West Sussex author raises awareness of ocean plastic pollution

Hurrahtum Adventures! The Tangled Tuna, a new book by Shoreham author Richard Shore, offers a short children’s bedtime story, focusing on ocean plastic pollution and ghost fishing.
Richard Shore, children's author with The Tangled Tuna bookRichard Shore, children's author with The Tangled Tuna book
Richard Shore, children's author with The Tangled Tuna book

It’s a book which raises crucial issues at an important time.

“With this eBook, I’m proudly supporting Plastic Oceans UK, with 50 per cent of book profits going to the charity,” Richard said.

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Richard Shore – the pen name of Richard Povey – created The Tangled Tuna in the Hurrahtum Adventures! series during the pandemic.

“Ideal as a bedtime story, it focuses on a girl Lucy who has adventures when she shouts the magic word Hurrahtum – which makes a cove and boat appear.

“In the eBook, Lucy rescues tuna caught in a discarded fishing net, known as ghost fishing whereby lost and abandoned fishing gear remains in the ocean, continuing to catch fish and other animals.

“Ghost gear, which causes ghost fishing, is expected to remain in the oceans for hundreds of years, gradually breaking into harmful microplastics.

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“Approximately 640,000 tonnes of nets, lines, pots and traps used in commercial fishing enter the ocean every year.”

Richard, who grew up in Shoreham, is passionate about the ocean and surfing and wanted to make a difference with the book.

He’s donating 50 per cent profits of book sales to Plastic Oceans UK – a non-profit organisation whose mission is to stop plastic reaching the ocean within a generation.

Profits raised will help the charity to support their Youth Outreach programmes for 11-25s, empowering under-represented young people to develop their own voice on the issues relating to ocean threats.

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Richard said: “We love going to the beach as a family and enjoying the sea, but not with plastic there!

“So I wanted to do something positive. I wrote The Tangled Tuna to highlight what’s happening in our world’s oceans and inspire people to do what they can.

“The book is vibrantly illustrated and there’s an exciting and inventive end to Lucy’s adventure.”

Kavina Upadhyay-Fear, head of inclusion and outreach at Plastic Oceans UK, said: “At Plastic Oceans UK, we are very grateful to be able to continue working towards our mission during the Covid-19 pandemic – recognising that our work would not be possible without the support of generous individuals and organisations committed to the cause.”

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Richard started writing bedtime stories for children when he moved to Ireland from the UK in 2009.

He created two personal adventure series for his children, Hurrahtum Adventures! for his daughter and Will’s Wild Adventures for his son.

He then decided to independently publish them via Amazon.

The Tangled Tuna can be bought worldwide, priced at £4.99 (or country equivalent) by visiting: http://amzn.to/3pzCGdrFor further information on Plastic Oceans UK and the work that it does, you can visit https://plasticoceans.uk/. See also https://richardshorebooks.wixsite.com/website.

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