Seas Wild UK

Right now, nearly 4,500 miles away,

Matt Baker and the rest of the Wild Alaska Live team are witnessing

the world's greatest feast.

After months of being frozen,

the arrival of summer brings a four-month rush to feed and breed,

attracting eagles, sharks, bears and wolves,

all triggered by the annual arrival of Pacific salmon

to this vast wilderness.

Wild Alaska Live is capturing this incredible spectacle.

And we are here every day this week bringing you to the wilder places

closer to home, right here in the UK.

As a wildlife cameraman, I've travelled all over the world

but the wildlife and wild landscapes of these islands holds

a special place in my heart and are full of surprising wildlife stories.

As a zoologist, I love getting out

and about to the wilder parts of the UK to check out inspirational

conservation projects that keep places like this, Cuil Bay, wild.

Over this series, we're travelling from rivers to mountains,

from forest to seas,

and even celebrating some of our wildest cities,

to bring you the best our country has to offer.

The UK is a lot wilder than you might think.

This is Wild UK.

Each day this week, we'll be looking at a different wilderness in the UK.

Now, today, we're revealing

the wildness of the seas that surround our islands.

I think we're all fascinated by the sea at some level.

I mean, just walk along a seashore like this

and you can make all sorts of little discoveries.

That's right. They're tantalising clues, aren't they, to the wonderful

wildlife that is hidden in our seas.

Like out there, in the wild Atlantic Ocean?

Our seas and coasts are home to a vast array of wildlife that

few of us ever get to witness.

Later in the show, I'm visiting a place dubbed "Eagle Island",

to witness an inspirational wild recovery project.

That is just a magnificent beast!

I'm enjoying a jewel of a wilderness of the Northumbrian coast,

home to some of our largest nesting colonies of sea birds.

I'm sorry - we're just passing through.

And we're joined by some familiar faces sharing their best past

experiences of the wildlife that relies on our seas and shorelines,

and the conservation success stories that have helped them.

The only way I'm going to estimate the size of that beast

is to swim next to it.

But, first, a snapshot of our seas and our marine habitats in 2017.

As an island nation,

the UK is surrounded by the sea.

No-one living here is ever more than around 70 miles -

110km - from the coast.

And with 7,500 miles - 12,000km - of it,

there's a lot of coastline to visit.

And it's quite some coast.

From the vast, white sandy beaches of the Hebrides,

to the dramatic and iconic white cliffs of southern England.

The UK is home to 25 species of sea bird.

They compete for fish alongside seven species of dolphin.

And, sometimes, even whales.

If you take the plunge,

a dive can reveal hidden secrets of cold water reefs...

..and wildlife havens on stricken ships.

And it's not just wildlife.

Our coast attracts millions of holiday-makers every year and

provides a living for an estimated 12,000 fishermen and women.

Whether it's the North Sea,

the Irish Sea, the English Channel or the Atlantic Ocean,

our waters help define our nation.

Of that, you can be sure.

Now, I've always loved beachcombing,

and this place is proving to be a little treasure trove.

And I remember, as a kid, when I found one of these,

it used to be incredibly exciting.

This is actually the egg case of some kind of ray.

Now, they're known as "mermaids' purses".

I always thought that was a wonderful name

and if you're ever out wandering along the shore and you find these,

it means that the creatures that laid them are not too far away.

There are at least 39 species of sharks

and rays that are regularly found in UK waters, from small cat sharks to

sleek blue sharks, but not all of them lay eggs in cases.

They're beautiful things, I always thought.

Yeah, that's a magnificent specimen.

Of course, the thing about the bigger sharks is that they give

birth to live young, so they don't leave evidence like this

lying around on the shoreline.

If you want to find out about those sharks,

you've got to go into the ocean.

And that's exactly what the naturalist, Mike Dilger did,

on the island of Mull in 2015.

In the summer months,

our western shores are visited by Britain's largest fish,

the basking shark.

Weighing in at up to seven tonnes,

they sustain their enormous bulk

on a diet of tiny animals - plankton.

I've come to the Inner Hebrides to catch up on the latest discoveries

of these animals and to try and get close enough to see

how big these gentle giants really are.

They may be huge,

but they're actually remarkably difficult to find.

So, we've come to Mull, one of the best places to see them,

and teamed up with skipper James Fairbairns.

James, the basking shark is a big fish,

but they're surprisingly tough to spot.

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.

They're not like a mammal, like a whale or a dolphin,

which needs to come to the surface to breathe.

They are only coming up to feed. They're coming up for the plankton.

So, the chances are it might never come up unless the plankton's there.

And why is this area so good for them?

Well, we think a lot to do with it is that these waters are warmed

by the Gulf Stream.

There's nutrients being brought into these waters.

Also, the areas where they're being seen are relatively shallow,

so these nutrients are been pushed up to where the plankton is

blooming and, of course, they're gorging on that plankton.

But, plankton are constantly moving around because of the

currents in the water, so just knowing where the sharks are

most likely to be is no guarantee that they'll actually be there.

This might be a huge animal, but look around me.

It's still, effectively, a needle in a haystack.

But, very quickly, shark-spotter Andy sees a dark shape in the water.

Shark!

Shark, right of the lighthouse!

There it is! Oh, I've just seen...I've just seen the dorsal fin

and the tail fin together.

It almost looks like there's two sharks.

It isn't, it's just one very large one.

And we don't want to lose our chance,

so I'm getting kitted up as quickly as I can.

I'm suited up, I've got my flippers, snorkel and mask.

The only way I'm going to estimate the size of the beast

is to swim next to it.

What a monster!

They might look slow, but they can swim a lot faster than I can,

and they appear very quickly out of the murk.

It's heading right for me,

but this giant shark presents no danger to me.

These basking sharks have absolutely enormous mouths -

up to a metre wide.

They can filter the equivalent of an Olympic-sized swimming pool

of water through their gill-rakers every hour.

That translates into about 30kg of zooplankton everyday.

I'm actually swimming in a living soup of basking shark food.

I'm near enough two metres tall.

From our drone footage, that makes this fish

an incredible seven metres long.

These fish can grow up to 12 metres in length.

Basking sharks are true giants,

and yet, despite scientists' best efforts, we still don't know exactly

where they go when they disappear from our shores.

There's something about seeing an animal coming towards you

with a mouth that wide, that's THAT huge,

that weighs seven tonnes

that's memorable and awe-inspiring in equal measure.

And the mystery that still surrounds these giants

only makes them even more extraordinary.

Magnificent creatures.

You know, I try and get to swim with them every summer.

And you never tire of that great, big white mouth coming at you

under water. I know they're benign creatures,

but they just feel enormous when you're in that situation.

But this is the time for seeing them. Not just off Scotland,

but summer is when the plankton blooms

and you find them off the north coast of Ireland

or the Isle of Man or the south-west of England.

Now, I know I said earlier that these big sharks leave no trace on

our shores. But that's not exactly true.

Because there was a spectacular exception to that rule

earlier this year,

when a basking shark washed up on the shores of Cornwall.

It can be quite sad to see a dead shark.

But for scientists,

this is an unbelievable opportunity for them to learn more about this

really poorly-understood animal.

The thing is, when a shark does wash up on shore,

they tend to decompose very quickly.

So the scientists had to act really fast.

Of course, there's no bone in a shark. They're made of cartilage.

So the evidence doesn't last long.

No, no bones at all, not like whales and dolphins.

Which is a shame, because bones can be incredibly useful and tell you

so much about the animal.

Not just about animals that live now,

but about long-lost beasts that once roamed this land.

As marine biologist Miranda Krestovnikoff discovered,

as she hit the high seas off the east coast of the UK.

This is the North Sea, 85 miles off the Suffolk coast.

Today, I'm on a fishing trip with a difference.

We're trawling the sea bed about 25 metres beneath this vessel.

But it's not fish that we're after.

We're hoping to catch something altogether much more extraordinary -

mammoth bones.

50,000 years ago, this body of water didn't exist.

Now, the Suffolk coastline is in that direction.

And the Dutch sandy dunes are over there.

So, beneath me, right now, was once part of mainland Europe.

Fertile feeding grounds, home to the Ice Age giants.

I've been invited on today's expedition by one of the world's

leading mammoth specialists,

Dick Mol. Now, often in the movies,

woolly mammoths get depicted in a very snowy landscape.

Is that what it would have been like here?

No, the Ice Age woolly mammoth was living on a grassland environment.

This was like a Serengeti.

No elephants, but mammoths.

No black rhinos, but woolly rhinos.

There were hyenas, lions.

It was quite spectacular.

This giants' paradise didn't last forever, though.

Around 11,000 years ago, dramatic changes of climate took place.

The ice was melting,

and the mammoths' temperate environment disappeared.

And at the same time, it causes the extinction of these big animals.

Britain became cut off from mainland Europe.

And this once-perfect habitat was drowned

in what is now the North Sea.

The remains of its past inhabitants are still here, though.

As the first nets are brought in, the decks are busy with activity.

And we strike lucky on the very first trawl.

Oh, look here, look!

-Look!

-Wow!

-Wow!

-Look, can you see?

-Wow, that's amazing.

-Wow!

-Fantastic.

-Look at that!

-This one, oh...

-That is huge!

-So, is this exciting or not?!

It's absolutely incredible.

I expected a few small bits and pieces, but that's absolutely amazing.

Next job is to get the bones out.

You must be absolutely bursting with excitement.

This is very, very exciting.

Can you put it over there?

-Don't drop it!

-I won't! Oh!

SHE LAUGHS

It's not all about size, though.

Look! A very nice heel bone of a female woolly mammoth.

How do you know it's female just by looking at it?

Because it's so small.

In a male, it would be twice as big.

OK. Now, what have you got?

-Look here.

-Wow! What is that? That looks amazing.

It's a mammoth's molar. Of a very young individual.

I was going to say, I thought they were really big.

No, this is a young one, this is a milk molar, so to say.

-It's an upper molar.

-So it's like that?

-Exactly.

-In the tooth.

-And this here is the grinding surface.

Wow!

And it's not just mammoth bones we're finding.

Look at this beautiful specimen. That's a woolly rhino.

OK, they were around at the same time as the woolly mammoth?

The same time. They were fellow travellers, so to say.

But, look, it is damaged here, here and here.

This is eaten by hyenas.

You can see the grooves here.

Oh, my God, you can. You're absolutely right.

That's just mind-blowing.

That's a little story from the past there, right there in a bone.

Throughout the next few hours,

we pull up more and more of these wonderful artefacts.

So, are these bones just lying on the bottom of the sea at the moment?

Are they not covered with layers and layers of sediment?

No, they are embedded in the sediment, in sand,

and this sand is covered by a layer of clay,

preserving the bones in these conditions.

Here, sand is dredged away from the sea bed, deep in the sea,

so that the big tankers can enter the harbour of Rotterdam.

And everything which is heavy, like the mammoth bones,

remain on the sea floor.

And then we come with our nets and take it.

You and me, we are the first ones who are seeing these bones.

Nobody else has seen them before.

I'm the first person who's ever touched that bone.

Exactly, it's 40,000 years old.

It's really, really special.

All these bones are from around 30-40,000 years ago.

And they'll be added to the team's collection from the Pleistocene -

a period in time often called the last Ice Age.

It's now one of the most complete collections in the world.

The collection isn't normally open to the public.

But today, The One Show has been given exclusive access.

This is our storage.

It looks like a cemetery, but it isn't!

That's incredible! And this is all from the North Sea?

-All from the North Sea.

-Over the last few years,

this full mammoth skeleton has been taking shape.

This is phenomenal.

Are these all from one individual, then?

No, no, these are bones of many, many different individuals.

You need to have thousands and thousands of bones,

all remains of animals of the same sex, the same size and the same age.

OK, so what sex and what age have we got here?

This is a female of about 45 years at time of death.

And tell me, what's it like when you find one of your missing bones?

Oh, it gives you a lot of excitement!

Because you find a missing part, it's part of a puzzle.

So, yeah, when you find a tiny little tail vertebra, it makes me happy.

Dick hopes this epic jigsaw and all the other Ice Age animal bones

will educate people about the importance

of the North Sea's vibrant past.

I've now got a real sense of what life was once like on the land that

stretched between here and the British Isles -

a place home to an abundance of wildlife

more spectacular than anything we can see today.

Our seas and coastlines are really magical places.

But we can't afford to take them for granted.

But throughout this series,

we are witnessing the extraordinary lengths that some individuals go to

to conserve our wildlife and our wild places.

One particularly successful conservation project

involved Britain's largest bird of prey.

In the 19th century in Scotland,

the white-tailed sea eagle was a relatively common sight.

But by 1918, it had been hunted and persecuted into extinction.

However, a reintroduction project began in 1975 on the island of Rum.

Neighbouring island Mull is now a hot spot for these birds.

And just a few weeks ago, Lucy paid them a visit.

Famed for its wild, rugged scenery,

the island of Mull is a haven for wildlife.

And thanks to an amazing reintroduction project,

sea eagles have been nesting here for the last 40 years.

I joined the RSPB's David Sexton to track down one of the nests.

So, this is the spot.

So if you look just down here through the gap into the forestry trees,

there's one tree on its own, and the nest is about halfway down. Got it?

Yes! OK, OK.

So those birds that you are looking at are chicks.

No!

They are, like, eight or nine weeks old now.

So they're fully feathered.

They're just a week off being fully grown.

And it's great to get to this stage.

Because, often eagles in the nest,

one chick hatches and might kill the sibling.

The other... They don't often raise two.

But sea eagles do more often than other eagles.

And fingers crossed, all being well for the next two or three weeks,

they'll have made it and they'll take their first flight,

and that'll be that, they're on their way.

And if you just go at about 11 o'clock from the nest up onto the branch,

there's the adult bird, sitting there.

-Yes!

-Got it?

-Yeah.

Amazing pale head, big yellow beak, and that amazing white tail.

And then those talons are, presumably, the size of your hands.

They are, and it's just phenomenal when you see them up close.

Eagles are really adaptable.

They'd be as happy in the marshes and the fens of East Anglia as they

are in the mountains and sea lochs of Scotland.

Given time and space and a bit of patience,

they will start to reoccupy that former range.

To see them in action for myself, I've joined Martin Keevers,

who is a bit of an expert when it comes to getting close encounters.

All he needs is a few mackerel to lure them in.

Martin's just choosing a fish to throw to our eagle, in the hope

that she'll come and catch it.

In she comes! Gosh, she's a magnificently big bird!

Wow! That's fantastic, isn't it?

-It's beautiful.

-You must never get bored of your job.

Oh, never. I never get tired of seeing that, ever, no.

So, is there a danger that, by feeding them, you'll change their behaviour?

If you feed them too much, then yes, it probably would do.

But we take advice from the RSPB and Scottish National Heritage

of an amount that we can give them

so that it won't change their natural behaviour.

When sea eagles have young to feed,

they would naturally be taking up to eight fish per day.

Martin knows this bird well.

And this year, he has one chick on the nest.

-Do you know that bird?

-We've done it for a couple of years now.

Yeah, he's not the cleanest and smartest-dressed eagle in the world,

so we've given him the nickname of Compo, but he's a fantastic bird,

he's a good dad. He's got a chick this year.

Obviously he's taking that fish back now to feed his youngsters.

And we've just got another eagle coming on the back of the boat now.

-Is that Compo?

-Our old friend, Compo.

-Compo's coming back for more?

Compo's not so shabby, actually, he's coming back for seconds.

Do you want to see if you can give him a fish?

I'd love to!

All right, here we go, Compo.

In he comes!

Cruising, with ease.

Yes!

That is so cool!

I just fed some Sea Eagle chicks.

That is just a great feeling.

Absolutely wonderful.

These majestic birds have made a great comeback since their reintroduction

over 40 years ago.

And their future here and across the UK is looking bright.

So, the sea eagle population here in Mull is actually self-sustaining.

And so that means that the wildlife here in Mull is absolutely thriving.

To be able to sustain a bird like that...

This is a truly wild place.

They really are such wonderful birds and isn't it great to have them back?

But, you know, we're lucky to live in a place that's got such a varied

coastline and has proved inspirational for photographers.

And many of you have been sharing your photographs and experiences with us

at the hashtag #MyWilderness.

Like this view of Arran from Seamill Beach in West Kilbride in Scotland.

And this of Chanters Cave on Ramsey Island in Wales.

Or this beauty from the Hebridean island of South Uist.

Now, please do keep sharing your wild experiences online with us

using the hashtag #MyWilderness.

Now, Alaska's wilderness is being revealed all this week on BBC One

and online and our crews have been out there travelling huge distances

to find the very best wildlife there is on offer.

And on tonight's show, we'll be introducing you to the families

of orcas and the scientists that are researching them.

To give you a taster, Wild UK have gone behind the scenes

to see just how do the crew get such stunning shots of orcas in the wild.

To capture orcas, the Wild Alaska team travelled to Kenai Fjords.

Their base for this five-day expedition is the Dora,

a fishing and research vessel which the seven-strong team first have to

load up with over 25 boxes of hi-tech equipment

they'll need in order to capture the close-up views

of orca they're after.

Director Tom Paine explains the plan.

We travelled 26 hours, I think it was, yesterday.

So, two flights to get here. A bit of a drive. We had about five hours' sleep last night,

and the plan was to get on the water tomorrow,

but the weather's looking a bit dodgy, so we're not sure.

We're going to make a last-minute call on that.

But apparently they're seeing orca, which is what we're here to do.

So if we can film the orca, we'll be happy, really.

The team are planning to film using a complicated stabilised camera

system to capture the orcas in smooth slow-motion,

and which the cameraman needs to set up on deck

before they can leave harbour.

Despite all the hard work, if the weather and sea state don't allow it, the team won't get out at all.

And right now it's the wind that's concerning Captain Mike Brittain.

The wind is supposed to be blowing, like, 25 out of the north,

which can be challenging in some respects, especially for filming.

A little rocky. There will be spots where we'll have the lee of the land, so that it's calmer.

But it's going to be a little challenging.

Thankfully, so far, the weather is on their side.

For now. And with the boat packed and camera ready,

the team head out into the Pacific Ocean in search of orca.

The team are hoping to make the most of the opportunity of good weather.

And it's not long before orca research scientist, Dan,

has them in his sights.

They have been fishing in general.

Right now it's hard to say if they're just travelling to another

spot to try fishing again. But there was a chase down here.

Presumably a salmon.

As we saw the rooster-tailing dorsal fin through the water.

Dan knows these orca well.

But even with expert guidance,

the team are finding it very difficult to get anything on camera.

So, it's just up...there you go, nine o'clock.

One in front has just come up again and gone back down.

This one we've been following recently never fully comes up.

You just get half a fin.

This one was off turning behind you.

He's staying there behind us.

-Whoa, whoa, whoa.

-Can you see him there in the water?

There he is. Nine o'clock.

How annoying.

Frustratingly also, if I've seen the fin already, it's too late,

I have to have it before the fin breaks the surface.

It's not easy, this.

And to top it all off, there's a problem with the hi-tech camera.

My camera's stopped working.

One of the problems is that the camera inside this box gets very hot.

But, as with most things,

the only way to find out is you turn it off and on again!

In the end, the broken camera becomes the least of the team's problems.

The next day, the crew are stuck in harbour.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse,

and the equipment needs extra protection.

The following day, the sun is out and so is the team

in search of orca.

Oh, nine o'clock, 200 yards, 300 yards.

Oh, yeah, I got one.

Oh!

Dan's work involves identifying the individual orcas,

to help keep a record of their movements.

And for that he needs close-up images of their dorsal fins.

And that's also what the crew are trying to capture.

The conditions may be perfect,

but the orcas are still proving a bit tricky.

It's quite hard, this. You know they're there, but you can't see a thing.

And suddenly they're off. They may be sharp,

they may be in the frame, they may be on the edge of frame.

Slowly but surely, Ted and the team start to get the shots they were after -

orcas in slow motion, patrolling the seas.

The last couple of days have been a bit of a nightmare.

We've enjoyed the experience, but the weather's been awful,

the swell's been awful,

and now, finally, we've got a nice weather day and we're actually getting what we came here for.

So, the satisfaction is huge.

Just fingers crossed we can stay with these guys for long enough,

and maybe their behaviour will change, or maybe we'll see something different, that's the ideal.

Who knows?

It's been five long days.

But the crew and scientist Dan have finally got what they came for.

Now, the perseverance of the orca team really did pay off,

and they got some extraordinary footage, didn't they?

And there's more of that tonight on BBC One, 8pm, on Wild Alaska Live.

Now, you don't have to go to Alaska to see orcas, do you, Colin?

No, you don't. They're also found in UK waters,

particularly off the northern islands,

places like Shetland and Orkney.

And earlier in the year, they came much closer than usual

and gave the local residents quite a surprise.

This family pod turned up just off the shore and was captured on a

mobile phone by diver and photographer Richard Shucksmith.

It just goes to show that Britain is a lot wilder than you might think

and to experience it you just need to get out there

and find the wild places near you.

But if you need some extra inspiration,

then here's our guide to where the wild things are.

40% of the world's population of grey seals breed

on Britain's beaches.

The end of September to December is the best time to see pups

as they take their first swimming lessons, supervised by mum.

The Moray Firth, just north of Inverness in Scotland,

is home to Britain's largest resident population

of bottlenose dolphins, 130 strong.

We have five species of jellyfish in the UK

and the most often spotted is the moon jellyfish.

The south-west seems to be where they are seen the most.

Autumn brings more visitors.

This breathtaking murmuration of starlings in Aberystwyth has

gathered from as far afield as Russia.

It's a sight repeated in countless seaside resorts

all around the coast.

The coast of Northumberland in spring and summer

plays host to thousands of sea birds, including the shag.

You can follow their breeding behaviour,

including the entertaining race to make their nests with a limited supply of resources.

Yes, we really do have some of the great sea bird spectacles here in

the UK, but Alaska's not so shabby, you know.

They've got about double the amount of breeding pairs

that we have from about the same amount of species,

but they are six times larger than the UK.

If you want to go and see one of these sea bird colonies for yourself,

one of the really great ones lies just off the coast of Northumberland.

I have always wanted to go there and I got the opportunity

just a couple of weeks ago.

Lying off the Northumberland coast are the rugged volcanic rocks

of the Farne Islands.

Thanks to their location in the North Sea,

this wild landscape is a haven for sea birds,

with over 150,000 nesting here at the height of the breeding season.

I have never been to the Farnes before.

I can't wait to get out exploring

but I've been warned to bring a hat.

The first to greet me here are the Arctic terns

and they're not entirely pleased to see me.

The reason they are so aggressive is they are just

trying to defend their youngsters.

Some of them are on eggs, some of them have little chicks.

They have these beautiful blood-red bills.

It is actually incredibly off-putting

and that's why they do it.

Their bites don't really hurt in any way but when they nest in a colony

and they scream and they fly about in your face,

they see me as a potential predator.

Hello.

I'm sorry, we're just passing through.

Beautiful creatures.

Thousands of them here.

And you don't have to look far to see the nests they're protecting.

If you can stop for a moment and look around,

you'll see that there are lots of nests here.

Some of them are still on eggs, some are little chicks,

some with big chicks, but they're absolutely everywhere.

It is very hard to figure out who belongs to who.

With just over 1,500 pairs,

the Arctic terns are doing really well here

and they are not the only ones.

Puffins are another of the island's most famous residents.

They come here to breed,

returning to the same underground burrows every year.

Jennifer Clark from the National Trust has been monitoring these

characterful birds and checking the progress of their youngsters.

Are you feeling anything?

-Oh.

-Have you got something?

Oh, I just felt a warm body.

Hello.

-I've got it.

-What have you got?

There we go, it's a puffin.

-Well done.

-Look at that.

That's great. So we'll just pop its wings in.

It's quite a big one, that one, so that's maybe got another week

or two before it's going to leave the burrow.

It's still very fluffy.

They can't go into the sea whilst they are fluffy like this because

the downy feathers will become waterlogged.

It needs to wait until it loses all that down.

How long does it take them from egg to leaving?

It's as an egg for 40 days and then it is a chick in the burrow

for 40 days before it leaves

and it will leave under the cover of darkness because

it is much safer to do that, less likely to get attacked by gulls,

and it will go straight into the water,

straight out to sea and that will be them until they are ready to breed

in a few years' time and they will come back to land again.

What is it being fed on?

It is being fed on sand eels,

and you will see puffins with their beaks jam-packed

full of sand eels, and they have to run a bit of a gauntlet

through the black-headed gulls because they will try and steal them

off them before they get to the burrow.

I'll let you put this little one back in the burrow.

And you see, that's the sea out there.

That's where you're going to spend the rest of your life, yeah?

The Farnes are home to an incredible 80,000 puffins.

Like other sea birds here, they have been thriving thanks to the

conservation efforts of the National Trust,

which manages these wild islands. With so many birds,

the rocks are often jam-packed and nesting sites are at a premium.

It is like a little city of guillemots here.

They really live cheek by jowl,

and I think they have one of the tiniest territories

in the bird world because, really, when you think about it,

it is just where they lay their egg.

That is the little bit of Mother Earth that they defend.

They all seem to get on somehow.

It's really a stunningly beautiful place here.

Tens of thousands of puffins.

Kittiwakes, guillemots, fulmar - all living out their lives here.

I think, in many ways, sea bird colonies are our wildest places.

It was great to get to the Farne Islands at last.

It is a place I'd always wanted to get to but the one thing you don't

notice on television, of course, is how bad they smell.

The place is full of guano and the smell of that,

I can still smell it now.

I can smell it on you actually, Colin, if I'm honest!

But I reckon sea bird colonies are about the closest things we've got

to the Serengeti, that real sense of wildlife all around you.

It did look fantastically wild, I have to say,

but the sad thing is that although these are spectacular wild places,

man is having an impact and some sea bird colonies you will find now

nests are being built with bits of plastic,

where birds have mistaken those for seaweed.

On the island of Grassholm off West Wales, for instance,

the nesting gannet population is really suffering the effects of

plastic pollution and volunteers regularly save over 50 birds a year.

Yeah, it's shocking really.

There's been a study that was published fairly recently that said

that perhaps 90% of the sea birds in the world now contain plastic

in their stomachs. So what can we do about it?

That's you and I.

Use less plastic, try and avoid it at all costs wherever possible

and if you find it, dispose of it properly.

And plastic pollution isn't just a problem for our shorelines

and wild spaces above the waves.

As the One Show's Miranda Krestovnikoff discovered in 2013

when she headed to Pembrokeshire.

The Pembrokeshire coast is the only coastal National Park in the UK,

reflecting the importance and beauty of this area above the waves.

And life below the waves here is just as stunning.

In 2004, around 1,400 square kilometres of sea

off this coastline was designated a special area of conservation.

Yet just because it is highly protected by law it doesn't mean

the underwater world is out of harm's way.

A national beach clean-up held in 2012 showed that the amount of

litter on our shores had increased by 15% in just one year.

And that rubbish can easily make its way from our beaches

into the marine environment

where the problem becomes much less visible.

Out of sight is often out of mind, but not for Neptune's Army,

Britain's only dedicated marine rubbish collecting team.

Their mission, to keep the underwater world pristine.

Davy Jones has been volunteering with them for five years.

We all know the shopping trolleys, they turn up quite regularly,

plastic bowls, rod tips.

-Loads of lead weights.

-Loads of lead weights, yeah.

I think our record is 730 in one dive.

No way.

Satellite dishes, computers,

a whole range of things you wouldn't expect us to find in the sea.

Everything including the kitchen sink.

And where is that coming from them?

Sadly I think this sort of stuff is probably fly-tipped.

I think people probably find it easier to throw things in the sea,

perhaps, than go to their local tip, which is a bit of shame.

And today I am joining in with the clean-up.

My dive buddy is Dave Kennard,

the man who brought this cleaning army together.

The group's been running since 2005

and it always amazes us how much we keep coming back and finding.

The site we have come to today hasn't been dived by Neptune's Army yet this year.

We are armed with a collecting crate because Dave is expecting plenty of rubbish.

A very pretty dive site.

Beautiful. Oh!

I love the sort of diving where you feel you've entered this underwater

kingdom, the water encrusted with all sorts of sea life.

Today is not a pleasure dive, though,

and it doesn't take long before we find what we are looking for.

Look, Dave, I bet you find a lot of that sort of stuff, don't you?

Line and weights and hooks and everything.

Just a fishing weight lying here, metre and metres of it.

Look at that. One more for the bag.

'It's staggering just how much broken fishing line we are finding

'and it doesn't just look unsightly, it can be really damaging too.'

Just imagine if you're a crab,

a spider crab with all those little spiky edges

and you are walking along the rocks and you meet one of those.

Ow!

This footage shot by Neptune's Army

shows that much of the clean-up diver's time is spent

untangling animals caught in old fishing equipment.

Lots of the rubbish they find can leak poisonous chemicals

which can kill wildlife.

It's astonishing, all that rubbish off the sea bed.

'Time to send today's haul to the surface so the boat can pick it up.'

I was quite depressed actually.

I was quite pleased with what we were doing.

We were doing a really important job.

As divers, I felt there was a real purpose to our dive,

but this made me feel quite upset, really.

There is lots more out there to be cleaned, sadly.

If you see a bit of rubbish, just pick it up.

You have an impact straight away, really.

On one dive you feel like you've made a difference.

Experiences like this remind me of

just how critical volunteers are to wildlife conservation.

These guys may be the only dedicated team of marine rubbish collectors in

Britain, but I hope through their work they will inspire more people

to get involved. Our seas certainly need it.

They really do, but the good thing is,

that particular team have completed over 100 dives now

on the Pembrokeshire coast

and they are on an awareness-raising mission.

And that really is the most important thing

because the fundamental answer to this problem, really,

is to stop plastic getting into our oceans in the first place.

Tomorrow on Wild UK,

we turn our attention to mountains

and the wildlife that makes our Highlands their home.

Colin discovers the secret past of Snowdonia.

It really feels very isolated

and I've just realised I can't see another living soul.

Lucy encounters the king of corvids, the raven.

And, on a remote island in the sea, we go behind the scenes with

the Wild Alaska team as they say, they are the walrus.

You can keep up with all the latest news from the Wild Alaska team

online all this week

and don't forget to tune in tonight on BBC One at 8pm

for all the latest wild happenings from Alaska.

And join us again tomorrow, BBC One, 9.15 am

for more Wild UK - because the UK is wilder than you think.