~ The Clifftop Accident~
There is a cliff top near where my family was on holiday in Donegal. It was only about five minutes away from the house we were staying in. I put the lead on my dog, Rio, who was also longing to get out into the crisp fresh air, and hurried out the door. Beneath the cliff top there was a stunning beach. I couldn’t help but go in for a paddle. Dogs weren’t allowed on beaches so I tied Rio’s lead to a pole at the entrance. I don’t know how to explain it but there is something about the sea, ocean whatever you want to call it, that makes me feel so free. As I strolled on the sandy beach I felt the warm, soft, golden sand seep up through my toes. The waves were crawling gently to the shore, the shimmering sunlight making the sand sparkle like a thousand tiny jewels. Then I noticed some plastic bottles, cans and even dirty nappies. How could someone possibly think it’s okay to throw them there! I gathered as much litter as I could find, I also picked up a few seashells and some glistening, shining pebbles for my collection jar at home. My favourite quote came to mind. ‘We are using resources as if we had two planets, not one… There can be no plan B because there’s no planet B’ - Ban Ki-Moon. As I strolled up to where I had tied Rio, I got a shock when I realised he wasn’t there. ‘He must have slipped off the leash! Where on earth could he be!? Did someone steal him!?’ I couldn’t see him anywhere. Then I noticed some paw prints. I followed them to the path towards the cliff top. There, the prints came to an end. Suddenly, I heard a low whimpering. “Rio is that you?” “Woof! Woof!” barked Rio. “He must have fallen off the cliff !” I gasped. I looked down and there he was trying desperately to climb up. ‘No pet, it’s ok, don’t hurt yourself’, I cried. The tide was coming in fast. ‘I know! I’ll ring my uncle so he can get his canoe.’ I could barely stop the shake in my hand to ring my uncle. He said he was on his way. The waves came crashing in. ‘Watch out Rio!’ I shouted. He got wet and he was really scared. I could see the fear in his eyes. About 10 minutes later I saw my uncle coming towards us in his canoe. ‘He’s over here, right underneath me!’ ‘I have him!’ shouted my uncle. At the shore I thanked my uncle and held Rio. ‘Don’t mention it, he’s a good boy’ he said whilst petting Rio. ‘Time to get a new leash!’ I laughed. My family came to the beach. To finish off this eventful day, we headed into the sea and swam. It was great! Sadhbh
A Holiday by the Sea Erin Ní Mheachair
I’m Going to Show You Growing up, I was never fond of the ocean. I used to go to the beach, I guess I had fun. I never paid attention to the ocean. I never realised the ongoing oil spillages. Never noticed the plastic cans and more. The ocean was just there for me. Until I was 10. It started at school. The teacher was showing a presentation, it was on the sea. It showed a picture of plastic in the ocean. I learnt that thousands of animals are dying due to humans throwing their trash into the ocean. I was somewhat angry that people dared to do this. Yet I knew I was human, and I have caused some of this. It got worse as the presentation went on… Oil spillages, turtles getting caught in plastic, fish eating plastic by mistake and more. I wanted to help save the ocean. Yet, as I was a child, I couldn’t do anything if I tried. The most I could do is pick up trash. I was only able to clean trash in parks. I started to wonder if other people are doing things for the world. I decided when I got older, I would go out there to see more of the ocean. 10 years later. I planned to go on a cruise. I wanted to see the world. I finally had saved enough to go on the cruise ship ‘Oceania’. I was finally going to see the ocean properly, with tropical fish and the clearest water. I couldn’t wait. On Oceania. “Why is it so messy?” “It has been like this for years,” he replied lazily “And nobody has done anything?” I felt my anger rise. “It’s not worth saving, so why would anyone?” He yawned. “Yeah right, you’ll waste your life.” He laughed. “I’m going to show you, I’ll show you it was worth saving,” I was going to show everyone that the place was worth saving. 12 years later.
Éabha Ní Dhufaí
It’s Gone Now
Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh. Oh, Oh, Éabha Ní Dhufaí
The Beach “Up! We're going to the beach,” said Kate's Mom from the landing. When they get to the beach, they move the picnic, the umbrella, swimsuits and a beach ball from the car down to the flat part of the strand. When they are all set up, Kate noticed something further over on the sand out of the corner of her eye. “Mom, I'm just going over there, I will be back in a few minutes” she calls over her shoulder. Kate runs over. She thinks it looks like a big dark rock. She thinks to herself, there is no big rock over there. As she gets closer she realises it is a beached whale! It is clearly alive and making strange low sounds. Kate doesnt know what to do. She runs back over to her Mom and tells her about the whale and asks what should she do. “We have to keep her wet”, she advises. Kate hands her Mom the buckets and runs back up the beach to the fire station. Moments later a fire engine arrives with Kate, a fireman and firewoman. They set up and start sucking water from the sea to start hosing the whale down and it seems to be helping. Kate notices more people on the beach and even the press was there! Two vets came down to check the whale is ok to go back to the sea. The vet says the whale was a girl, around three years old and that she is healthy but a little dehydrated. They pop a tracker on her so they can see where she and her pod will go. At four o’clock it starts to rain very heavily which is helpful. At five o’clock the tide starts coming in faster and at half five her tail is in the water! At six Mom starts packing up the car in case it rains again but I stay beside the whale digging a trench around her with a spade. As the sea starts to come in, the whale starts to get covered with water and by eight o clock Kate's shoes are getting wet. The others start to help Kate to clear some sand to make it easier for the whale to swim out. The water is finally high enough for the whale to start moving. When the tide comes in a little more the whale starts to swim and after a little sand moving and fin flapping she was free again! And when Kate and her Mom are heading up the beach toward the car they see the little whale jumping in the distance and they hear her call. Elly
Shark Attack!
The Best Camping Trip Ever After many months of planning, my sisters, cousin and I, all set off on our camping trip to our auntie’s beach-side home. The weather was ideal. Perfect for camping! After a big lunch that my auntie had prepared, we set up camp and then headed for the beach. We set off exploring the beach, dunes and caves. We were about to head out of a cave when we overheard some people arguing. They were clearly unaware that we were there. We could hear them discussing times and the “destination”. We crouched down behind a large rock and eavesdropped. We heard mention of the old Chip Cavern diner and the time of 10pm. We stayed hidden until the three strangers left the cave and spent the afternoon surfing and bodyboarding. After pizza and chips at my auntie’s house, we were all exhausted, but we couldn’t get the strangers’ plan out of our heads. We said goodnight to our auntie and headed for our tents where we hatched a plan to sneak to the Chip Cavern for 10pm. Dressed in our dark hoodies, we snook off, excited and nervous. The derelict Chip Cavern was quite spooky in the moonlight. At the chipper, we could hear voices coming from an alleyway beside the building. The men were passing something around to each other. We couldn’t see what it was. My little sister couldn’t resist recording the incident on her phone. Minutes later, we could all hear a police siren This was when the three strangers bolted to their van. My sister couldn’t stop laughing - the siren was a recording from her phone. We looked towards the alleyway and I spotted something. It was a mobile phone. We panicked, worried that the strange men could track us if we had their phone. But we couldn’t leave the phone behind. Like they do in the movies, we cautiously picked it up and popped it in my backpack. We were so worried that we decided to report the whole thing at the local Garda station. Nervously, we handed over the stranger’s phone and told the gardaí everything that had happened. Laura showed them the recording of the men in the alleyway. Unfortunately for Laura, the gardaí also held on to her phone which was almost the most dramatic thing that happened that night. The gardaí, after lots and lots of questions, drove us home to our shocked auntie. It was weeks later that the gardaí contacted our parents to say that they had finally caught the culprits who had been involved in some local robberies and that we had helped greatly because of the mobile phone evidence. Everyone was delighted with us. Or at least most people were. Our parents were actually quite angry with us. They will never ever allow us to go camping and exploring caves again. It may have been the shortest camping trip ever, but it was the best ever camping trip! Cian
Melbourne Last year, me and my family went to Melbourne in Australia for two weeks in winter. If you don't know why we went there in the Winter was because they are technically two seasons behind us or you could say they are two seasons in front of us. Anyway, when we arrived in Melbourne, we got a taxi to the hotel and we checked in. Later that day me and my family went down to Melbourne Beach to have a swim in the ocean. But instead of swimming in the ocean we actually had a game of futvolley. Its basically volleyball but you use any part of your body except your hands. After that we went to swim in the ocean before it got dark. When it got dark we got dried, changed and went out for dinner. I had fish and chips and I can't remember what the rest of my family got. At about 8:00pm we went back to the hotel room and we watched a movie. Shéa
A Day in the Ocean. Ethan
At the Beach
My Day at the Beach The day started off as planned, we packed our wetsuits and headed right off to Achill. The trip to Achill would take an hour but I didn't mind because I had my favourite comic with me. We stopped at a shop to get some diesel and some lunch. Inside the shop I saw an ad which was about how a lot of animals like turtles were dying because of people throwing plastic into the ocean. I felt bad for the turtles, but as a young kid I forgot all about it when my Dad said “so, which ice cream do you want”. When we arrived at the beach, my Mom suggested that first we should go on a walk along the beach. As we walked I couldn't help but notice all the plastic bottles and all the rubbish that was there. We even saw a man just walk right past the bin and throw his rubbish on the sand of the beach! After the walk we headed over to the van where they rented out surf boards. I saw he had a sign that read “I am having a clean up the beach night tonight at 7pm please attend” I asked my Dad that we should cancel our plans and help with the clean up. My sister on the other hand didn’t want to miss out on the chipper. But my dad agreed and told the man that we would be there to help. Eoghan M
Sam The Shark Hi, I’m Sam The Shark and I’m here to talk to you about my life and adventures in the environment. As you probably know sharks and fish live in the ocean and I’m a shark so I live in the polluted water in the Atlantic Ocean. I have had a lot of adventures but there is one I want to tell you about. When I was a young shark I wanted to be out in the big ocean to be free. But my mom and dad said that it was too dangerous for me because I could get stuck in some net or swallow some plastic. I didn’t think that it was that dangerous because my dad went out all the time to get food from the underwater supermarket. My older brother Stephan went out as well to go to school but I didn’t get why I wasn’t allowed out. My mom worked as well but she worked from home to keep an eye on me. But one day when she was on her fintop I snuck out which I regretted big time. But anyways I headed off to the more shallow waters where I saw boaters, jetskyers and many more. But all of a sudden a weird looking clear thing fell into the water of a boat. So I went down to get it but I got stuck in it. Now I knew why my mom and dad didn’t want me to leave this is the stuff that could hurt me. I was stuck in it for like 30 minutes but then I saw someone I recognised it was dad coming back from the supermarket. He was really confused to see me out stuck in plastic. He helped me out and we went home but mom wasn’t there. So dad put the fisheries into the sand underneath in the storage and spare fishbowls. After that we went out looking for mom and we found her she said that she was looking for me. We all went to collect Stephan and then we all went home. Now I’m an older shark and I only go out when I really have to and I don’t go diving after rubbish humans drop into the water. I have a girlfriend and too little sharks named Sharon and Simon and they don’t go anywhere without me or my girlfriend in case that they get stuck. Ilona
Clean up the Beach Breakfast! Oh I couldn't miss breakfast. Well as long as it wasn't bran flakes with skimmed milk anyway. I pulled on some clothes and then I dashed up the hall to the kitchen and……… Well it wasn't bran flakes but it was nearly worse. One sausage. Just one plain sausage. I grabbed the sausage off the plate and shoved it in my mouth. My older brother, Evan, started laughing." How much did you have?" I asked, furiously " hmmm five I think, or maybe six" he replied I was so annoyed. " We're going to the beach In fifteen minutes so put on your swimming stuff and get sunscreen and whatever" Mum said half- cheerfully. I went down to my room and got changed into a wetsuit. I was so hungry but I knew that if I got up sooner I might not be. Fifteen minutes later, we were on the beach. It was packed. That wasn't all I noticed though. People were dumping all their rubbish on the ground. It was disgraceful. I could see Mum was disgusted too. She was muttering words of disapproval and disgust under her breath. On the other hand I was super excited to go into the ocean and catch some waves on my new surfboard. Evan was about to run along with me but then Dad said " not so fast Evan. You're not going into the ocean after eating five or six sausages" I smirked. Serves him right I thought. The waves were great! Though I'm not that happy about it really. You see the beach wasn't the only problem. The sea was covered in plastic and other rubbish too! Once or twice you would see a huge piece of plastic floating in the water, and even worse, everyone seemed to ignore it! When we went home, I printed a lot of fliers, asking people to help clean the beach. We went around to houses, knocking on doors, posting through letter boxes. Soon enough we had a good few people to tidy up the beach. In no time, we had the beach all cleaned up. Emma
A Holiday In Tyzopia One day my parents announced a wonderful surprise. We were to go on a short holiday but they didn’t tell us our destination. We thought it would be something like Disney. We got up early and got our bags and went out the door into the car. We drove to Shannon Airport. After we got through the security. We went on the plane. I was so excited thinking this would be a cool holiday. The flight took a few hours. When we got to the island called Tyzopia it looked small and we were disappointed. When we got to the hotel we were disappointed because the hotel room was small. For the rest of the day we were bored. We would be here for three long days! The next day, after breakfast, we explored the island and discovered that there was a beach nearby. When we arrived at the beach we went for a swim. After a while we had a barbeque. We ate burgers, sausages and we brought our water bottles. After the meal we put our rubbish in the bin. After a while I saw something odd in the water. It was a fish trapped in plastic. I freed it and it swam back into the ocean. The next day we went to the beach again. We noticed that there was lots of rubbish strewn along the beach so we decided to spend a few hours cleaning it up. We got our nets and bucket to put our rubbish into. We cleaned up the beach for a few hours until others joined in with us. Soon we had lots of people helping out. We met people from all over the world and we had plenty of chats and fun. By evening we had cleaned the beach. Afterward we went to lovely restaurant and had a nice dinner. The next day we had to leave Tyzopia. We said goodbye to the hotel staff and left. We went back to the airport and left Tyzopia and soon had arrived back in Ireland. Maybe this holiday wasn't that bad. Even if there wasn't a theme park, we got lots of satisfaction knowing we had helped the environment. Stiofán
Trapped In A Grotto I was walking around the rocks and cliffs when I spotted what looked like plastic bags trapped under rocks near a grotto. I squeezed myself through some rocks. I started picking the rubbish up until suddenly I heard stones move and fall over. I ran over to where I had come from. To my horror the entrance was blocked. I panicked for a bit. I tried screaming to my friends. There was no answer. I was scared about what was going to happen. Inside was pitch dark but at least the cave was dry- for now. Then I realised I had a torch in my backpack. I shone the torch around the cave and sat down to try and figure out what to do next. To my horror I spotted what I thought looked like a skeleton towards the very back of the cave. I went slowly closer. I was correct. It was a skeleton! I was horrified. I had not heard of anyone ever going missing in this area. Maybe I too would end up a skeleton here. Now I was really petrified. I sat on a rock for what seemed like hours. I must have slept because when I woke up and I looked around the grotto and saw water flowing in and out. I checked my watch and it was seven o clock. Then, suddenly out of nowhere I heard a digger. It was removing the rocks that were blocking the entrance. I was filled with joy and relief. When the entrance was clear I dashed out and ran to my friends. I told them everything that had happened to me and also about the skeleton. They said that we are going to be on the news. Then a news van came and interviewed me and took photographs. I never found out who the skeleton was. Some say it was the skeleton of an old sailor who was shipwrecked in the area over a hundred years ago. Maybe we will never know. Caoimhín
A Day Out At Sea. It was the 3rd of March 2021 and my family had booked a cruise to France. We were all really excited to go because it was our first time ever being on a cruise. We got ready by packing our bags and getting ready to drive to the port. We arrived at the port and got our passports out to show to security. When we were on the boat we were given a card for our cabin.. The cruise lasted only a few hours and I already felt really sick. I have never been seasick before so it was a strange sensation. I went out of the room to get some air, which was a really bad idea because I felt even more sick once I left our room. I saw a lot of people getting sick overboard, it was gross. It was also very weird because almost everyone except the captain and the crew were sick. I was confused but I shrugged it off. It was around 6pm and we started to get hungry so we went to the restaurant only to hear that one of the compartments at the bottom of the cruise was ruptured, as soon as it was said on loud speaker the boat went crazy, people were screaming, others were fainting and some just seemed dazed.. I was panicking. I knew something was off, I couldn't help but feel like this was sabotage. Everything calmed down when the captain said that the rupture wasn’t affecting the sailing and the boat was moving smoothly. That calmed everyone down. Then when everything seemed fine, somebody screamed. A huge sharp spike of rock was pointing out of the sea. The captain immediately tried reversing but it usually takes about four times the length of the boat, and we only had about 15 seconds before we were about to crash. I was scared. I ran to the back of the boat because when the rock shreds through the boat I didn't want to be hit by it. Everything around me was chaotic. I was extremely scared for my life. The adrenaline was pumping through my body. The boat started to tilt then began to sink. Oh no! That's when I remembered, if this boat is anything like the Titanic it probably has safety rafts. I was looking around for my mum and my sisters. I saw them over near the rails holding on to something . I ran over to them but on my way there I slipped on a spilled drink. I cut my hand on the glass, but I didn't feel it. I picked myself back up and kept running. When I got there I saw them holding onto a small black dog. I told my family about the rafts. I picked up the dog and ran towards the very last raft. There were five seats left. Perfect, one for each of us. We got in, women and children first. There were so many people running towards the raft. Then they lowered the raft down to the sea and it started floating, we were safely away from the doomed ship. I felt really bad for the people that got left behind. It had been about two hours and the temperature was below freezing. I thought we wouldn't make it, so I started to lose hope. But suddenly I saw a bright light in the distance. It was another cruise ship! We started frantically waving our arms and shouting at the boat. We were ecstatic when we knew they saw us and the ship slowed down and then stopped. People were waving and shouting back at us saying, “We’re going to help you! Give us a minute to bring down the ladder!” I started smiling, ear to ear. We climbed aboard. They gave us blankets, clothes and hot food. We warmed up while our rescuers tried to find any other survivors. We made it back home safe and sound, we decided we would not be going on another cruise for a very long time after that.
A Fish's Perspective. Please help save our oceans before it’s too late. Plastics and pollutants can now be found in every corner of our delicate life-giving planet. Fiachra Donaldson.
Change After I finished surfing, I went over to Kelsie, hoping I could get a towel. 'Could you pass over that towel in the bag?' I asked unknowing that it was dad's towel full of sweat. ' Sure' Kelsie said gladly. I was surprised. Kelsie never does anything for me. I thought she changed , until she handed me the sweaty towel. ' Ewww!' I shrieked ' Haha' she giggled. 'Hey Dumbo', she continued, 'When you're done complaining, your surfboard floated into the water'. As I ran towards the water to get my board, Kelsie walked off the beach's sand, taking selfies. I could see my surfboard in the distance but I would have to go deep to get it. I paddled up to the board and was happy with myself. That's when I didn't realise I was far from shore. I checked my Fitbit. It was 4:20. Mum would be worried if I wasn't home by 5:00. I put my hands in the water and started to push. I hoped that I could paddle back but I couldn't. I didn't panic. I was sure that some fisherman would come along and find me but no, it was only me and the ocean. As the hours ticked by, I saw something within the corner of my eye. I kicked my legs and swung my arms in the water. As I moved closer to the object I noticed it getting smaller. My hopes that it was a boat decreased. Plastic. That's what it was, a big ugly piece of plastic. When I finished being disgusted in the piece of plastic, I heard a noise. It sounded like a boat. As it approached closer, it looked similar to a boat. I stood up on my surfboard and started waving my arms. I was so glad someone was coming to save me. The boat stopped beside me . Inside it, was a talk bearded man. 'Hop in' he said. I was scared. Should I have listened to the teacher when she was saying not to talk to strangers? But I did hop in. 'Bob' he said with a smile on his face, 'And you are?' 'Oh Ah' I muttered 'Anna'. 10 years later After he brought me to shore I couldn't stop thanking him. Bob told me he sails the water fishing up plastic. Every Saturday, myself and Bob would go plastic fishing, but last week, he emailed me saying he was very ill. He left me in charge of his boat and told me if I carry on as I am, I'll make the world change.
A Whole New World Under The Sea My name is Sabrina and I’m going to introduce you to a whole new world. There is only one word to describe this world “The sea”. When I was four, I went too far out into the sea and got washed away into the depths of the ocean. Nobody could find me so it turns out that I was raised by a whale and lots of tropical sea creatures. You must think I’m devastated that I’m so far away from the human world, well I’m not. I love it here, it's my home. I’m now nine years old and I can swim like a fish, even though I look nothing like a fish! Since that day I was washed away from the shore, I have never put my foot out of the water. It’s dangerous out there. I have never seen a human since that day and I don’t think I will either, because I do live in the depths of the ocean. Living in the depths of the ocean really is a fascinating sight. No humans have ever been seen, the ocean truly is a different world. I learned so much when I first started attending the fish school, but now I know everything that there is to know, so it can get a bit boring! Today there is nothing exciting happening so it’s time to have an adventure. There are boundaries Missie the whale told me not to cross, but it’s worth it for an adventure. I’m swimming around the grumpy sea turtles, and now I know why they're grumpy. I woke them up “Oops”. I have never seen this part of the sea. I know now why Missie the whale told me not to go past the boundaries “SHARKS!”. They’re chasing me, nobody is around; it's just them and me. I should have listened to Missie the whale but it’s too late now! I threw some rocks at them to cause distraction. It gave me about three seconds but that’s about it. I’m going to get eaten. I know I am. I’ve tried everything, they’re too strong. When I try throwing things in front of them, they just swim through it just like it’s not even there! I swam through a bush, swam over a starfish when she was sleeping and still managed to not wake her. They’re still chasing after me! I’m getting tired, I’ll just let them have me. When I stop and turn around they’re not following me anymore. Something else turned the corner and it isn’t the sharks. It’s “MISSIE!” She just saved me. I feel so guilty that I just put her in all that danger but I’m just glad that I’m alive! Since that day I have never passed the boundaries, even when I felt like an adventure, because I suppose it really isn’t worth it for an adventure! Well I’ve definitely learned my lesson. Éabha M
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