When David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II documentary aired eight years ago, its impact was so strong it was credited with bringing about a revolution in the way people use plastics. Now film-makers are hoping he can do the same for other destructive environmental practices that the world’s best-known living naturalist describes as “draining the life from our oceans”.
The industrial fishing method of bottom trawling is the focus of a large part of Attenborough’s latest film, Ocean, which airs in cinemas from 8 May, the naturalist’s 99th birthday. In a remarkably no-holds-barred narrative, he says these vessels tear the seabed with such force “the trails of destruction can be seen from space”. He also condemns what he calls “modern day colonialism at sea”, where huge trawlers, operating off the coasts of countries reliant on fish for food and livelihoods, are blamed for dwindling local catches.
