Available online
Description
'This programme looks at some of the ways in which we affect the North Sea and how it affects us. Sandra Smith discusses storm surges and the risk of flooding. Archive film and weather maps are use...d to build up a picture of the great flood of 1953 which resulted in the setting up of the Storm Tide Warning Service. John Wright examines the depletion of Herring stocks, sludge dumping in the Thames, the despoilation by pit waste of parts of the Durham coastline and coastal waters, and the pollution of the Rhine by industry. the programme concludes by examining the blow-out on the Bravo Rig in the Ekofisk Oil Field.'
'This programme looks at some of the ways in which we affect the North Sea and how it affects us. Sandra Smith discusses storm surges and the risk of flooding. Archive film and weather maps are use...d to build up a picture of the great flood of 1953 which resulted in the setting up of the Storm Tide Warning Service. John Wright examines the depletion of Herring stocks, sludge dumping in the Thames, the despoilation by pit waste of parts of the Durham coastline and coastal waters, and the pollution of the Rhine by industry. the programme concludes by examining the blow-out on the Bravo Rig in the Ekofisk Oil Field.'
| Module code and title: | S334, Oceanography |
|---|---|
| Item code: | S334; 14 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:24:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Peter Clark |
| Contributors: | Sandra Smith; John Townsend; John Wright |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Fisheries; Marine gravels; North Sea; Oil; Pollution; Storm surge |
| Footage description: | John Wright, with a model of the North Sea, introduces the programme. Pointing to the model of the North Sea, Wright discusses the national boundaries which were drawn around areas of mineral resources. Film of a ship extracting flint gravels from the North Sea bed. Film of gravel being unloaded. John Wright, with the aid of maps and an animated graph, discusses the history and future potential of the gravel extraction industry. Underwater film of a school of fish. Old film of herring trawlers at sea. Commentary by Wright discusses the demise of the North Sea herring industry through overfishing. Wright goes on to discuss the North Sea flat fish industry. Shots of fishing chart and fiIm of fish being caught, cleaned and frozen. Underwater research film shows plaice being taken in a trawl. Wright, showing a side scan sonar photo of the sea bed, points out the damage done to the sea bed by the trawls. He then goes on to discuss briefly, territorial limits to fishing rights and regulation of net sizes. Film of plaice escaping through the trawl net. Wright briefly introduces the next sequence. Sandra Smith with a meteorological map of Britain and the North Sea, explains the weather conditions as they were on the evening of January 31st 1953 - the time of the great flood which devastated the east coast of Britain. She goes on to look at a tide graph for Immingham on the Humber for the two key days of the flood and points out the storm surge. Newsreel film of the 1953 flood, particularly at Canvey Island. Commentary by Sandra Smith. Film of the Meteorological Office at Bracknell - outside shots and then inside shots showing tide monitoring apparatus (tidal gauge repeaters). Commentary by Sandra Smith explains how tide surges are monitored and their ultimate size predicted. John Townsend (Storm Tide Warning Service) explains how flood warnings are sent out from the Met. Office and also what the chances are of another devastating flood like that of 1953. John Wright discusses industrial pollution of the sea. Shots of waste being dumped into the sea at Easington Colliery in northeast England. Shots of beaches about ten miles from the colliery covered in waste up to 14 feet deep. Wright continues his discussion of pollution of the sea. He looks particularly at kelp, a seaweed, as an indicator of pollution levels. Underwater film of kelp showing a diver taking samples. Wright next looks at sewage disposal in the North Sea. Shots of sludge from a sewage plant being taken to sea and dumped. Wright discusses an experiment which monitored the distribution of sludge in the Thames after dumping. Animated map of the Thames Estuary helps to make his points. Over film shots of the Rhine River showing barge traffic and industrial pollution, John Wright describes a disaster which occurred on the River when a factory dumped a highly toxic waste in it. With the aid of a map of the North Sea, Wright discusses the distribution of toxic wastes from rivers like the Rhine which flow into the North Sea. Finally, over film of the blowout of the Bravo Rig in the Ekofish Oil Field, Wright describes the disaster and sums up the programme. |
| Master spool number: | 6HT/72605 |
| Production number: | 00525_1306 |
| Videofinder number: | 884 |
| Available to public: | no |
