A basking shark swims facing face-on slightly off centre from the camera. As a filter feeder, its mouth is wide open showing its white gill rakers clearly against the dark of its mouth. The water is teal and looks like plankton is floating.

Scouts

Dive into our ocean-themed resource packs and activities for Scouts. We've designed a series of resources to encourage your group's natural curiosity and investigative skills to learn more about our seas and how we can all look after them.

    Fundraising Activity Badge

    As a charity, our work relies on generous donations and fundraising activities. If your troop would like to help raise money for us, they could organise a Big Blue Day, hold an event, sell items or take on a challenge.

    We’ve created an easy fundraising guide that breaks down the process into manageable steps that cover the requirements of the badge. It even includes a report template for Requirement 4.

    Whatever your group choose to do, the money raised will help us fight for our ocean and defend marine habitats and species.

    Download Scouts Fundraising Activity Badge pack
    a moment during the Three Peaks Yacht Race

    A moment during the Three Peaks Yacht Race  |  Image credit: Seth Richardson

    Naturalist Activity Badge

    Use our rockpool spotter sheet and Seashore Safari guide when exploring the seashore as part of the Naturalist Activity Badge.

    As part of reflection on the visit, everyone could make a journey stick as a way to record their experiences. You could also run a Blue Mindfulness activity as a way to recall the sights, sounds and smells of the ocean and shore.

    For Requirement 5, our Marine Litter Image Reel provides a starting point for discussing how human activities can affect marine life.

    Download Scouts Naturalist Activity pack

    Local Knowledge Activity Badge

    For Requirement 3, if you live in a coastal area, you could investigate local fishing traditions and explore how the fishing industry has changed over time.

    You could speak to older residents and learn the folklore, songs and traditions linked to the sea. You could even update a local sea shanty, like Nathan Evans’s Wellerman.

    fishing boats on Hastings beach

    Fishing boats on Hastings beach  |  Image credit: Peter Richardson

    General activities

    • Fun fishy games: Kick off a meeting with a warm-up game.
    • Blue mindfulness: Support your troop’s mental health by imagining the peace and calm of being near water.
    • Make a basking shark: Work as a team to mark out a basking shark and see how huge these incredible creatures really are.
    • Life in UK seas quiz: Test everyone’s knowledge of what lives in UK seas.
    • How do fish swim?: Why don’t fish sink? Use problem-solving skills to make fish swim.
    • Can you clean the sea? sets a water filter challenge to help your troop understand the challenges of removing pollutants from water.
    • Conservation careers: Introduce the many roles in the conservation sector with this game.
    Download Scouts general activities pack
    Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds, a unique underwater marine conservation zone located off the coast of Norfolk, UK.

    Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds, a unique underwater marine conservation zone located off the coast of Norfolk, UK.  |  Image credit: Samantha Bean

    Environmental Conservation Activity Badge

    For Requirement 1, you could use our carbon footprint diary activity to help everyone identify the environmental issue that they would like to tackle.

    If you’re investigating water or beach pollution, we’ve created two activities based around practical experiments to help illustrate the issues in easy-to-understand ways:

    • Ocean threads explores hidden water pollution.
    • Don’t flush it! introduces the problems created under our feet and in our rivers and sea when people flush the unflushable, like wet wipes.
    Download Scouts Environmental Conservation Activity Badge pack
    Using a smartphone to check the sustainability rating of a can of Tuna Chunks

    Using a smartphone to check the sustainability rating of a can of Tuna Chunks  |  Image credit: Billy Barraclough

    If you’re investigating recycling and conservation, you could use our home rubbish survey activity to review home plastic recycling rates and consider the threat of plastic to the ocean and marine life, regardless of where you live.

    For Requirement 3, we’ve put together top tips for contacting politicians and influencing businesses to change based on our 30 years' worth of experience persuading decisionmakers to support our cause and businesses to change their practices.

    We’ve also created a set of top tips for safe social media campaigns, which includes a social media template and video storyboard.

    Hints and tips for taking action:

    Chef Activity Badge

    94% of the world's fish stocks are fully or over-exploited from fishing.

    Our seafood choices have a huge impact on the ability of stocks to renew. Anyone working towards their Chef Activity Badge who is planning to use fish, could use our fish switch sheet to help them make more sustainable fish choices.

    Some people are choosing to stop eating fish altogether, but seafood has a much smaller carbon footprint than most land-based proteins and could play a role in helping fight climate change. By choosing sustainable seafood, it's possible to consume fish without endangering fish stocks.

    Head to our Good Fish Guide to find out how we rate seafood species.

    Download Chef Activity Badge pack
    Baked rainbow trout with lemon, black pepper, and garlic

    Baked rainbow trout with lemon, black pepper, and garlic  |  Image credit: juliasalbum.com

    Our World Challenge Award

    Big Seaweed Search

    If you live near the sea, you could contribute to a globally-important environmental project – the Big Seaweed Search – run in partnership with the Natural History Museum. By recording the distribution of 14 seaweed species on UK shores, we can monitor the effects of rising sea temperatures and the impact of ocean acidification on UK sealife.

    You can do this on any seashore around the UK, but you'll find more seaweeds on shores with hard structures such as rocks, sea walls and piers.

    Learn more about the Big Seaweed Search
    Spiral Wrack (Fucus spiralis), a type of brown seaweed commonly found on rocky shores in the UK.

    Spiral Wrack, a type of brown seaweed commonly found on rocky shores in the UK.  |  Image credit: Aled Llywelyn

    Beach clean

    Beach cleans improve the environment and help keep the ocean safe for marine wildlife. You can find out more about organising a beach clean or join an existing one on our website.

    Our beach cleans are a little different, as we not only clean the beach, but we also survey the litter we find over a 100-metre stretch of beach. This data becomes part of our national database that we use to make positive changes to our marine environment. It’s easy to do - we’ll guide you through the process on the clean.

    Find a beach clean near you
    A woman in an orange hi-vis vest holding up a bag of litter with her right arm. She is standing on a pebble beach and is smiling.

    Evie Martin, Media Relations Manager, holding a bag of collected litter at flagship Cully & Sully GBBC event 2022  |  Image credit: Billy Barraclough

    Litter pick

    You don’t need to live near the sea to help protect the ocean. 80% of litter in the ocean comes from the land, which means removing litter from wherever it is in the environment will prevent it from reaching the sea.

    You could record the litter you find on our survey form and upload it to the national Source to Sea database. The data collected will form part of the evidence we use to help us campaign for change. For example, we’ve used data collected in previous years to make the case for the 5p carrier bag charges across the UK.

    Take part in an in-land litter clean
    A group of children are using litterpickers to put rubbish into a blue refuse bag. Only the children's legs and feet can be seen.

    Kids litterpicking  |  Image credit: Kate Whitton

    Check out the wildlife A-Z

    Learn about our amazing local species

    Discover resources for other scout ages

    Tuna fish swimming in the deep blue ocean

    Cubs

    Explore our ocean with action-packed resources for Cubs. Our fun activities and games help your Cubs develop problem-solving skills while learning more about our seas.
    A loggerhead turtle swimming away from the camera

    Beavers

    Help inspire your Beavers group to care for the ocean. Our fun activities and games help your Beavers develop problem-solving skills while exploring the natural world around them.
    An underwater picture of a grey cat shark swimming over luscious green kelp. The cat shark is moving away from the camera.

    Explorer scouts

    Our free activity plans have been designed to help you complete the volunteering section of the Duke of Edinburgh Award.