What remains

Over the last 90 years, Louisiana has lost some 2,000 square miles of coastline owing to a complex set of factors that includes climate change. In What Remains, the US filmmaker Pavoo Hanninen captures a simple yet effective effort to preserve and restore the coast. With striking cinematography and a rustic string score, Hanninen traces the path of an oyster caught in Barataria Bay from a fishing boat to a local restaurant and, ultimately, the return of its shell to the coast through the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s oyster shell recycling programme. There, newly restored oyster reefs protect the shoreline from erosion and support complex ecosystems and sustainable fisheries. The resulting short documentary is a rich portrait of a practice that’s not just sustainable, but restorative. How oyster cultivation protects Louisiana’s fragile coastline videoFood and drink The best way to eat an oyster is the way you like it at the moment you crave it 5 minutes videoLove and friendship Fighting the tide: a Louisiana bayou couple’s 70 bittersweet years of marriage 13 minutes videoBiotechnology It’s our responsibility to engineer corals that can weather the world we’ve created 11 minutes videoEcology and environmental sciences The grassroots project that’s restoring an endangered Hawaiian ecosystem 22 minutes videoGender Defying social pressure, a woman commits herself to lobster fishing and the sea 11 minutes videoEcology and environmental sciences Watch as wanderlust propels mussels on epic journeys worthy of a Pixar movie 5 minutes videoFamily life For Dulce, the rite of passage of learning to swim might soon be her means of survival 11 minutes videoEarth science and climate A biologist on the sorrows of documenting the Great Salt Lake’s collapse 6 minutes videoEcology and environmental sciences How beautiful bioluminescent bacteria can expose invisible water pollution 3 minutes