Footprints In The Ocean

This is a story that tracks the footprints we leave in the ocean. From the shipwrecks that the American nuclear test left on the Bikini Atoll to the depths of the Mariana Trench where creatures we haven’t even identified consume the microplastics that have entered the ocean food chain.

We visit a successful project off the coast of Florida where ships have been deliberately sunk to provide structures that support coral and provide shelter to fish providing the foundation for ecosystem renewal. We look at the devastation that industrial trawling has caused on the ocean floor and how our medicines, chemicals and fertilisers change ocean chemistry and affect all life in the ocean.
But we are also learning to tread lightly to minimise our negative impact, and in some cases, successful initiatives are reversing damage and restoring ecosystems.