The heartbreaking moment in David Attenborough’s Ocean that will haunt me forever

Ocean is the latest documentary from Sir David Attenborough (Picture: Silverback Films/Open Planet Studios/Keith Scholey All Rights Reserved)

After almost 100 years on planet Earth, Sir David Attenborough marks his birthday today with a stark warning that the oceans are heading into an underwater apocalypse – but there is hope. 

Ocean arrives in cinemas today ahead of the UN’s Oceans Day on June 8, which is campaigning for 30% of the world’s oceans to be protected from exploitation and reckless overfishing. 

As it stands, just 3% of the world’s oceans are protected this way – those areas have been essentially abandoned by fishermen, and as a result, they’re flourishing.

Almost every country on Earth has agreed to make this happen on paper – now they have to keep their promise. 

Visually, Ocean is Attenborough’s most impressive work across his 60-year broadcasting career. He says himself that even during his lifetime, the ocean was widely thought of as a vast, deserted wilderness – a mysterious realm. 

We’ve been left to imagine what lies beneath the ocean’s surface. It’s only now we know the colour and life that thrives across huge areas larger than the Sahara desert, with millions of species vital to keep the ocean successfully operating.

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Few, if any, documentaries before Ocean have captured its wonder and magic with such cinematic scope.

Attenborough has long called for protection of the oceans, and in his later years has spent most of his energy making the passionate plea to save the planet that’s been his home for a century. 

Ocean might be his most compelling argument yet, and one moment in particular will haunt me for years to come. 

After 30 minutes of celebrating the extraordinary life in our waters, Ocean takes a turn. The tide shifts, and for the first time, we see camera footage taken from beneath a trawler, capturing the total devastation left in its wake. 

Trawler fishing sees huge ships storm across the water, dragging giant nets and chains across the ocean floor, wiping out entire ancient ecosystems in minutes. Areas as large as the Amazon rainforest, bursting with life, are wiped out every year. 

Few documentaries before Ocean have captured its wonder of our planet’s seas (Picture: National Geographic)

I’ve never seen anything quite so heartbreaking in any of Attenborough’s damning body of work – it’s essentially a war zone with the bodies piling up before our eyes. 

He then tells us that only 25% of the fish caught are actually kept, the rest is just thrown out as waste. It’s happening everywhere – aside from the aforementioned protected 3% of the ocean – including right here on British shores.

Seabeds around the UK are being taken out for the sake of a few scallops, and despite the international pledge to protect the oceans, all of this is entirely legal and even encouraged by many governments. 

Yet the film is also a haunting reminder of the ocean’s fragility (Picture: National Geographic) 6 KEY FACTS TO TAKEAWAY FROM OCEAN All coral reefs are predicted to die in the next 30 years  Less than 3% of the global ocean is protected, but in reality, that means basically none is really protected  We have now killed two-thirds of all predatory fish Three billion people depend on the ocean for food Seagrass meadows exist all across the globe, absorb twice as much carbon as the rainforests, while ocean plankton absorbs a third of all carbon emissions and creates half the air we breathe  An area the size of the Amazon rainforest is trawled every year, releasing carbon dioxide and warming our planet

Sharks and tortoises survived the dinosaurs – but they won’t survive us, warns Attenborough. Two-thirds of all large predatory fish have been killed, largely due to trawling. 

Ocean is packed with chilling facts which perhaps have been told through many versions of Attenborough’s various pleas to save the planet before it’s too late but in this, his big screen appeal, it hits so much harder. 

It’s both a feast for the eyes, celebrating this wonderful world beneath the surface we know so little about, and a horror film about how we’re swiftly destroying it beyond repair. 

It does, however, stress that there is so much hope and a future that can so easily be built for the ocean and everything in it.

Humans needs the oceans to survive as well (Picture: National Geographic)

At no point does Attenborough or anyone else in the film suggest we should stop eating fish to protect the ocean. The onus is entirely on careless overfishing and the vast amount of waste it produces. 

If anything, Ocean stresses that it is not against fishing entirely, but without conservation, there is no fish.

All life came from the ocean, and all life depends on the ocean. While we’re living in the greatest age of ocean discovery, we’re also living in the greatest age of ocean destruction and all life – including human – will not survive at its current rate. 

Parts of the ocean that have been untouched by fishing, which Attenborough calls ‘no take zones’, are recovering at a much greater rate than anyone could have predicted – they’re thriving and flourishing beyond recognition. Wildlife thought to be on the brink of extinction is being found in great numbers again. 

The oceans can be saved, but action must be taken and soon (Picture: National Geographic)

It’s hard to imagine watching the credits roll and not being deeply affected by Ocean for a long time. It’s as beautiful at times as it is stark in others, and yes, there is the promise of hope that all is not a lost cause. 

But that hope can only survive through action, and watching Ocean isn’t enough. Cutting down on the consumption of fish isn’t enough.

The future is dependent on governments taking overfishing as seriously as they would to a terrorist attack on their own land. 

My hope is in Attenborough and the message he will eventually leave behind. My fear is that the only people who can make the change happen aren’t listening. 

Ocean with David Attenborough is now screening in cinemas nationwide, airs Sunday, June 8 at 8pm on National Geographic and streams the same day on Disney+. 

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