Three days by sea – deep dive into FM4

A place of eternal longing, a scene of the climate crisis and a dangerous escape route: FM4 explores different aspects of the sea in a three-part report series.

Written by Nina Hochreiner and Michaela Pichler

It is a hot August day when we meet by chance at the bus stop in front of the ORF Center in Vienna. We've just come back from a holiday on the Adriatic and we're talking about it and talking about it. About how you automatically feel better just by being by the sea. And that there is hardly anything else you can stare at for so long without doing anything else. Then we realize that we actually rarely write news about the sea. And we want to change that. Because the state of the seas should also concern us in landlocked Austria.

Our conversation at the station turned to three tales about the sea in which we get to the core of some pressing questions: How differently do five people look at the same sea – what thoughts, wishes and longings do they share and part? Will we only fish plastic from the oceans in the future? Can whales help us fight the climate crisis?

Part 1: Will whales save us?

Whales are the largest animals in the world. At the same time, we hardly know anything about them. Not even how many of them actually still exist. Whales are important allies in the fight against the climate crisis, and our well-being is closely linked to the well-being of marine mammals. So how are the whales doing?

Our excursion takes us to Genoa by night train and from there by train Whale watching boat To the largest transnational whale sanctuary in Europe. We look at how this is done in Austria Whale research She works, talks to a Faroese whaler about a questionable tradition and meets the nature documentary director and whale ambassador. Tom MostelHow a fateful encounter with a humpback whale changed his life, and why we must save whales so they can save us. -Listen on Monday, February 26 at 7 pm.

Part Two: Will plastic win?

Anyone who has been swimming in the sea in recent years has had this experience at least once: suddenly you find yourself surrounded by plastic debris. This is not only annoying, but above all has dire consequences: marine plastic pollution is now one of the biggest environmental problems of our time. We take on plastic waste in the ocean to a battle. Can we win this battle?

Cleaning the ocean

We follow the path of a carelessly thrown plastic bottle – from meadow to river, to the coast to the sea and back to us at a turn. We look at the amount of plastic that ends up in the sea from Austria via rivers. We find out from the team Ocean cleanup projectHow she wants to implement her ambitious idea of ​​ridding the sea of ​​plastic waste.

On a Thai island, we gain insights into waste disposal and the dark sides of holiday paradise and highlight how unevenly the costs and burdens of plastic pollution are distributed globally. -Listen on Tuesday, February 27 at 7 pm.

Part 3: On the same sea? A place longing for the Mediterranean

Five people, all looking at the same sea, with completely different thoughts, wishes and longings. We tell their stories.

for him Nino from Vienna The sea is associated with childhood memories and beautiful holidays. During an electric boat ride on the ancient Danube, we spoke with the artist about his love for the Adriatic Sea, to which he dedicated an entire album.

Nina Hochreiner

For others, the Mediterranean is an adventurous place to work, whether as a musician on a cruise ship or as a research diver for scientific projects.

For people on the run, the Mediterranean means something entirely different: borders to cross in the hope of a better life in Europe. Many never get there, but at least some can be saved. We will talk to you Philemon Mebrahatumwho survived a dangerous escape across the Mediterranean when he was 14 years old, along with a civilian sea rescue worker. Sea observation About their difficult humanitarian mission.

-Listen on Wednesday, February 28 at 8 p.m.

Three days by sea – deep dive into FM4

February 26 and 27 at 7pm and February 28 at 8pm on FM4 and in the new Story Podcast Strange planetEverywhere there is a podcast.