David Attenborough’s "Ocean" Is the Wake-Up Call Our Planet Desperately Needs
I just watched Ocean , David Attenborough’s newest documentary, and honestly—it’s the film I’ve been waiting to see for my entire life. It’s bold, direct, and devastatingly clear: our oceans are being wrecked, and the biggest culprit is something most of us rarely question—industrial fishing.
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You see, for decades, environmental programming has danced around the core issue. I remember watching Blue Planet II and Blue Planet Live —visually stunning, but they stopped short of naming the real problem. Not this time. Ocean finally pulls back the curtain. It doesn’t just show us the beauty beneath the waves, but what’s being done to destroy it—particularly bottom trawling, one of the most destructive practices on Earth.
This film lands at a crucial moment. Governments are beginning to talk about marine protections again. The UK recently announced a ban on trawling in half of England’s Marine Protected Areas. Sounds promising, right? But let’s be honest—it’s not enough. This is being hailed as progress, when in reality it’s a step back from earlier promises. The Conservatives had already pledged to protect all 54 English offshore MPAs by 2024. Now we’re being told that partial protection is a win?
The truth is, these "protected" areas still allow massive, industrial trawlers to plough up seabeds, destroying habitats that took centuries to form. The result? Carbon release, habitat loss, biodiversity collapse. Our seas, once teeming with life, are reduced to lifeless mud. But if we simply stopped the damage, nature would bounce back. The life is still there—waiting.
The film also tackles a dangerous myth: that fishing is too small an industry to matter, or too important to question. But the numbers don’t lie. The UK government is throwing hundreds of millions of pounds into propping up this industry, even though it causes more damage than it brings value. Why? Because the fishing lobby holds disproportionate power. It’s political convenience, not ecological logic.
What Ocean makes so clear—and what we all need to accept—is that fish are not just "seafood" or "stocks." They are wildlife. They exist in delicate ecosystems, not on our dinner plates by default. Protection should be the rule, not the exception. Instead of carving out small sanctuaries in a sea of exploitation, we should be reversing the model. Let most of the ocean be protected, and allow some small-scale, low-impact fishing in the least vulnerable areas—ideally by coastal communities, not giant corporate fleets.
The film ends with a message that hit me like a punch: this isn’t just about saving nature—it’s about saving ourselves. We need healthy oceans for food security, for climate stability, for life itself. And the only way to ensure that is to act. Now. With courage.
Ocean is not just a film. It’s a warning. And more importantly—it’s a chance to finally do things differently. Let's not waste it.
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