Clean Coasts has confirmed the return of Love Your Coast, one of Ireland’s most popular photography competitions, inviting photographers to explore and celebrate the breathtaking beauty of the Irish coast.
Now in its 15th edition, Love Your Coast has been attracting thousands of photographers from across the country each year.
With a prize fund of €5000, Love Your Coast offers photographers the opportunity to showcase their talent across five distinct categories:
Coastal Landscape
Heritage and the Coast
Wildlife and the Coast
Underwater
People of the Coast
Each category highlights different aspects of the Irish coast that make it so unique, from its stunning landscapes and rich heritage to its diverse wildlife and vibrant coastal communities.
Photographers are encouraged to submit their best shots capturing the essence of the Irish coast by August 21st at 5pm. As part of the competition, Clean Coasts will be sharing valuable resources to help participants hone their skills and enhance their submissions. This includes a guidance document featuring tips from the competition judges, informative blog posts, and detailed information on each category.
Bronagh Moore, Clean Coasts Manager, said: “We are delighted to bring back Love Your Coast for its 15th year, and we couldn’t think of a better day of doing so than Earth Day. For over 20 years, Clean Coasts has been working with communities to preserve the beauty of the Irish coast. This competition celebrates the beauty of our coastal treasures that our communities work hard to protect. We can’t wait to see the incredible entries that photographers will capture this year.”
For more information about Love Your Coast and to submit your entries, please visit www.cleancoasts.org.
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Clean Coasts is a charity programme, run through the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce, which engages communities in the protection of Ireland’s beaches, seas and marine life.
Since 2003, Clean Coasts has been working with communities to help protect and care for Ireland’s waterways, coastline, seas, ocean and marine life. Clean Coasts thrives to create tangible and immediate improvements to Ireland’s coastal environment, involving thousands of volunteers removing large quantities of marine litter from our coastline each year.
For the past 20 years, Clean Coasts has grown from strength to strength and now includes two main national clean-up drives, as well as other initiatives, including the Green Coast Award, the Love Your Coast Photography competition, the Clean Coasts Roadshows for coastal communities and the Ocean Hero Awards. All these initiatives are aimed at celebrating the beauty of our coast and the efforts of our volunteers across all of Ireland.
Currently, there are over 2,000 registered Clean Coasts volunteering groups and 40,000 volunteers. There are a variety of group types such as community groups, residents’ associations, tidy towns groups, sports clubs, schools, businesses, universities etc. Clean Coasts organises hundreds of beach clean-ups annually mobilising thousands of volunteers, removing considerable quantities of marine litter from Ireland’s beaches and waterways. Our volunteering has expanded to also include Corporate Volunteering.
As part of its commitments under the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive and OSPAR’s Marine Litter Action Plan, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is proud to support An Taisce’s ‘Clean Coasts Programme’, in its enthusiastic engagement with marine communities in relation to marine litter and in heightening public awareness and influencing positive behaviour among civil society. The Department would also like to acknowledge the tremendous work done by hundreds of local clean coast groups around the coast in protecting the marine environment, for the generations to come.
Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority, is a proud sponsor of the Clean Coasts programme for the past 9 years. The Green Coast Awards and associated Clean Coasts groups act as custodians for the beaches, seas, and marine life in Ireland, ensuring that they are managed appropriately and that they are litter and pollution free for our visitors to enjoy. Ireland’s coastline is a tremendously important tourism asset and the majority of the green coast and coast care groups and Green Coast beaches are located within the Wild Atlantic Way, Irelands Ancient East and Dublin Programme areas. The achievement and display of the Green Coast Award at our beaches reaffirms our clean green image to our visitors.