In Plastic in the Ocean Is Creating a New Geological Era, host Simon Reeve visits with an expert on plastic pollution and observes visible integration of plastics into the soil and even the food chain in the Mediterranean Sea. This video is excerpted from BBC's Incredible Journeys With Simon Reeve, a series that highlights one journalist’s travels across the globe and the diverse cultures and peoples he meets along the way.
In this lesson, students will collaborate to understand how marine life is affected by human actions. The Dive into this engaging lesson where your students will uncover how human actions affect marine life. Kick things off with a fun game of Three Truths and a Lie about the ocean to spark curiosity and get everyone talking. Then, break into small groups and tackle a jigsaw activity as students watch short, thought-provoking videos about ocean animals and human impact. Together, they’ll share insights, tackle discussion questions, and use their newfound knowledge to create eye-catching infographics. These creations will inspire others to take action and protect our incredible oceans!
In A Plastic Problem for the Albatross, narrator Sir David Attenborough highlights what one researcher is learning about how plastic in the ocean impacts the albatross. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet II, a natural history series that explores the world's oceans, the animals that live in them, and the threats they face, using modern filming techniques and equipment to capture previously unseen areas of the ocean.
In A Container Ship of Rubber Duckies, narrator Sir David Attenborough tells the story of a ship that fell into the Pacific Ocean, spilling 7,000 plastic ducks into the ocean. Ocean currents carried the toys across thousands of miles. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet II, a natural history series that explores the world's oceans, the animals that live in them, and the threats they face, using modern filming techniques and equipment to capture previously unseen areas of the ocean.
In Plastic Pollution in the Oceans Is a Growing Crisis, host Simon Reeve encounters the devastating effects of the plastic trash that is overwhelming islands like the Maldives and Hawaii. This video is excerpted from BBC's Incredible Journeys With Simon Reeve, a series that highlights one journalist’s travels across the globe and the diverse cultures and peoples he meets along the way.
In The Go Jetters Tackle Plastic Waste, the Go Jetters crew observes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic pollution floating in the ocean. The Go Jetters talk about how they can work together to stop plastic pollution. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Go Jetters, a series that follows the adventures of four international heroes as they travel the globe visiting landmarks and solving environmental problems with Ubercorn, a disco-dancing unicorn.
In The Go Jetters' Sea Turtle Rescue, the Go Jetters crew finds a sea turtle that is trapped on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic pollution floating in the ocean. They work together to free the sea turtle. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Go Jetters, a series that follows the adventures of four international heroes as they travel the globe visiting landmarks and solving environmental problems with Ubercorn, a disco-dancing unicorn.
Scientists are exploring an interesting idea: what if we could replace regular plastic with something made from seaweed?
Unlike traditional plastic — which is made from fossil fuels and can take hundreds of years to break down — seaweed-based plastic is designed to decompose naturally over time. That means it could help reduce the amount of plastic waste that ends up in oceans and landfills.
But there are still challenges. Right now, seaweed plastic is expensive to produce — somewhere between two and 10 times more costly than plastic. Scientists are also working on how to grow more seaweed efficiently and make sure large-scale farming doesn’t harm ocean ecosystems.
So while seaweed plastic isn’t widely used yet, it’s a promising idea that could help tackle one of the world’s biggest pollution problems.
In A Plastic Problem for Pilot Whales, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes the grim effects plastic pollution has had on short-finned pilot whales. Because this species lives in tight-knit families, the negative effects of pollution on one whale is felt by the others. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet II, a natural history series that explores the world's oceans, the animals that live in them, and the threats they face, using modern filming techniques and equipment to capture previously unseen areas of the ocean.
There’s a shark in the water! No, no, it’s good — we promise! The WasteShark is not actually a shark, but an autonomous robot that was built to tackle a big problem: plastic pollution in the water. Some estimates put the amount of plastic waste in the hundreds of millions of metric tons. Between canals, rivers, and oceans, waterways around the world are affected.
To make things worse, marine plastic is a relatively new problem, so the solutions haven’t caught up to the issue. The old methods of putting people in boats to fish out plastic isn’t enough, so Richard Hardiman, CEO of RanMarine Technology, took to the drawing board and built a robot.
The WasteShark is basically a vacuum that cruises around the water and sucks up trash, without needing a person to sit and drive it. It can be controlled remotely or put in autonomous mode, because of its sophisticated addition: software that helps it identify and avoid sucking up items that are not trash. The ducks and fish are very grateful. Despite its sophistication, there are still challenges with developing the robot, since scientists have to figure out how to program it to recognize and act on reflections, currents, and wind.
The shark can gather up to a ton of trash over a 24 hour period, which is just the beginning of what needs to be done to reverse the pollution issue. Luckily, the next step is already in the works: the MegaShark.
Let’s take a virtual trip to the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya, a coastline that’s both prosperous and fragile at the same time. The specific environment is a crucial part of life: the ocean provides fish to feed the islands’ inhabitants, and the forests are populated with mangrove trees that protect the coastline from erosion. So, what happens when fish stocks have declined, mangrove forests have been badly damaged, coral reefs are bleaching, and plastic washes ashore with every tide? Local environmental heroes step up.
Meet “Mama Mikoko,” AKA The Mother of Mangroves, who earned the name through her efforts to restore coastal forests. These mangrove trees not only shield villages from erosion but provide breeding grounds for marine life, and their roots hold the shoreline together. Since 2018, her team has planted more than 200,000 mangrove trees and restored over 20 hectares (about 50 acres) of coastline. That means they’ve restored about 75 percent of the mangrove forest! But not all the action’s on land.
A short boat ride away, primary school teacher Monasha Mbona is helping rebuild coral reefs by attaching living coral fragments to cement structures and returning them to the ocean so they can grow.
As important as the environment is in itself (you know, doing little things like feeding the population and helping the islands not wash away), the projects go beyond helping the environment. Conservation income has also helped fund a desalination machine to turn seawater into freshwater, create jobs for young people, support women’s financial independence, and start microfinance groups.
In The Go Jetters at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Go Jetters crew learns about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Ubercorn shares facts about how garbage gets into the ocean and how large the garbage patches are. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Go Jetters, a series that follows the adventures of four international heroes as they travel the globe visiting landmarks and solving environmental problems with Ubercorn, a disco-dancing unicorn.
In Plastic in the Ocean Is Creating a New Geological Era, host Simon Reeve visits with an expert on plastic pollution and observes visible integration of plastics into the soil and even the food chain in the Mediterranean Sea. This video is excerpted from BBC's Incredible Journeys With Simon Reeve, a series that highlights one journalist’s travels across the globe and the diverse cultures and peoples he meets along the way.
In this lesson, students will collaborate to understand how marine life is affected by human actions. The Dive into this engaging lesson where your students will uncover how human actions affect marine life. Kick things off with a fun game of Three Truths and a Lie about the ocean to spark curiosity and get everyone talking. Then, break into small groups and tackle a jigsaw activity as students watch short, thought-provoking videos about ocean animals and human impact. Together, they’ll share insights, tackle discussion questions, and use their newfound knowledge to create eye-catching infographics. These creations will inspire others to take action and protect our incredible oceans!
In A Plastic Problem for the Albatross, narrator Sir David Attenborough highlights what one researcher is learning about how plastic in the ocean impacts the albatross. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet II, a natural history series that explores the world's oceans, the animals that live in them, and the threats they face, using modern filming techniques and equipment to capture previously unseen areas of the ocean.
In A Container Ship of Rubber Duckies, narrator Sir David Attenborough tells the story of a ship that fell into the Pacific Ocean, spilling 7,000 plastic ducks into the ocean. Ocean currents carried the toys across thousands of miles. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet II, a natural history series that explores the world's oceans, the animals that live in them, and the threats they face, using modern filming techniques and equipment to capture previously unseen areas of the ocean.
In Plastic Pollution in the Oceans Is a Growing Crisis, host Simon Reeve encounters the devastating effects of the plastic trash that is overwhelming islands like the Maldives and Hawaii. This video is excerpted from BBC's Incredible Journeys With Simon Reeve, a series that highlights one journalist’s travels across the globe and the diverse cultures and peoples he meets along the way.
In The Go Jetters Tackle Plastic Waste, the Go Jetters crew observes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic pollution floating in the ocean. The Go Jetters talk about how they can work together to stop plastic pollution. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Go Jetters, a series that follows the adventures of four international heroes as they travel the globe visiting landmarks and solving environmental problems with Ubercorn, a disco-dancing unicorn.
In The Go Jetters' Sea Turtle Rescue, the Go Jetters crew finds a sea turtle that is trapped on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic pollution floating in the ocean. They work together to free the sea turtle. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Go Jetters, a series that follows the adventures of four international heroes as they travel the globe visiting landmarks and solving environmental problems with Ubercorn, a disco-dancing unicorn.
Scientists are exploring an interesting idea: what if we could replace regular plastic with something made from seaweed?
Unlike traditional plastic — which is made from fossil fuels and can take hundreds of years to break down — seaweed-based plastic is designed to decompose naturally over time. That means it could help reduce the amount of plastic waste that ends up in oceans and landfills.
But there are still challenges. Right now, seaweed plastic is expensive to produce — somewhere between two and 10 times more costly than plastic. Scientists are also working on how to grow more seaweed efficiently and make sure large-scale farming doesn’t harm ocean ecosystems.
So while seaweed plastic isn’t widely used yet, it’s a promising idea that could help tackle one of the world’s biggest pollution problems.
In A Plastic Problem for Pilot Whales, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes the grim effects plastic pollution has had on short-finned pilot whales. Because this species lives in tight-knit families, the negative effects of pollution on one whale is felt by the others. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet II, a natural history series that explores the world's oceans, the animals that live in them, and the threats they face, using modern filming techniques and equipment to capture previously unseen areas of the ocean.
There’s a shark in the water! No, no, it’s good — we promise! The WasteShark is not actually a shark, but an autonomous robot that was built to tackle a big problem: plastic pollution in the water. Some estimates put the amount of plastic waste in the hundreds of millions of metric tons. Between canals, rivers, and oceans, waterways around the world are affected.
To make things worse, marine plastic is a relatively new problem, so the solutions haven’t caught up to the issue. The old methods of putting people in boats to fish out plastic isn’t enough, so Richard Hardiman, CEO of RanMarine Technology, took to the drawing board and built a robot.
The WasteShark is basically a vacuum that cruises around the water and sucks up trash, without needing a person to sit and drive it. It can be controlled remotely or put in autonomous mode, because of its sophisticated addition: software that helps it identify and avoid sucking up items that are not trash. The ducks and fish are very grateful. Despite its sophistication, there are still challenges with developing the robot, since scientists have to figure out how to program it to recognize and act on reflections, currents, and wind.
The shark can gather up to a ton of trash over a 24 hour period, which is just the beginning of what needs to be done to reverse the pollution issue. Luckily, the next step is already in the works: the MegaShark.
Let’s take a virtual trip to the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya, a coastline that’s both prosperous and fragile at the same time. The specific environment is a crucial part of life: the ocean provides fish to feed the islands’ inhabitants, and the forests are populated with mangrove trees that protect the coastline from erosion. So, what happens when fish stocks have declined, mangrove forests have been badly damaged, coral reefs are bleaching, and plastic washes ashore with every tide? Local environmental heroes step up.
Meet “Mama Mikoko,” AKA The Mother of Mangroves, who earned the name through her efforts to restore coastal forests. These mangrove trees not only shield villages from erosion but provide breeding grounds for marine life, and their roots hold the shoreline together. Since 2018, her team has planted more than 200,000 mangrove trees and restored over 20 hectares (about 50 acres) of coastline. That means they’ve restored about 75 percent of the mangrove forest! But not all the action’s on land.
A short boat ride away, primary school teacher Monasha Mbona is helping rebuild coral reefs by attaching living coral fragments to cement structures and returning them to the ocean so they can grow.
As important as the environment is in itself (you know, doing little things like feeding the population and helping the islands not wash away), the projects go beyond helping the environment. Conservation income has also helped fund a desalination machine to turn seawater into freshwater, create jobs for young people, support women’s financial independence, and start microfinance groups.
In The Go Jetters at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Go Jetters crew learns about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Ubercorn shares facts about how garbage gets into the ocean and how large the garbage patches are. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Go Jetters, a series that follows the adventures of four international heroes as they travel the globe visiting landmarks and solving environmental problems with Ubercorn, a disco-dancing unicorn.