A MAHAREES group has won a national Clean Coasts Ocean Hero Award.

The Maharees Conservation Association won the Group Of The Year category at the awards yesterday attended by Damien English, TD Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin.

The association was established in February 2016 as the community at Maharees were faced with serious coastal erosion issues impacting one of the most important dune habitat SAC’s in the country.

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According to the awards citation; “The group are doing some of the best work that we have seen in raising awareness of coastal erosion, and in coming together as a community to undertake measures to protect their dune systems.  They also are extremely active in raising awareness of marine litter and have completed many beach cleans and marine litter surveys.”

The Clean Coasts’ Ocean Hero Awards are about honouring the invaluable contribution Ireland’s coastal communities have made towards conserving our spectacular coastline.

The awards, originally called the ‘Clean Coasts’ Merit Awards’, were conceived in 2006, consisting then of only one category, ‘The Clean Coasts’ Group of the Year’.

Since then the Clean Coasts’ programme has grown to engage over 550 Clean Coasts groups, becoming embedded in many coastal communities nationwide. In an effort to recognise this growth the number of Ocean Hero categories have expanded to include six categories.