Saving Sussex Bay: Local Ocean Restoration Projects

Sussex Bay - proud sponsors of our Of Land, Sea and Sky programme - work hard across Sussex for ocean and marine restoration through positive, ethical and community-led engagement.

Who are Sussex Bay?

Sussex Bay is the collaborative initiative led by Dean Spears with the vision to have 100 miles of coastline spanning between Selsey Bill and Camber Sands, where our seascapes and rivers can flourish into a healthy blue ecosystem in which nature, people and the local economy can thrive. 

The Sussex waters were once home to a number of sea-life, including seabream, mackerel, eels and otters, as well as plant-life such as kelp and seagrass. However, overfishing, trawling and pollution spilling into our waters over time have caused destruction to the ecosystem. To help counter this, on the 13th of June 2024, the Sussex Bay initiative was officially launched with three main priorities to try and generate an ethical £50 million for nature-led recovery in their first year.

Sussex Bay became home to the UK’s first Blue Natural Capital Lab, a place for collaboration, innovation and testing which can find new ways to ethically fund and deliver marine restoration projects in a way that ensures every pound is spent safely and goes directly towards ocean restoration. Their Blueprint for Seascape Recovery mapped out the routes to ecological recovery, led by natural, social and economic sciences and their main principles of diversity, equity and inclusion; meaningful engagement; and ethical, high integrity funding. 

Community engagement is also very important to Sussex Bay - 282 Sussex residents took part in restorative work through surveys, interviews and community-hosted discussions to share their connections to the coast, what they felt needed to change and how Sussex Bay could contribute. In return, Sussex Bay took on the principles of Generation Restoration (GEN-R) for a more kind and collaborative approach and uses the community’s input to inspire their work.

Sussex Bay and The Old Market

Sussex Bay have worked closely in the past with GEN-R, having their own run with the Jukebox we currently have in our bar, at Brighton’s Big Beach Cafe in the Summer of 2025. It was in collaboration with Fatboy Slim and each song bought donated money that worked towards ocean restoration and marine conservation. Sam Zindel - founder of GEN-R was also a keynote speaker at both their launch and one-year-on event, talking about the jukebox and the fundamentals of the Generation Restoration positive approach. 

We at TOM were also lucky enough to have Dean Spears here at our Seeds of Hope event on the 8th of May, where he spoke about community connection with the places around the and how collaboration can be the path towards meaningful change. In his own words; “Sussex Bay isn’t mine, it’s yours. Whatever you care, whatever your interests, whatever your background, we are Sussex Bay, and we can do this together.”

Click here to find out more about Sussex Bay and their work!

Sussex Bay are proudly sponsoring our Of Land, Sea and Sky programme, click here to find out more!