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BBC Inside Science

Can science save our oceans?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.51.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

More than 2,000 marine scientists have come together at the One Ocean Science Congress in Nice, France. It is a gathering that will bring marine experts from all over the world together to share the latest discoveries about the health of our seas and oceans.

It is an issue at the centre of the world’s attention, because from 9th June, leaders and negotiators from 200 countries will arrive in Nice for the crucial United Nations Conference on the Oceans (UNOC3).

Presenter Victoria Gill is joined by Murray Roberts, Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Edinburgh to find out what is at stake when leaders come together to work out a global plan to save our oceans from multiple threats, including climate change, pollution and overfishing.

Professor Amanda Vincent from the University of British Columbia in Canada joins the Inside Science team to reveal her insights into the destruction caused by the controversial fishing practice of bottom trawling, which she explains is devastating marine life.

Victoria also joins a team of acoustic marine scientists on their research boat the “We Explore” off the coast of Nice to listen for whales and dolphins under the surface. Their sound recordings reveal how animals of different species eavesdrop on each other and how to stop boat noise from drowning out whale communication.

We also meet a team from a charity in Plymouth that is helping people who are living with poor mental health by prescribing ocean-based activities. Freyja Thomson-Alberts from the organisation the Ocean Conservation Trust explains why the ocean is central to our physical and mental wellbeing.

Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Dan Welsh, Clare Salisbury, Jonathan Blackwell Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Transcript

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0:00.0

Get closer to the action with live commentary from the world's greatest sporting events on BBC Sounds.

0:06.0

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0:08.0

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0:10.0

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0:17.0

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0:20.0

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0:21.4

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0:23.0

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0:23.6

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0:27.7

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0:31.4

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0:36.2

Hello, you lovely curious-minded listeners.

0:38.9

Welcome to a very special episode of Inside Science on BBC Radio 4,

0:43.1

which was first broadcast on the 5th of June 2025.

0:46.5

I'm Victoria Gill.

0:47.8

And I am in Nice in the south of France this week,

0:50.5

because we are diving into an issue that will be the center of the world's scientific

0:54.7

attention over the next two weeks.

0:57.0

The ocean in our planet, the life support the system is in a state of the emergency.

1:06.0

There is now at least, at last, a increased awareness of the plight of the ocean.

1:13.6

If we don't transition to a circular economy for plastics, we could have more plastics than fish in the ocean by 2050.

1:21.6

After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea.

...

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