Rinu, a wide-eyed blue fish, has spent all summer persuading children to join him and his other colourful friends to save the seas.

The cartoon character has now garnered a huge fan base and children are still writing in with their ideas and suggestions of how they can help conserve the marine environment.

Rinu was born this summer while the Malta Environment and Planning Authority was carrying out consultations on the drafting of a plan for marine conservation areas and the United Nations Environment Programme was working on the theme of protecting the marine environment.

After the success it achieved with its project Mepa is continuing its initiative and last week it presented a number of colouring books of Rinu to the Education Department to distribute to schools.

With the help of corporate funding Mepa pumped Lm9,000 into the creation of a cartoon featurette called Inharsu l-Rinu (Protecting Rinu), which was screened on TVM.

Speaking about its production Matthew Pullicino from Desktop Creations said the project was a 21-minute animation spread over seven weeks.

The figures that were to animate the TV-adapted script, a joint effort of Mepa's public relations office and Albert Marshall, were all designed off actual Maltese marine life.

Five actors lent their voice and creative input to add sound to the moving pictures - Chris Dingli was Rinu and Antonella Axisa played Rea.

Toni Attard did a fantastic multi-personality juggle with the characters of Matti, Tuttu, Dwinu and Nanna Nita, while Caroline Pullicino and Angela Felice helped fill in the feature appearances of Mrs Rea and Stella the comforting Starfish.

The little fish and his friends have done a wealth of good in helping children understand the importance of marine life. Mepa still receives e-mails from children communicating with Rinu.

Mepa is hoping that little fish may be able to accompany them in future projects.