David Attenborough’s new film is Attenborough in full campaign mode. Yes – there are the stunning underwater images we have come to expect – apex predators smashing into rolling bait balls, but those aren’t the images cinemagoers will remember. It is the graphic and brutal depiction of bottom trawling and scallop dredging and the massive factory ships scooping vast shoals of krill from the Antarctic – under the noses of humpback whales.
The film’s message is simple – that the scale, intensity and ubiquity of fishing, and particularly bottom trawling, has depleted the ocean - from our coastal waters to the high sea, from the poles to the tropics. The contrast between the vibrant, colourful marine life of Lamlash Bay and the desolate, scarred seabed nearby in the Clyde is compelling.
Sir David can see a different future. Around the world, again and again, the sea has bounced back to life after being given protection – and this bounce-back has happened remarkably quickly. 'No-take zones', or what we’ve been calling Highly Protected Marine Areas, remove that endless pressure and allow life on the seabed and in the ocean to recover. We’ve known this for a long time, but such areas are incredibly difficult to designate. They are seen as being against the fishing industry, yet they have been shown to benefit fishers as well as marine life - by producing more fish.
The scene that moved me most was the sight of hundreds of fin whales spouting in the Antarctic – this is a species almost driven to extinction 50 years ago. It is this resilience that gives some hope. If we properly protect enough of the ocean – the recommendation is 30% by 2030, we could see a return of abundance and productivity to levels not seen for over a lifetime, even one as long as David Attenborough’s. These no-take zones need to be across the globe, large and small, on the high seas and especially in our coastal waters.
In a few weeks’ time, world leaders will meet in Nice for the United Nations Ocean Conference. Sir David is urging those leaders to take what might be a last chance to reverse the current devastation and commit to that 30%. Add your voice to that call.
The film ends with Sir David looking out across Studland Bay – designated a Marine Conservation Zone in May 2019. Six years later, there is nothing to stop a trawler coming into the Bay (there is a byelaw awaiting ministerial sign-off that will protect the seagrass meadow but that will still leave 40% of the Bay open to trawling.)
While the film is compelling and the message is clear, I worry that no-one is watching. I watched it at the Odeon in Dorchester. It was not well advertised - there was no poster, it was only on for one screening and barely a third of the seats were taken (and I knew many of the audience). It is showing at various places in Dorset over the next few weeks – go and see it, tell your friends to see it, tell your MP and councillors to see it (Dorset Council got a mention in the credits – the film opening and closing sequences are shot in Dorset).
While Sir David is hopeful, for some things it may already be too late. The recent global coral bleaching event caused by an unprecedented heatwave shows that the predicted demise of coral reefs globally in the next 30 years is not just a scare story. I’ve been privileged to dive on healthy coral reefs – even to witness a mass coral spawning event on the Great Barrier Reef. That we might lose one of the natural wonders of the world as a consequence of global warming is difficult to comprehend. And this could happen before I even approach David Attenborough’s age.
