The BLT Episode 17: Sewage, Seals, Self-Satisfied

Maybe it’s all the rain we’ve had this week, but our thoughts have been with all things water and water dwelling.

Any BLT regulars will know our love of animal-based news stories, and in this episode, we managed to include two!

So, get your wet suit on and join us as we take a dive through the stories and easter eggs in this week’s BLT!

Do you have some news that’s perfect for the BLT that we’ve missed? Tell us, and find out more about how we work by getting in contact today!

Can you see the carp for the crap?

UK waterways can’t be much fun for fish at the moment. An interactive map released by Thames Water has revealed the shocking scale of untreated sewage discharges entering our rivers.

At the village of Marsh Gibbon, sewage was discharged for 395 hours (16 days). For more details and reaction, read this article.

Lake visitor does not get seal of approval 

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that one seal has found its way to fresher water and made Rochford Reservoir in Essex it’s home. The seal has avoided being captured and has been described as ‘living its best life’, surrounded by expensive and delicious fish. So far, it’s got through £3000 worth.

It’s safe to say that Nick North, who manages the reservoir for Marks Hall Fisheries is not impressed. Find out more about this intrepid, and presumably vey satisfied seal, here.

James Pond strikes again

We love a good visual reference and couldn’t resist adding a callback to everyone’s favourite video game hero and underwater secret agent, James Pond. What we love most is the tagline to James Pond 2, “he's mean, he's green, he's part machine,” none of which is true.

Seaside town sees too much

While the Rochford seal hasn’t won everybody over, Thor the walrus has made a much better impression on the residents of Scarborough. So much so, that they cancelled the fireworks on New Year’s Eve to stop him getting distressed.

As the parent shielding his child’s eyes shows, Scarborians aren’t completely happy with Thor, who has some very public and very intimate habits….

We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s BLT! We can’t wait to bring life together next week in another news round-up. We love using visual thinking and visual storytelling to create connected and layered whiteboard animations like this. We’d love to talk to you about how your message could look as a whiteboard animation, contact us today!