INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
By David Mercer, news reporter Sky News has descended hundreds of feet below the Indian Ocean to broadcast the world's first live TV news
bulletin from under the sea.The launch of Deep Ocean Live saw presenter Anna Botting and Nekton mission pilot Randy Holt explore underwater
life in a mini-submarine fitted with cameras to draw attention to the plight of the world's oceans.The broadcast offered a rare glimpse at
Aldabra, one of the Earth's most heavily protected coral atolls, 600 miles southwest of the Seychelles.Image:Sky's Anna Botting and pilot
Randy Holt descended hundreds of feet below the ocean surfaceIt is the first of three days of exploration which will see small submarines
descend into the little explored "twilight zone" at a depth of 300m (984ft).At 135 metres (442ft) below the ocean's surface, Botting read
news about Theresa May's latest bid to get support for her Brexit deal and New Zealand's plans to tighten gun laws following the mosque mass
shootings which claimed 50 lives.Deep Ocean Live: First news bulletinDuring the 90-minute long underwater broadcast, a curious potato
grouper fish approached the Sky News sub before a shark roaming the ocean was spotted live on air.Sky's science correspondent Thomas Moore
said the shark sighting was a "sign of a healthy reef".More from Deep Ocean Live"There are an awful lot down there," he said.Shark
interrupts live broadcast"They are a big consumers of smaller fish on the reef
Why are there so many Because we're in the middle of a strictly enforced marine protected area."What we're seeing here is evidence that it
works."Aldabra is known as the "Galapagos of the Indian Ocean" because it has so many endemic species but it is under threat from plastic
pollution and climate change.It is on the edge of the Indian Ocean gyre, a rotating mass of water that draws in huge amounts of plastic
rubbish from as far away as southeast Asia
Several tonnes of debris have washed up on the island.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned that even if global
action to limit greenhouse gases succeeds in keeping the rise in the Earth's temperature to 2C, 99% of shallow reefs will die.The government
of the Seychelles, which has collaborated with Sky on Deep Ocean Live along with ocean research institute Nekton, recently set aside an area
of its territorial waters as a marine conservation zone, with Aldabra within the protected area.Image:The mini-submarines will reach a depth
of 300m (984ft)Sky News will be exploring even further below the ocean surface tomorrow when Mark Austin will present from the sub at
8am.The highlights from today's Deep Ocean Live coverage will be broadcast on Sky News at 8pm tonight.Sky's Ocean Rescue campaign encourages
people to reduce their single-use plastics
You can find out more about the campaign and how to get involved at www.skyoceanrescue.com.
