91Èȱ¬

Matt Baker meets Chris Rose, the latest recipient of the Wildlife Trusts’ Undersea Artist bursary; a scheme that helps artists learn how to scuba dive so that they can seek inspiration beneath the waves. Matt learns about the North Sea’s underwater world from Seasearch, an organisation mapping the sea bed, before he dons a wetsuit and explores it for himself. Armed with adapted waterproof paper and pencils, Matt and Chris dive a site just off the Farne Islands, capturing the underwater landscape as they go. Back on dry land Chris reproduces in paint what they saw under the sea.

Last year Northumberland’s colony of Little Terns enjoyed their best year for breeding with 89 chicks fledging along this coastline. Their success is largely down to help from human hands. Anita Rani meets the dedicated folk who patrol the beaches, helping to protect these shore birds from encroaching tides and predators. For three months of the year National Trust rangers live in tents on the beach to provide around the clock security. Anita discovers the ingenious way the rangers are keeping the birds safe from the waves and in the process she learns more about these extraordinary birds that without human intervention could easily die out.

Tom Heap is back with the results of the National Rural Crime Network’s survey that aims to understand the true cost of crime to people who live and work in rural England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  The survey reveals a worrying lack of faith in the police and notable underreporting of crime.  Tom meets with a Cumbrian farmer who has experienced the distress of losing a number of prized sheep to theft, and discovers ways in which the rural communities of Warwickshire are stepping in to help their local police force. 

Wildlife expert and Biologist Patrick Aryee, is exploring how Northumberland’s wildlife survives in the harshest of conditions. In this part of the world one creature in particular has made it their home, the Grey Seal. As Patrick takes to the water in search of them, he finds out more about these animals from Dave Thompson of the Sea Mammal Research Unit. He explores the science behind seal anatomy and takes the plunge himself in an experiment to illustrate how seals skin differs to our own.

This area of the North East coast has always been a draw for artists, who past and present have found great inspiration from the breath-taking scenery and characters of the fisherman and fisher women. American artist Winslow 91Èȱ¬r painted endless images of these women in the landscape with their trademark fishing creels. Anita meets historian Katrina Porteous and modern basket maker Liz Balfour to learn more about the tradition of these baskets and how, for centuries, they were used by the local women.