is never going to be a positive outcome in terms of the finance required to help under-developed countries tackle the Climate Crisis. 

Even if the new finance target is agreed, who will agree to pay & how much ? Countries should walk away & boycott COP30 in Brazil unless finance is paid NOW. They should not accept an agreement to pay something in 10 years time because as history shows that will never happen.

No longer do we demand that the developed world ‘SHOWS THEM THE MONEY’ It is time for Govts. to stop talking, backsliding and making empty promises GIVE THEM THE MONEY ! GIVE THEM THE MONEY ! GIVE THEM THE MONEY ! NOW!

We had an excellent night at Eden Court Theatre and Cinema in Inverness on Sunday 20th October for the Steve Backshall Oceans Tour. Go see it, you are in for a treat !

It has been quite a week!

17th birthday on Tuesday,  my 7th year of environmental campaigning!

Friday 6th September was my 300th week of climate striking for Scotland!

Honoured to be included in the new Young Activists Summit exhibition at United Nations in Geneva, right on shores of Lake Geneva. The summit highlights the stories and causes of the first 30 YAS participants. These are on display boards for the whole of September 2024 at the UN, Geneva. There’s a virtual exhibition too, hosted by Global Citizen it includes a link to the shark education pack which I collaborated on and helped fund with Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation

Sunday 25th August, we took a day trip to Stornoway.

Sailing on the Calmac Ferry, a great day out with family and friends. We knew we were in for a good day when we saw lots of common dolphins even before the ferry had left . We saw loads of Common Dolphins and Porpoise, Minke Whales, White-Beaked, Bottle-Nose, Risso and possible breaching Humpbacks away in the distance. Some great bird sightings too – Arctic Tern, Pomarine Skua, Bonxie and the highlight three separate sightings of White Tailed Sea Eagle, including an encounter close to the ferry as one came in to try and take a gull off the water ! All cetaceans recorded on the excellent Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust sightings app.