Review by Ros Jones
As we all know there is only one Sir David Attenborough, but we often seem to forget that there’s also only one planet Earth and in this film we’re reminded of the precarious balance between nature and humans.
That we seem to have forgotten/ignored that we are part of nature is at our own peril, but sadly also for the incredible wildlife all around us. The film starts with a statement that the oceans are the most important habitat, because they supply more than half of the oxygen we breathe and are capable of being a huge carbon sink that could mitigate many of the effects of climate change.
The cinematography is beautiful, seeing precious and remarkable life in so many different forms.
The music (which felt especially overbearing and, at times, unnecessarily anxiety-inducing) was clearly building to a big a catastrophic ‘BUT’, which of course was to tell us that our oceans are in serious trouble.
What followed was terrific, in both senses of the word, footage of bottom-trawling fishing that destroyed diverse, colourful habitats, leaving behind a deathly pall of colourless sediment and dead, broken crustaceans and corals. This part of the film seemed to go on forever; I will freely admit that the tears were flowing, and I was gobsmacked to see that the destructive trails of the dredgers can be seen from space, over and over again, across large swathes of our oceans. I felt like all hope was gone.
Fortunately, this being Sir David Attenborough, he shone a bright and hopeful light on what could be done. The incredible thing is that not only can oceans regenerate, but at remarkable speed and, due to the connectivity, neighbouring areas can be repopulated from protected zones. This remarkable discovery is leading to a new urgency to protect up to 30% of the worlds oceans (currently less than 5% are fully protected in a meaningful way).
This is a remarkable film, an emotional and difficult watch, but a must to understand what is going on and what can be done. I loved that this was not anti-fishing, instead showing how we could envisage a future of abundance and protection for our seas, and for us. Indeed, it is already generating a response from the public, effecting change for the better. My only criticism: I wish the music was a little less domineering.
