Attenborough's Ocean a Brutal, Beautiful Wake-up Call

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's not CGI. And, as the AP reports, it's legal. Ocean With David Attenborough 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 exposé of the forces pushing the ocean toward collapse. The British naturalist and broadcaster, now 99, anchors the film with a deeply personal reflection: "After 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."

The film traces Attenborough's lifetime—an era of unprecedented ocean discovery—through the lush beauty of coral reefs, kelp forests, and deep-sea wanderers. But this is not the Attenborough film we grew up with. As the environment unravels, so too has the tone of his storytelling. Ocean is more urgent, 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's power lies not only in what it shows, but in how rarely such destruction is witnessed. "Nobody's ever professionally filmed bottom trawling before," co-director Colin Butfield said. "And yet it's happening practically everywhere. ... Most people picture fishing as small boats heading out from a local harbor. They're not picturing factories at sea scraping the seabed."

Still, Ocean 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's largest albatross colony thriving in Hawaii's Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. These aren't fantasies; they're evidence of what the ocean can become again, if given the chance. The film arrives amid a growing global push to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030—a goal endorsed by more than 190 countries. Today, just 2.7% of the ocean is protected. As always, Attenborough is a voice of moral clarity. "This could be the moment of change," he says.

(More Sir David Attenborough stories.)