Ocean

If you're in the School of Ocean Sciences, you notice when a film comes out that is called "Ocean". I suppose it got a lot of media attention overall, but I suppose in my circles, nobody at all failed to notice. But I don't watch TV, and if it came to cinemas it sure didn't come to run anywhere near me, so I had heard all about it but never seen it.

Then an email came in. There was going to be a screening of this David Attenborough production in the University's big lecture theatre. It was at 5:30, so neatly fit after work. I decided to go.

I got there at 5:30 sharp. It wasn't very full! But I suppose many people were fashionably late, and even though the room never filled up, attendance was such that the choice of room wasn't a miscalculation. I sat down the lawn, but later a little group of people including one of our master students sat near me, and one of my second year students joined me as well. That was nice.

The screening was an initiative of the Marine Conservation Society. They first introduced themselves with a little video and a presentation. What they really wanted to increase their numbers of volunteers! No idea of that worked, but it may well have.

The MCS doing its spiel

Then they started the film. I had heard a lot about it so I don't think I reached any great new insights, but at least it was lovely to actually see the footage for myself. Of course it looked beautiful. It also looked devastating in places, obviously. The film is famous for showing the awful effects of bottom trawling. But it also shows how much recovery is possible.

The first scene of the film

It ended with the "30 by 30"Initiative. Many countries have promised to protect 30% of their seas by 2030. It's a great initiative! But so was the Paris agreement. Everyone agreed to keep global warming below 2°. Look how that's been going. But without Paris, the situation would probably be considerably worse than it is now. So I have good hope that even if we don't get full protection of 30% of the seas by 2030, some positive change has been made. And that's great!