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David Attenborough has issued a powerful rallying cry to protect the oceans in a film released to coincide with his 99th birthday.
The new documentary, Ocean With David Attenborough, includes dramatic footage of the devastation fishing practices such as bottom trawling wreak on the seabed and its wildlife, as well as highlighting the wonder of natural habitats, from kelp forests to coral reefs, and the need to protect them.
In the UK, Blue Marine Foundation has launched a campaign, The Bottom Line, which is calling on Environment Secretary Steve Reed to end bottom trawling in marine protected areas, with the charity’s co-founder Charles Clover labelling the practice “ecological vandalism”.
“This is, if not the first, which it may well be, certainly the best documented example of trawling footage ever filmed, and its effect upon audiences will be truly shocking.
“That this is going on on the continental shelves of the world every day and the devastation it leaves behind would make anyone cry.”
Bottom trawling is still permitted in nearly three-quarters (74%) of England’s inshore marine protected areas and 92% of Scotland’s, Blue Marine Foundation said.
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