To an extent, you know what you’re getting with a documentary film called Ocean With David Attenborough. And that is no complaint. What you’re getting, even if you’ve seen versions of this before, is an always welcome thing: a well-researched, visually sumptuous celebration of nature and examination of the ways we’re ruining it.
Attenborough, who turns 99 on the day of the film’s release, explains how the world’s oceans, and our understanding of them, have changed in his lifetime. Once full of both mystery and fish, our planet’s waters are now better understood than ever – though there are still vast depths unexplored – but their wildlife populations have been decimated by pollution and careless, excessive fishing.
The cinematography, as with just about anything Attenborough puts his name to, is stunning (directors are Toby Nowlan, Keith Scholey and Colin Butfield). As Attenborough describes the huge variety of species that live beneath the waves, we see gorgeous shots of turtles munching on coral reefs, giant whales sailing through the darkness, and seaweed forests teeming with most of the cast of Finding Nemo.
If you’ve watched BBC nature documentaries over the last decade, you’ll have seen similar images, but only the coldest of souls could ever tire of the sight of dolphins and seabirds all swarming around an undulating ball of silver fish. On the cinema screen it looks more breathtaking than it ever could on TV.
We see seaweed forests teeming with most of the cast of Finding Nemo
The warnings about what we’re doing to the oceans is sobering. If you’ve never given much consideration to the term ‘trawler fishing’, this demonstrates that it’s far less quaint than it sounds. It’s ecologically devastating. Vast ships drag chains across the ocean floor, reducing ancient ecosystems to silt, all to indiscriminately collect fish that will mostly be discarded. Roughly 25 percent of fish caught are actually kept and sold. All this information is delivered without hyperbole. The cold facts are enough to chill you.
However, this is not finger-wagging with some pretty pictures. Ocean concludes with significant notes of hope, and it doesn’t seem like forced hope either. Across the world, we see the experiments underway to restore the waters and prevent disaster. And the news is good. On this evidence, there is a very long way to go to save our seas, but we’re not quite sunk yet.
In UK and Ireland cinemas Thursday May 8.