Chasing whales with my toddler son

Growing up in Jersey, Doreen Cunningham was always obsessed with whales. The sea was a constant in her early life and then, as a young journalist reporting on climate change, she met a whaling community in the Arctic who became a second family. So when later, with a young child, she found herself in a shelter for homeless mothers, it perhaps wasn't surprising that she turned to whales for solace. She read about the incredible migration of the grey whales, from Mexico all the way to the Arctic. Inspired by the resilience and endurance of these whale mothers travelling alone with their calves she decided to drop everything and take her young son to follow them.

When Kristal Ambrose, who's from the Bahamas, had to hold down a sea turtle's flippers so that plastic could be removed from its intestines, she vowed never to drop plastic again. Her mission quickly grew, she started the Bahamas Plastic Movement to educate young people to try and tackle the problem. She told Jo Fidgen how they took their fight to the government and managed to persuade them to bring in a ban on single-use plastics. This interview was first broadcast in 2020.

(Photo: Doreen and her son Max whale-watching in 2013. Credit: Doreen Cunningham).

Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Zoe Gelber