Clonakilty’s Dena is featured in BBC video series about the ocean

WEST Cork features prominently in a new BBC-produced series about the ocean.

Two Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centres have been profiled in a new global online video series that seeks to discover hidden connections between humans and the ocean.

The Blue Horizons series, presented by the World Ocean Council and produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions, has just been launched and features 18 video shorts from around the world.

The Embrace Of The Sea, filmed in Inchydoney, Clonakilty and Ringaskiddy, is a striking, six-minute deep-dive focusing on the coastal erosion-related research being undertaken by Ringaskiddy-based MaREI, the research centre for energy, and climate and marine, led by UCC.

Centred around the personal perspectives of avid swimmer and well-known Clonakilty hotelier, Dena O’Donovan, the video evocatively shows how communities come together to challenge the changing conditions. Dena explains her lifelong connection to Inchydoney and how she swims there to reconnect with the sea, and shows photos of her own childhood taken on the sand dunes at the beach.

But she says she has been worried about the future of the beach due to the threat of coastal erosion, but is happy to see the research now being undertaken which has given her a new confidence in the future of the iconic beach.

Dr Jimmy Murphy explains how there is now the capability to manage our coastline on an informed basis, such that we can understand its behaviour and be more proactive in terms of addressing erosion and climate change challenges. ‘A reason that we need to protect beaches is to preserve them for the benefit of the local communities. So, it is critical that such communities also play their part in ensuring that good practices are adopted that will minimise damage to the beach and dunes caused by human activities,’ he says.

Another short film, The Secret Sounds Of The Sea, was filmed on Streedagh Beach in Sligo and in Dún Laoghaire, focusing on research by iCRAG SFI Research Centre in Applied Geosciences on how sound connects us with the ocean.

Chris Bean, professor of geophysics at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) tells the series that the sea is the largest single source of oxygen for the planet and therefore, ‘monitoring and understanding our ocean health is crucial to the sustainable management of this life-giving resource. Seismology delivers new insight into activity in the ocean and ocean state, which we endeavour to capture in this film.’

Dr Siobhan Roche, director of science for the economy at Science Foundation Ireland, said the prestigious video series is reaching and resonating with a global audience, and showcases some of Ireland’s marine-focused research endeavours in a stunningly-filmed way. ‘SFI is proud to have supported the series, and we congratulate MaREI and iCRAG on their involvement.’

The videos can be watched at bbc.com/storyworks/blue-horizons.