Steller's Sea Cow

Available for over a year

Rob Newman tells the story of a species we've lost forever, and explores our role in their extinction. Steller's Sea Cow was a gentle giant of the Bering Sea in the Northern Pacific, a nine-meter long relative of the Dugong and the Manatee. This is a story of swaying forests of kelp; insatiable urchins covering the sea-floor; families of sea-otters, displaced by hunting, and a growing fur-trade which threatened them all. When a delicate ecosystem gets thrown out of balance, the effects can be far-reaching, and devastating. Produced at BBC Bristol by Emily Knight. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2019.