Visitors to North Cornwall’s Harlyn Bay beach were greeted by the sight of more than 200 baby sea turtles emerging from the sand this weekend.

A phenomenon more commonplace in the Caribbean, the hatching was an art installation created to celebrate our latest conservation milestone!

We collaborated with Instagram sensation beach4art to raise awareness of the plight of the sea turtle and celebrate having now raised enough money through sales of Lost Years Rum to save up to 25,000 of them.

The location was a fitting one as the idea for Lost Years was hatched after a visit to Hampden Estate, a renown rum distillery in Cornwall County, Jamaica, on a family holiday there two years ago. 

beach4art is the brainchild of Leva Slare and her family who are based in Devon.

They started creating sea shell artwork on beaches in the South West of England during lockdown and have gained a big online following since then.

Having seen the positive reaction and joy their artwork has brought to people during the pandemic, we sponsored the family to visit Cornwall and recreate the spectacular scenes that are more common on Jamaica's beaches, when dozens of baby sea turtles emerge from their nests and head for the sea. 

The installation took five hours to complete and comprised thousands of sea shells collected over recent weeks.

The art work itself was fleeting and disappeared when the tide came in, but it was beautiful while it lasted.

Lots of people came down to the beach to see us in action, hear more about the many challenges sea turtles face and to appreciate beach4art’s hard work and effort.

Big thanks to Leva and her family for joining us in this celebration.