High Seas Drifters

The oceans cover more than 70 percent of our planet. And yet, most of us live unaware of what lies beneath… or what we are doing to it.

Until the summer of 2025.

Gravelines Nuclear Power Station shut down after a “massive and unpredictable” bloom of jellyfish clogged its filters. Weeks later, the same thing happened at a second plant down the French coast. How could such simple creatures disrupt infrastructure—and what might they reveal about our oceans?

Narrated by Samantha Béart, High Seas Drifters explores the strange, ancient world of jellyfish—creatures that first learned to swim over 500 million years ago. With no central brain, but a body-wide network of sensing, they experience the ocean as an “internet of senses,” perceiving light, current, and chemistry all at once.
They are beautiful. They are feared. And increasingly, they seem to be everywhere.

Through conversations with science writer Juli Berwald, marine biologist Dr Cathy Lucas, and endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh, we uncover how jellyfish live, reproduce, and form vast blooms—seasonal explosions that can disrupt industries and reshape ecosystems.

Jellyfish are one of few creatures hardy enough to endure warming waters, overfishing, coastal construction, and pollution—filling ecological gaps and feeding on the consequences of human activity. History offers a warning: in the Black Sea, pollution and invasive species triggered a disastrous bloom that collapsed both the ecosystem and economy — and we are only just beginning to understand.

Jellyfish are not invaders. They are indicators pointing to something deeper - oceans under stress.

High Seas Drifters is about what happens when we finally pay attention—and what these ancient drifters might be trying to tell us before it’s too late.