Students in Lagos follow-up the Mundus maris World Oceans Day contest with beach clean up.

What  lovely news to break - these three dynamic students of the Federal College of Fisheries in Lagos, Nigeria, did not want to stop at winning awards in this year's Mundus maris contest for World Oceans Day. They wanted to do more, especially for the stretch of ocean right at their doorsteps.

Ashafa Lateef, Stephen Omonon Margaret and Quadri Olakusibe Blessing (from left to right) formed the core team that decided it was time to clean up the Bar Beach on Victoria Island, Lagos, rather than talk mostly in academic terms about the ocean.

Confronted with research results and the daily view of garbage heaped up on the beach, they decided to reach out to other students and organisations with an interest in the ocean. They wanted to set an example, but at the same time work on a broad coalition of concerned people to make ocean protection a mainstream feature in Lagos and beyond. Click here for the story of the first clean-up of their Healthy Ocean, Healthy People Initiative.