Gareth Williams

Contact Gareth:

gazarido@hotmail.com

"I am an ecologist by trade and work with partners to improve our freshwater and marine environments across Sussex. I have a passion for conservation and spend most of my time outdoors. I am lucky enough to live a stone throw away from Kingston beach and spend a lot of my time surfing, swimming and kayaking in the Adur estuary and along the Sussex coast.

My nickname is womble because I can’t go anywhere without picking up rubbish from the streets, beach and water. You can stuff a lot of rubbish down the sleeves of a wetsuit! I have seen first-hand the damage it can do to marine life when I worked as a sea turtle volunteer on a research and awareness raising project in Guatemala. The few autopsies carried out on adult Olive Ridley’s always uncovered plastics they had unwittingly consumed, confusing plastic bags with jellyfish possibly. A lot of people do care about the damage is being done so it’s great to see projects like this raising awareness, the Plastic Free Pledge is a fantastic initiative, I can’t wait to put my energy and enthusiasm to good use."