By nearly every measure, we are heading for an unprecedented unnatural disaster. Life in the ocean is dying at an alarming rate, part of a sixth mass extinction across the planet. Wildlife, on land and in the sea, has decreased by more than 70% in only 50 years.
Yet Sir David Attenborough has found a reason to be optimistic, and that hope lies in the ocean. On his 99th birthday, David released his latest film, Ocean.
“After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land but at sea,” says David from the screen, drawing our attention to a long-neglected part of the planet.
That message resonated powerfully during a special screening of Ocean held at Smárabíó on May 9. Halla Tómasdóttir, the president of Iceland gave an impassioned opening speech, concluding with, “We need to protect 30% of the land and 30% of the ocean by 2030 to actually have the hope of looking our children and grandchildren in the eyes and saying we did what we needed to do when we knew what was going on.”
In attendance were co-director Toby Nowlan and producer Jasper Smith who presented the film to an environmentally aware Reykjavík audience. A week later, I caught Toby between stops on the press tour.
“It’s been wild,” he says. “It’s been an amazing reaction. And the box office has broken records in cinemas in the UK, Ireland and Australia.”
And this is just the beginning for a film that seems to have hit a zeitgeist moment of ocean awareness. The UN Ocean Conference, held only once every four to five years, is set to take place in Nice in early June.
The ocean can recover
Toby has worked with marine wildlife most of his life — a self-described devout naturalist, conservationist, zoologist, birder and cetacean lover. And yet, “It wasn’t until I started making this film that I really understood how capable the ocean is of recovery,” he says.
Toby stressed before the screening that Ocean is not anti-fishing. In Iceland, a common myth is that whales eat all the fish — but in fact, more whales mean more fish. The film’s core message is simple: if we stop overfishing and give the ocean space to recover through protected areas, it will rebound.
“In terms of fisheries benefits, it’s huge,” Toby explains, noting that there’s no loss when it comes to established protected areas. On the contrary, the gains are significant, in his words it’s “a triple win for climate, for fisheries, for food, for conservation.” He adds, “The exploitation of the ocean is done essentially by a few groups of people, but it’s not up to a few groups of people how the ocean is managed or exploited. It’s up to all of us. It’s our ocean.”
A long way to 30%
One of the most jarring moments — and truly incredible cinematography — was the scene of bottom trawling, filmed from the perspective of the fish and other creatures being chased across the bottom of the sea as a monstrous metal and mesh machine scooped them up indiscriminately, ripping up the ocean floor in the process.
“The bottom trawling sequence was super important from the get-go of this film,” Toby speaks of this seminal filmic moment. “We’re talking about a process that was invented here in the UK off the south coast 700 years ago. But people had no idea how destructive it was because they could never see it. Until we can actually see it, we can’t really understand it.” Most people, he says, don’t even know what they’re catching — just that they’re tearing through the ocean floor. The real tragedy: it’s happening even in supposedly protected areas.
Protecting marine areas is not so easy, even when there are international agreements, there is the thorny question of enforcement. Reaching the goal of protecting 30% of the land and sea seems a near impossibility by 2030, with Iceland at maybe a few percent today.
“I think the biggest thing that can happen is policy change,” says Toby when asked about the hurdles to marine protection. “Which is why this summit [UN Ocean Conference] and the others around it are really key. But it also means it places huge importance on the momentum that is building at the moment, which this film is part of.”
“There’s been a lot of doom and gloom the last few years,” he admits. “And of course people need to know what’s happening, but when there’s real, tangible hope like this,” referring to the ocean’s ability to rebound, “not some wishy-washy false hope, then it should be shouted from the rooftops. Hope is the greatest motivator we need right now. Let’s just go for it.”
Ocean will be available to stream on Disney+ starting June 8, 2025
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