Surfers Against Sewage and Final Straw protest

Published 16:25 on 8 May 2026

Bianca Carr writes:

We are still buzzing from last Saturday's day of action in Emsworth!

Over 140 paddlers and shore-side supporters came together to form a truly unstoppable United Solent Front. Looking out at a sea of passionate faces, one thing became crystal clear: our community will not stay silent while private water companies profit from pollution.

What happens next? The placards might be packed away, but our work doesn't stop, we are straight back to it.
We are continuing our daily citizen science water testing to gather data.
We are nurturing our oyster restoration project to biologically fight back and clean our waters.

Thank you again to everyone who turned up, stood tall, and made some noise.
And a shout-out to @SurfersAgainstSewage for driving this national movement and a massive thank you to all that helped organise this event;
Chris, John & Kate from @Emsworthslippersailingclub
@compass_photography_services and @koalamarketinglimited for the photography and drone footage. Anna and her team at @Artinvisible for the handmade signs and placards and @Flintstones Tearoom for providing warm drinks for our volunteers.