NICE, France (AP) 鈥� An ominous chain unspools through the water. Then comes chaos. A churning cloud of mud erupts as a net plows the seafloor, wrenching rays, fish and a squid from their home in a violent swirl of destruction. This is industrial bottom trawling. It鈥檚 not CGI. It鈥檚 real. And it鈥檚 legal.
鈥淥cean With David Attenborough鈥� is a brutal reminder of how little we see and how much is at stake. The film is both a sweeping celebration of marine life and a stark expos茅 of the forces pushing the ocean toward collapse.
The , now 99, anchors the film with a deeply personal reflection: 鈥淎fter living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea.鈥�
The film traces Attenborough's lifetime 鈥� an era of unprecedented ocean discovery 鈥� through the lush beauty of coral reefs, kelp forests and deep-sea wanderers, captured in breathtaking, revelatory ways.
But this is not the Attenborough film we grew up with. As the environment unravels, so too has the tone of his storytelling. 鈥淥cean鈥� is more urgent, more unflinching. Never-before-seen footage of mass coral bleaching, dwindling fish stocks and industrial-scale exploitation reveals just how vulnerable the sea has become. The film鈥檚 power lies not only in what it shows, but in how rarely such destruction is witnessed.
鈥淚 think we鈥檝e got to the point where we鈥檝e changed so much of the natural world that it鈥檚 almost remiss if you don鈥檛 show it,鈥� co-director Colin Butfield said. 鈥淣obody鈥檚 ever professionally filmed bottom trawling before. And yet it鈥檚 happening practically everywhere.鈥�
The practice is not only legal, he adds, but often subsidized.
鈥淔or too long, everything in the ocean has been invisible,鈥� Butfield said. 鈥淢ost people picture fishing as small boats heading out from a local harbor. They鈥檙e not picturing factories at sea scraping the seabed.鈥�
In one harrowing scene, mounds of unwanted catch are dumped back into the sea already dead. About 10 million tons (9 million metrics tonnes) of marine life are caught and discarded each year as bycatch. In some bottom trawl fisheries, discards make up more than half the haul.
Still, 鈥淥cean鈥� is no eulogy. Its final act offers a stirring glimpse of what recovery can look like: kelp forests rebounding under protection, vast marine reserves teeming with life and the world鈥檚 largest albatross colony thriving in Hawaii鈥檚 Papah膩naumoku膩kea Marine National Monument. These aren鈥檛 fantasies; they鈥檙e evidence of what the ocean can become again, if given the chance.
Timed to World Oceans Day and the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, the film arrives amid a growing global push to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 鈥� a goal endorsed by more than 190 countries. But today, just 2.7% of the ocean is effectively protected from harmful industrial activity.
The film鈥檚 message is clear: The laws of today are failing the seas. So-called 鈥減rotected鈥� areas often aren鈥檛. And banning destructive practices like bottom trawling is not just feasible 鈥� it鈥檚 imperative.
As always, Attenborough is a voice of moral clarity. 鈥淭his could be the moment of change,鈥� he says. 鈥淥cean鈥� gives us the reason to believe 鈥� and the evidence to demand 鈥� that it must be.
鈥淥cean鈥� premieres Saturday on National Geographic in the U.S. and streams globally on Disney+ and Hulu beginning Sunday.
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Annika Hammerschlag, The Associated Press
