David Attenborough’s latest offering Ocean is perhaps his most demanding film in a long career of outstanding films about the natural world and man’s affect on it. This powerful documentary was released as a global cinema event to coincide with his 99th birthday.
Attenborough states, “I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land but at sea.”
This statement sets the scene for a challenging and at times stomach-churning voyage out to and under the vast vista that is the ocean. This documentary breaks new ground in bringing to audiences the sheer destructive power of modern fishing practices, namely bottom dredging and the use of factory ships. Cameras on the dredge net and on the deck of the factory ship expose the danger we are putting the ocean habitat in. The habitat destruction is almost too much to watch.
Attenborough’s observation, “The ocean is our planet’s greatest life support system… we are draining the life blood from our oceans,” is both accurate and depressing. Having taken the audience to the deepest depths of despair and pessimism, he lifts our spirits with the observation, “The ocean can recover faster than we have ever imagined”.
‘No take’ zones
There follows an appeal for a roll out of ‘no take’ zones. These areas ban fishing and consequently allow fish species to recover, grow to maturity and increase in number to such an extent that they spill out to surrounding areas and increase the ocean’s abundance for us all.
Scotland gets a mention. The no take zone in Lamlash Bay in Arran is groundbreaking in its approach to marine conservation. The main problem is that we cannot see what is happening beneath the waves. ‘Ocean’ allows audiences to see, at first hand, the effect the fishing industry is having on the final frontier on earth.
This documentary is a masterpiece that will leave many in the audience desperate to go out and do something about the state of our oceans. It is pertinent to remember to ‘think global, act local’. Where is the fish you eat sourced? How is it caught? Are the scallops you intend to serve at dinner this weekend hand dived or dredged off the sea floor? Does the food I serve my pets contain krill harvested from the Southern Ocean?
If the answer is ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, can I do something about it? Can I be the change I want to see? Can I do my bit to change current practices?
Ocean: made for fishing communities and beyond
Over 800 million people depend on fish for food and income. It is estimated that 37% of the world’s population live in coastal communities where fishing is a way of life. Ocean is a film that is made for them. It is not asking that we ban fishing completely or indeed stop eating sea food. It is asking that we better manage this world resource for our own sake and for that of our children and neighbours.
I hope you will go to see Ocean and that teachers, parents and grandparents will encourage their children to see it, too. Although the film is directly relevant to the fishing communities of the UK and beyond, it is for all of us to watch, discuss the issues raised, and act wherever possible.
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