OceanSaver Presents: OCEAN with David Attenborough

On Wednesday 14th May 2025, we hosted a screening of the film OCEAN with David Attenborough. 

Below are the inspirational remarks before the screening from the film director Toby.

Find your local screening at oceanfilm.net  and send a letter to support banning bottom trawling at https://act.for-the-ocean.org/act/protect-uk-marine-havens   

Remarks from Toby Nowlan, director

Good evening.

Thank you so much for coming today for this very special screening – huge thanks to the Ocean Saver team for bringing us all together.

I’d like to present this film to you - Ocean with David Attenborough.

It’s taken 3 years for us to make this film. We’ve filmed in the seas of all seven continents and even from space.

From the frozen south in Antarctica at the ends of the Earth, to the most colourful reefs in the world, fizzing with life.

We spent over 500 hours underwater and over 300 days at sea.

Filming for the open ocean sequence way out in the middle of the Atlantic. I remember being in the water as enormous bluefin tuna the size of small cars rocketed over my shoulders, slamming into the bait ball of fish that had come up from the deep. Few people realise how big a tuna is – these were honestly like dinosaurs, far bigger than the cinematographer Doug or the dolphins whizzing around them. Huge curious blue sharks bumped into the back of my head. And when a giant sei whale cruised within touching distance of my face – a moment I’ll remember forever.

Then there was the incredible experience of filming in the world’s largest colony of albatross, in the tropical heart of the Pacific Ocean – the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a place that has exploded back to life all because it has been so well protected. Every day we were surrounded by thousands of these massive ocean voyagers – the oldest birds on Earth, and animals that might see more of the ocean than any other living thing.

Another highlight I’ll cherish is a particular moment on the beach with David Attenborough, in subzero temperatures on a windy winter morning, directing and filming David as he delivered the opening and closing words to the film – the most heartfelt and emotional words I’ve ever heard him say.

To direct and produce this film has been the privilege of my career.

And it has made me realise that, while I realise it may well not feel like it, this could be the most exciting and promising moment ever to live on this planet. Let me tell you why.

We are living in the golden age of ocean discovery. It wasn’t a hundred years ago, when we first discovered how to scuba dive, or even twenty years ago, when the first series of Blue Planet was on TV.

In my view, it’s right now. With every year that passes, we are discovering such huge things about the ocean and what it means for every human and living thing on Earth, that we could change the course of history for the better.

We still know more about other planets than we do about the deep sea – to this day we have mapped more of the moon and seen more of the outer solar system than we have the ocean floor.

Almost every time we descend to the depths today, we find new species. And it’s not just in the deepest, darkest corners of the seabed – across the ocean, we are discovering two thousand new marine species every single year.

Even in the sea just off our coasts – the waters we have relied on since time immemorial and thought we knew so well, our understanding is being transformed every year.

Under the sea here there are towering jungles and wide, sweeping, grassy meadows. These habitats absorb carbon dioxide much, much faster than any tropical rainforest. We’re beginning to understand that they may yet transform food security worldwide whilst at the same time fighting climate change and boosting biodiversity.

In our shallow temperate seas, we’re starting to see that if we just let the mussel, oyster and scallop beds return, they could clean our coasts, fix huge amounts of carbon, and nourish billions of people - all with barely any input whatsoever.

How exciting is that?

Who knows what discoveries still lie waiting for us in the sunlit shallows of the most colourful and busiest habitat below the waves – the tropical coral reefs?

Perhaps the greatest discovery of all to come this century, is that protecting the ocean is not like protecting the land.

In the sea, it’s easier, it’s faster, and it really, really works. By fully protecting some of the ocean, the rest of it fills with life again.

Despite working for my life in the world of marine wildlife, I didn’t really understand this until I started making this film, and it’s changed my life forever.

False hope is dangerous. But real, tangible hope – surely that’s something we should shout about from the rooftops.

I believe, we all want the same thing – a world of abundance – an ocean more full of fish than anyone alive has ever known – coastal economies – including fishing economies, booming, bigger and better than ever, more food for the 3 billion people who rely on our ocean to eat, and a thriving planet with a stable climate, a breathable atmosphere and resurging biodiversity.

The way we get there is clear, it’s straight forward, it’s right in front of us.

This is not a false promise, and it is not a dream. Indeed, it’s more, even, than a possibility; if we make some big decisions now, it is certain. In many places, it is already happening.

It surely doesn’t get more hopeful than that.

This film was made to create a moment in time – an opportunity to push for change. It is up to all of us to seize this chance. Many of the world’s marine NGOs – notably the Blue Marine Foundation – are doing exactly this.

The ambition is to get this film into every school and to put it in front of every global leader.

Tens of millions more people now know about the dangers of industrial fishing who didn’t a week ago. We can choose to use this momentum and change the world.

I want to also add – this isn’t an anti-fishing film, if anything, it’s a pro-fishing film – pro abundance – pro thriving ocean, pro thriving planet.

Making the film also really made me understand how the ocean is for everyone on Earth. It is not owned by a handful of rich, powerful people, governments or companies – it is owned by all of us – it is yours, every one of you here in this room.

I really hope you enjoy the film.

A toast to you, and to our ocean.

Toby Nowlan