Eddy's Good News: Kelp forests and a special farm helping people with mental health issues

Virgin Radio

8 Jun 2023, 09:00

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!Be sure to listen each day between 10am and 1pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Thursday 8th June 2023

Good news today comes from our forests, but not the forests you’re thinking about right now, because we’re talking kelp forests! Britain’s coastal kelp forests are one of the richest ecosystems, they’re a vital nursery for all kinds of fish and crustaceans. 

Until the late 80s one of the best of these was in Sussex, but 96% of it was wiped out by supertrawlers that have weighted nets, scraping everything off the bottom and leaving nothing behind. As soon as this happened local fishermen saw their catches plummet, free-divers saw a desert where there were once lush forests full of animals. It’s not just biodiversity, these forests protect the coastline, breaking up the energy of incoming storm waves. They’re also even better carbon sinks than forests on land.

So in 2019 local campaigners teamed up with organisations like the Wildlife Trust, made a short film to highlight the devastation that irresponsible fishing causes, got David Attenborough to narrate it, and that, combined with our increased awareness these days persuaded the government to ban coastal trawling two years ago and we’re already seeing the beginning of kelp forest recovery, the diversity of local fishing catches are on the up, and mussel beds are appearing that haven’t been seen for decades. Hurrah!

Via: positive.news

You know I love a pawsome story here and I’d now like to extend that to a hoofsome story as we meet a non profit social venture from the UK, a support group that help people with anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD and all kinds of other stuff by letting them hang out with sheep!

Ewe Talk (see what you did there guys) connects people with all kinds of mental health issues with super friendly sheep at a special farm. Four of the six therapy sheep are Valais Blacknose, which are gorgeous and extremely affectionate sheep that come across more like woolly dogs.

They provide a safe space to escape and to get unconditional companionship from lovely animals. The best news is they recently had two babies join the growing flock, Nelly and Ziggy and they are adorable. Follow the link below for more info!

Via: ewetalk.org.uk