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Charles was seen as an ideal choice as patron, as he had been speaking about protecting our environment for 50 years. When he made his first speech on the dangers of pollution in 1970, at the age of 21, his views seemed way ahead of his time. He even earned the reputation of being a little eccentric.
Today, the rest of the world has caught up and he is an ideal patron for a charity that aims to highlight and remedy the dangers of chronic pollution in the sea.
King's environmental activism
Back in 1970, the young Prince Charles cemented his reputation as an environmental activist when he made a speech warning of the dangers of pollution. He urged society, as a whole, to urgently clean up their act by preventing pollution in the first place. Otherwise, he warned that we would be faced with the costs of cleaning it up further down the line.
Charles described the "horrifying effects of pollution" in all its forms. In particular, he cited oil pollution at sea, which killed and injured thousands of sea birds and destroyed beach habitats.
Speaking to the Countryside Steering Committee for Wales, he criticised the chemical pollutants discharged into rivers from chemical plants and factories, describing how rivers became clogged up with toxic substances, killing the fish and adding to the "filth in the seas".
He also spoke of the hazards of air pollution, caused by fumes and smoke discharged by factories and from gases emitted by aircraft and "endless cars".
While these sentiments are commonplace and taken seriously today, things were different in the '70s. King Charles recalled later that his views were greeted as "dotty" at the time. However, today, his words are pertinent.
World's most significant eco-campaigner
Tony Juniper, a veteran environmental campaigner and one-time leader of Friends of the Earth, has described the king as "the most significant environmental figure of all time". Now the head of Natural England, Juniper advised Charles for several years, including co-writing two books with him.
He praised the king's consistency in bringing up a wide breadth of environmental issues and seeking to make progress on changing the way people behave in relation to the world around them. Juniper said Charles had shown "commitment, energy and passion" for more than 50 years, exhibiting an "incredible depth of knowledge". He said the king's impact had been "absolutely enormous".
Charles' interest began when he was a child at Balmoral, where he developed a passion for the outdoors. He also honed his interest and skills in farming as a youth. In the 1980s, he launched regenerative organic agriculture at his Gloucestershire estate, Highgrove, which led to the Duchy organic brand being founded.
He also established the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders' Group, bringing together business leaders to commit to green pledges.
Charles' interest in surfing
It seemed inevitable King Charles' path would bring him into direct contact with Surfers Against Sewage, as their views were so similar. Not only does the charity comprise environmental campaigners, but Charles himself also has a keen personal interest in surfing.
In 1970, he was first pictured surfing at Constantine Bay Beach, in Cornwall, where he was said to have surfed for three years. He was photographed next to fellow surfer Phil Turner, from Plymouth. Phil's wife, Marguerite, had taken her camera to the beach.
Cornish surfers Nick McBrean and Mick Wingfield were also present when Charles parked his car on the dunes and went surfing with a single-fin surfboard. His bodyguard was on hand to watch over him. The local surfers recalled Charles, a novice at the time, asked them how to apply wax to his surfboard.
In 1978, as patron of the British Surfing Association, he invited the whole British national surfing team to join him at Buckingham Palace prior to the World Amateur Championships in South Africa.
Surfers Against Sewage
In May 1990, a group of Cornwall surfers decided "enough is enough" when they continually witnessed pollution in the ocean. It reached the stage where they were falling ill while enjoying the sport they loved because they were ingesting polluted sea water.
They set up Surfers Against Sewage, initially to protest against ocean pollution, urging the UK government and water companies to drastically improve bathing water quality. The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 1991 and the EU Bathing Water Directive proved to be game-changers that enabled SAS to drive their campaign forward.
As a result of the charity's work, the UK has invested significantly in the sewerage infrastructure. Today 96.9% of Britain's beaches meet minimum bathing water standards - up from only 27% in 1990.
The battle against single-use plastics and microplastics carelessly disposed of in the ocean continues. Every day, around eight million pieces of waste find their way into the sea, equating to 12 million tonnes of plastic every year. Microplastics have even been discovered embedded in the Arctic ice. Plastic makes up 80% of all marine debris studied.
The focus of SAS remains clearly on creating plastic-free coastlines. Campaigners describe how a plastic crisis has taken over from sewage as the main source of pollution. In a speech earlier in 2022, King Charles urged the population to use less plastic.
Speaking at an oceans conference in Palau in the Pacific Islands, he told delegates the health of the world's oceans was suffering a "dire" decline. Only by changing lifestyle habits, including improving recycling efforts and supporting ocean clean-ups, can we stop the deterioration of our water quality.
Million Mile Clean
Surfers Against Sewage recently organised its annual Million Mile Clean - its biggest ever beach clean campaign to date. With the help of 138,425 volunteers; they removed 387,563 kilos of plastic pollution from beaches, rivers, streets and mountains. So far, the annual campaign has cleaned up 1.1 million miles of beaches, riverbanks and land! Their efforts are continuing, with thousands more clean-ups taking place throughout the year.
Despite his new responsibilities since the sad passing of Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III is showing no signs of stepping back from his environmental campaigning, as it is a cause so close to his heart. Way to go, Charles!
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