Shipwrecked in WW1: City of Winchester now marine haven

A scuba diver who discovered the wreck of the first British merchant ship to be sunk in World War One is hoping to preserve it as a home for marine life.

Steve Dover, a British Sub Aqua Club diver from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, discovered the 6,000-tonne City of Winchester during a dive off the Hallaniyat Islands in 1998. The ship had become a man-made reef supporting dozens of species.

However, a more recent dive revealed the depletion of fish life and Mr Dover is now appealing to the government of Oman to set up a 25-mile no fishing zone around the shipwreck to allow stocks to regenerate.

The full story will be shown on Inside Out West Midlands on BBC One, 5 March at 19:30 GMT and available afterwards on iPlayer