## **The** ## **Seahorse** ## **TRUSTEES REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR TO 31[ST] MARCH 2022** ## **Trust** **WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NATURE** **Registered Charity No. 1086027** 1 Annual report 2021/2022 ## **The Seahorse Trust** ## **Year to 31[st] March 2022** ## **INDEX** ||**Page No.**| |---|---| |**Index**|**2**| |**Officers, advisers and details**|**3**| |**Report of the Trustees**|**4-5**| |**General and Financial Review**|**6-8**| |**Facebook and Twitter**|**9**| |**Fundraising**|**10**| |**Adoption and membership scheme**|**10**| |**Website**|**10/11**| |**Patrons**|**11**| |**Financial policy**|**12/13**| |**Statement of financial activities**|**14**| |**Notes to the accounts**|**15**| 2 Annual report 2021/2022 ## **Officers, advisors and details during 2021/22** |**Trustees**|Dr David Gibson (Chair)**,**Allie Clark, Beccy MacDonald-|Dr David Gibson (Chair)**,**Allie Clark, Beccy MacDonald-| |---|---|---| ||Lofts, Dr Barbara Gainswin, Tim Haywood.|| |**Director**|Neil Garrick-Maidment FBNA|| |**Patrons**|Kate Humble|Chris Packham| ||Kirsty Jones|Mark Carwardine| ||Ellie Harrison|Monty Halls| ||Sir Hugo Swire MP|| |**Registered Charity No**|1086027|| |**Registered Address**|36 Greatwood Terrace|| ||Topsham,|| ||Devon|EX3 0EB| |**Tel. no**|01392 875930|07876513628| |**E-mail**|theseahorsetrust@gmail.org|| |**Facebook**|https://www.facebook.com/groups/theseahorsetrust/|| |**Twitter**|https://twitter.com/seahorsecharity/with_replies|| |**Web sites**|www.theseahorsetrust.org|| |**Independent examiner**|Anthony Roberts FTCA|| ||7 Totnes Road|| ||Paignton|| ||Devon|TQ4 5JX| |**Bankers**|Lloyds TSB|| ||234 High Street|| ||Exeter|| ||Devon|EX4 3NL| 3 Annual report 2021/2022 ## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR 2021 -2022** The Director and Trustees have pleasure in presenting their Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31[st] March 2022, which have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act and The Statement of Recommended Practice. ## **STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES RESPONSIBILITIES** Charity law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of its financial activities for that year which properly presents the charity’s income and expenditure for the year together with its assets and liabilities at the end of the year and adequately distinguish any material special trust or other restricted fund of the charity. In preparing those financial statements the trustees are required to: - Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; - Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; - State whether the policies are in accordance with the appropriate SORP on Accounting by Charities and the Accounting Regulations and with applicable accounting standards, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements. The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time, the financial position of the charity, and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with applicable Accounting Standards and Statements of Recommended Practise and the regulations made under s44 of the Charities Act 1993. They are responsible for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud or other irregularities. ## **ADMINISTRATION** The Charitable Trust and its property shall be administered and managed by the Trustees under the name of THE SEAHORSE TRUST or by such other name as the Trustees from time to time decide with the approval of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. There shall be at least two trustees and future trustees shall be appointed by a resolution of the trustees passed at a trustees meeting. 4 Annual report 2021/2022 **Trustees who acted during the year were:** Dr David Gibson (Chair) **,** Allie Clark, Tim Haywood, Beccy MacDonald-Lofts, Dr Barbara Gainswin **The Trust’s bankers are:** Lloyds TSB 234 High Street, Exeter. Devon EX4 3NL **The Independent examiner is** : Anthony Roberts FTCA. 7 Totnes Road, Paignton, Devon. TQ4 5JX ## **OBJECTS** The Trustees shall hold the trust fund and its income upon trust to apply them for the following objects (‘the objects’): - To promote for the benefit of the public the preservation and conservation of rare and endangered species of marine and terrestrial flora and fauna and in particular but not exclusively, seahorses and related species. - To advance the education of the public generally about wild flora and fauna. - To conduct research and enquiry into endangered species of marine and terrestrial flora and fauna, and in particular, but not exclusively, seahorses and related species and to publish the results for the benefit of the general public. ## **LEGAL STATUS** The charity is a registered charity No. **1086027** and governed by the Declaration of Trust dated 12[th] August 2000 as amended by a supplemental deed dated 27[th] January 2001. 5 Annual report 2021/2022 ## **GENERAL AND FINANCIAL REVIEW 2021/2022** Below is a round-up of some of the news and occurrences during the 2021/22 year; there have been many more but there is just not enough space in this report to fit it all in. We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone involved and who have made this happen. ## 3C’s project - Studland Bay Marine Partnership Following on from our amazing success installing 10 Ecomoorings into Studland Bay in 2021 (funded and partnered with Boatfolk), we have had a very busy autumn/winter which saw the start of the 3C’s funded Ecomoorings plan which led to the formation of the Studland Bay Marine Partnership. Boatfolk (see below) and ourselves have partnered with the National Trust, Southampton University and RYA to name just a few of the amazing organisations that have joined together in equal partnership to make this site a specially preserved conservation zone for the future. We are producing an ecomoorings plan for Studland Bay by bringing stakeholders together to get agreement on location and timescale. We will create a draft 10-year management strategy for the bay, that incorporates, an eco-mooring management plan, transitioning away from anchoring and conventional moorings, there will be seagrass restoration projects and future governance options for the Bay including roles and responsibilities to deliver the strategy. This work is funded by the Championing Coastal Coordination (3Cs) project which is an Environment Agency initiative with support from Natural England, the Marine Management Organisation and the Association of Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities. ## Boatfolk None of this would have been possible without Boatfolk marina and boating services. This amazing forward-thinking company and their incredible staff have made the installation of the Ecomoorings a reality. They believed in our project and backed us in every way and we owe them a massive debt of gratitude for all their hard work. ## GoFundMe Appeal Ecomoorings With our many partners in the project we hope to set up a not-for-profit company to oversee all the work with the Ecomoorings to increase the number and conserve this amazing bay for all. With this in mind we have set up a GoFundMe appeal to raise £100,000. This will allow us to set up the not-for-profit company, employ staff to run it and crucially to buy and install more Ecomoorings. The not-for-profit will be overseen by a board, made up of interested parties and those with expertise to make this project happen. 6 Annual report 2021/2022 ## Malta Research Project PADI Grant Our Malta Research Project got a major boost in early 2022 with a PADI Project AWARE grant. This grant will help fund equipment, leaflets and crucially Kirsty-Jo Muddiman in her master’s degree, which she is doing as she runs the project, which is vital to our overall knowledge of seahorses and their habitat in Malta. It is also part of our educational commitment and trust director Neil is acting as an external supervisor for Bournemouth University to oversee Kirsty-Jo’s studies. We are working in partnership with the people of Malta, to learn more about the 2 seahorse species around the islands, their distribution, behaviour and whether there are other nonnative species of seahorse in the area and we are licensed by the Maltese government to do our research. ## World Seahorse Database The work in Malta is part of our overall World Seahorse Database which was kindly funded by Sealife Trust. We are looking to build the largest database of its kind in the world to understand more about how seahorses are distributed and behave around the world. The information is also used to conserve seahorses and their fragile habitat. At present we have data from approximately 50 countries and this is building everyday as word spreads about our work. ## Steve Backshall Deadly Predators Education is really important to us here at the trust and this takes many forms, from teaching classes, running online courses, to providing educational material on our website. Recently we had the chance to work with TV presenter Steve Backshall on his Deadly Predators series. We contributed to the programme where Steve explains how deadly seahorses are as predators to shrimp and other small creatures. There is a brilliant animated piece in the programme showing how a seahorse captures and eats its food with no teeth and scaled up it gives Steve a bit of a shock. You can see Deadly Predators on BBC. ## Seahorse Eco Course Our Seahorse Eco Course asks questions like why a seahorse is like it is? What makes these ‘little horses of the sea’ so unique and so well adapted to their watery world? Are they a fish, a monkey or a chameleon? seahorses show so many traits from so many different species, it is hard to decide exactly what they are; the Victorians thought they were insects. Due to the problems with socialising due to COVID, we have now made this course online and in it are the answers all to these questions and many more. 7 Annual report 2021/2022 Our online Seahorse Biology, Ecology and Conservation course is fully inclusive and allows students from all backgrounds and levels of education to learn about this enigmatic species at their own pace and it includes 12 sessions on topics such as Taxonomy and Diversity, Camouflage and Colour Change, Migration, Human Impacts and Conservation Measures to name but a few, along with an online Learners Community. The full online course costs just £65 – giving students unlimited access to 13 learning modules, the Introductory Session is free to access. This course was kindly funded by Sea Changers ## Seahorse Survey Course Like the ecology course above we have designed this as an online course to teach about how to survey for seahorses and what to do and most importantly what NOT to do, when you find one in the sea. This vital course fulfills two of our primary objectives, education and conservation. It directly helps to conserve seahorses by stopping stress and disturbance to seahorses when divers do a survey for seahorses. In the UK it is a legal requirement to have a license issued by the Marine Management Organisation to seek out seahorses in the wild and MMO have recognized this course as the right path for those who want to survey for seahorses. Thanks goes to the Postcode Local Trust who kindly funded the writing of this course. ## Volunteers The backbone of the charity are our volunteers, without them we could not exist or function. Five volunteers that need a special mention again this year are Kim McNeil and Teresa Sinclair who monitor and form our Illegal trade team, Beccy MacDonald-Lofts who runs most of our educational programmes (and is now one of our trustees) and oversees our social media platforms and Kim Maidment and Paul Lott who spend many hours underwater surveying for seahorses (Under licence from the MMO). All of them hold down full-time work as well as helping the trust but without them we could never achieve the things that we do. ## Selsey Bill and Hounds Seahorse Survey Project Trust volunteer Ali Mayor set up a seahorse survey project at Selsey Bill and Hounds in West Sussex. She has gathered a team of volunteers to help her and they come under The Seahorse Trust license to survey for seahorses here in the UK. Ali and some of the team, have been on our Seahorse Survey Course and they started work in spring 2021 and are now into their second year. 8 Annual report 2021/2022 Selsey Bill and Hounds was chosen because they have had a number of seahorse sightings there in the past and Ali had kindly sent them into the trust to be added to the World Seahorse Database. ## Devon Environment Foundation Trust Director Neil now sits on the advisory panel of the Devon Environment Foundation. He was asked to sit on this panel to look into projects for conserving the coast, sea sand countryside of Devon. It is a great honour to sit on this team and it makes a major difference to his native Devon. ## E-bay and the illegal trade Our work with the illegal trade is ongoing and is an uphill battle but thanks mainly to volunteers Kim and Teresa, we are making a difference and have achieved the banning of the sales of seahorses on all of the major online platforms ## Wildwood Trust Thank you so much to Wildwood Trust who kindly hosts our office free of charge at their centre near Ottery St Mary in Devon. Wildwood Escot has a number of native British and European species such as Wild Cat, Lynx, Red Squirrel, Boar, Fox, Beaver and now Wolves. They are a progressive charity that supports Rewilding projects throughout the UK and are involved in bringing back former native species to our countryside, such as Red squirrel and Beavers and hopefully in the future Lynx. ## **Facebook** Spreading the word about Seahorses, the natural world and the work of the trust is very important and we have a website with a newsletter page and also a highly interactive Facebook page which now has over 4,900 members, almost double again on the last year, which was double of the previous year and goes from strength to strength. Thanks go to all who kindly administer this site for us as well as holding down full time very busy jobs. ## **Twitter** The Seahorse Trust is now into its fourth year of Twitter and already we have well over 1154 followers (up from 1116 last year) thanks to Beccy who kindly monitors the site. This is a relatively new technology for us and it will take some time to get used to it but like all new technologies it has its place and has proven to be a very useful form of communication already. 9 Annual report 2021/2022 ## **Fund raising** Following several years of low income and intense competition for the few grants available, like so many charities we took a completely different approach to fund raising in 2021/2022 and set up a SPONSORS SHOPS page on our website. This page is comprised of commercial organisations that either donate a small percentage to our work from sales of their products or offer services free of charge for us and to date we have quite a number signed up, such as Beauty Kitchens, Wildflower Favours and Salcombe Brewery to mention just a few. This combined with the Sea Changer grants has seen a more positive direction in the funds of the charity and we look forward to the future with more confidence than we have for many years. General donations have been up again this year but only by a small amount considering all the problems with COVID and we managed to generate £18,975.81 We think this rise in our donations is directly in correlation with the extra publicity and improved website we now have and are receiving. ## **Adoption and membership schemes (UK only)** Our adoption and membership scheme has increased considerably this year in numbers mainly because we are becoming internationally recognised now for our work with seahorses. The figures for Adoption and Membership are encouraging, in 2020-2021 it was £7,506.11 whereas in 2021-2022 it was up to £9,913.74 which is up by £2,407.63. It averages at £826.15 per month (up from £712.13 in 2020-2021) and the average donation per month is £6.76 (down by 18p from £6.94), however the average number of adoptees and members has risen per month to 122 (up from 103) It shows that although the scheme has been and is successful and we need to look at increasing the financial turnover per month, more work needs to be done on this. ## **Website** - GLS kindly switched our website to a different system in 2020 which gives us more control over it and they have continued to be supportive of our work. - It is now brighter and more modern looking and certainly easier to use and we get lots of compliments about it. - The different look of the site seems to have generated more interest in it and feedback seems to be positive 10 Annual report 2021/2022 We would like to say a special thank you to Gavin who often does work for us for free and without his input we would not have such a great website. Here at the Trust, we highly recommend him and he can be found on his website at http://www.gslsolutions.co.uk/ ## **PATRONS** We are very lucky here at the trust in having the support of some well-known names as patrons and I would like to thank one and all for their superb help and support over the last twelve months. Kate Humble http://www.katehumble.com Chris Packham http://www.chrispackham.co.uk Kirsty Jones http://www.kirstyjones.com Mark Carwardine http://www.markcarwardine.com Ellie Harrison http://www.ellie-harrison.com/ Monty Halls http://www.montyhalls.co.uk/ Sir Hugo Swire https://www.hugoswire.org.uk/ 11 Annual report 2021/2022 ## **FINANCIAL POICY** ## **RESERVES POLICY** It is the intention of the Charity only to maintain reserves at the level required to fund its ongoing commitments. ## **RISKS ASSESSMENT** The Trustees have reviewed the major risks to which the Charity may be exposed and consider measures have been taken to mitigate such risks. ## **INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES** I report on the accounts of the trust for the year ended 31[st] March 2022, which are set out on pages 14 to 15. ## **RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILTIES OF TRUSTEES AND EXAMINER** As the charities trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts; you consider that the audit requirement of s43(2) of the Charities Act 1993 (the Act) does not apply. It is my responsibility to state, on the basis of procedures specified in the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners under s43(7) (b) of the Act, whether particular matters have come to my attention. ## **BASIS OF INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT** My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and the seeking of explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and. Consequently, I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts. ## **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S STATEMENT** In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention: 1. That gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements: To keep accounting records in accordance with s41 of the Act; and To prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the accounting requirements of the Act. Have not been met; or 12 Annual report 2021/2022 2. To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. ## **ANTHONY ROBERTS FTCA** **7 Totnes Road Paignton Devon.** The Balance Sheet below and annexed Income and Expenditure Account for the year have not been audited but are prepared from the records information and explanations supplied to us and are in accordance therewith Anthony Roberts FCPA - Chartered Accountant for **The Tax Shop Limited** 7 Totnes Road **PAIGNTON** Devon 7[th] July 2022 13 Annual report 2021/2022 **INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH 2022** 14 Annual report 2021/2022 **NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR TO 31[ST] MARCH 2022** ## • **ACCOUNTING BASIS** These accounts have been prepared under the Historical Cost Convention, applicable accounting standards and the Statement of Recommended Practise, accounting and reporting by charities. ## • **INCOMING RESOURCES** Income is credited in the period it is received. ## • **STAFF EMOLUMENTS** Total cost of administrator’s fees inclusive was £29507.81 No employee received emoluments above £50,000 ## • **INDEPENDENT EXAMINATION** Cost £348 ## • **VOLUNTEERS** No value is placed on volunteer’s time. ## • **TRUSTEES** No trustee received any remuneration or reimbursement of expenses in the year. 15 Annual report 2021/2022