Floating Classroom with Pip Hare Ocean Racing, The Watersports Academy and Durlston School

Program Overview

On June 13, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted students and teachers from Durlston School’s Eco Club, in partnership with Pip Hare Ocean Racing, The Watersports Academy and Poole Quay Boat Haven. Aboard DISCOVERY Yacht Castello, students had the opportunity to explore Poole Harbour and learn more about the local ecology, discussing topics such as the importance of Seagrass, the impacts of climate change, and how we can make small lifestyle changes to limit marine pollution. Once back in sheltered waters, the students were able to get up close to the local marine life through a crabbing activity. Here, they learnt how to identify the sex of the caught crabs and why we need to return them to their original habitat instead of keeping them. Following this, the Pip Hare Ocean Racing team met the students as they returned to the dock, where they talked about the importance of resilience by emphasising the challenges that Pip Hare faces when racing across the ocean. Collectively, SeaKeepers, The Watersports Academy and Pip Hare Ocean Racing provided the students with multiple different perspectives on the importance of protecting the marine environment, inspiring the group to become better ocean stewards.

We hope the students from Durlston School’s Eco Club enjoyed our Educational Outreach event and left with a greater understanding of why we need to conserve the marine environment. We greatly thank our event partners Pip Hare Ocean Racing, The Watersports Academy and Poole Quay Boat Haven for supporting us in hosting our first UK Educational Outreach event, and look forward to working together again in the future. We also look forward to working more closely with Durlston School and attending their Eco Club sessions to share a selection of SeaKeepers lesson plans.