Ocean with David Attenborough takes viewers on a breathtaking journey showing there is nowhere more vital for our survival, more full of life, wonder, or surprise, than the ocean.
The celebrated broadcaster and filmmaker reveals how his lifetime has coincided with the great age of ocean discovery.
Through spectacular sequences featuring coral reefs, kelp forests and the open ocean, Attenborough shares why a healthy ocean keeps the entire planet stable and flourishing.
Stunning, immersive cinematography showcases the wonder of life under the seas and exposes the realities and challenges facing our ocean as never-before-seen, from destructive fishing techniques to mass coral reef bleaching.
Yet the story is one of optimism, with Attenborough pointing to inspirational stories from around the world to deliver his greatest message: the ocean can recover to a glory beyond anything anyone alive has ever seen.
Released on his 99th birthday and presented in the context of his
remarkable career, Sir David’s authority is matched only by nature’s
grandeur in this visually stunning film
A visual marvel like all his work, governed by his own matchless authority and striking a steady tonal balance between warning and hope, David Attenborough’s new film about the oceans is absorbing and compelling. He makes a passionate case against the ruin caused by industrial overfishing and the sinister mega-trawlers which roam everywhere, raking the seabed with their vast metal nets, brutally and wastefully hoovering up fish populations of which the majority is often simply thrown away, depleting developing countries and fishing communities of their share. Attenborough says that this is the new colonialism. The film is released in cinemas in anticipation of the UN’s World Oceans Day in June, which is campaigning for 30% of the world’s oceans to be preserved from exploitation – at present, only around 3% is protected in this way.
As he arrives at his 99th birthday, Sir David presents this new documentary in the context of his own remarkable life and career, studying and thinking about the oceans as the last part of the world to be fully understood and also, perhaps, the last part to be exploited – and despoiled. As he says, until relatively recently, the ocean was regarded as a kind of mysterious, undifferentiated Sahara, a wilderness, of interest largely for providing an apparently endless supply of food. But he shows us an amazing vista of diversity and life, an extraordinary undulating landscape, a giant second planet of whose existence humanity has long been unaware but now seems in danger of damaging or even destroying.
Attenborough shows us that glorious places of colour and light and life can be scoured and scorched into a nuclear winter of nothingness by overfishing, but that by preserving places from this kind of industrialisation, creating “no take zones”, we can give the ocean and its lifeforms time to recover. This is often possible within quite a short space of time and the revived species can “spill over” into other zones; effectively, it is this preservation model that is being suggested.
But Attenborough is always emphasising that this is not a cause for complacency, for saying that overfishing doesn’t matter because the overfished areas can always be nursed back to life: because we never know how close we have come to the point of no return. Attenborough matches the natural world’s grandeur with his own intellectual and moral seriousness.
Mounting
research suggests that cephalopods experience pain. Now, the National
Institutes of Health is considering new animal welfare rules that would
put them in the same category as monkeys.
Consider the octopus. Smart and sophisticated, it has a brain larger than that of any other invertebrate. With 500 million or so neurons, its nervous system is more typical of animals with a backbone. In lab experiments, the octopus can solve mazes, open jars, and complete tricky tasks to get food rewards. In the wild, they’ve been observed using tools—a benchmark of higher cognition.
Researchers have long been awed by their ability to camouflage, regenerate lost limbs, and release ink as a defense mechanism. They have been used for studies on how psychedelics affect brains, and they may even dream. Importantly, research shows that they also seem to experience pain. Almost all animals have a reflex for responding to noxious stimuli, called nociception, but not all are aware that the sensation is bad or unpleasant—an awareness scientists now think octopuses and other cephalopods have. Some scientists say this is proof of sentience, the capacity to experience feelings and sensations.
The state of cephalopod science has prompted the United States National Institutes of Health to consider whether these animals—which also include squid, cuttlefish, and nautiluses—deserve the same research protections as vertebrates. “A growing body of evidence demonstrates that cephalopods possess many of the requisite biological mechanisms for the perception of pain,” the NIH wrote on its website. The agency is soliciting feedback from scientists and the public online through the end of December.
Currently, invertebrate animals are not regulated under the Animal Welfare Act in the US, nor are they included in national standards for laboratory animals in federally funded studies. Under these rules, scientists must seek approval from their institutions’ ethics boards for experiments involving animals such as mice and monkeys. These boards ensure that proposed experiments comply with federal laws and minimize pain and distress to the animals. The research must also produce benefits for human or animal health or otherwise advance knowledge.
Scientists often use rats, mice, monkeys, worms, and zebrafish as models to mimic aspects of human diseases and study biological processes. But there’s growing interest in studying cephalopods to investigate movement, behavior, learning, and nervous system development, which means more researchers than ever are doing experiments on cephalopods.
Photograph: Imagen Rafael Cosme Daza/Getty Images
Robyn Crook, a leading cephalopod researcher and an assistant professor of biology at San Francisco State University, says studying cephalopods may provide important insight into how the brain works. “If we want to understand fundamental organizing principles of nervous systems, we need to look beyond brains that are all of the same evolutionary kind, and cephalopods are the only independently evolved, really complex brain,” she says.
Crook authored a study in 2021 showing that octopuses experience the emotional component of pain—like mammals do—rather than simply having a reflexive reaction to it. Her experiment involved putting octopuses in a three-chambered box with different patterned walls. After letting the animals swim freely between the chambers, Crook injected them with a stinging substance called acetic acid and noticed that the octopuses avoided the chamber in which they received the shot. A control group injected with saline showed no such effect.
She then gave a painkiller to the octopuses that received the stinging shot and observed that they tended to prefer the chamber in which they got the pain relief. The saline group, meanwhile, didn’t show a preference. The results, she concluded, are evidence that octopuses experience a negative emotional state when exposed to pain.
The move toward treating cephalopods used in research more humanely started in 1991, when Canada became the first country to adopt protections for them. In 2010, the European Union passed a directive to extend protections already in use for vertebrate lab animals to include cephalopods. Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Norway have also adopted regulations. Last year, after an independent report concluded that cephalopods and crustaceans have the capacity to feel pain and distress, the United Kingdom passed an amendment recognizing them as sentient beings.
In the US, a group of petitioners led by Harvard University’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic sent a letter to the NIH in 2020 asking the agency to amend the definition of “animal” in its policy on laboratory animal welfare to include cephalopods. The letter made its way to Congress, and last October, 19 lawmakers requested that the US Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the NIH, adopt humane care handling standards for them. “In recent years, there has been a wealth of research demonstrating that cephalopods are sensitive, intelligent creatures who, like other animals used in biomedical research, deserve to be treated humanely,” they wrote.
Jennifer Mather, a professor of psychology at the University of Lethbridge in Canada, also welcomes this action. Mather, who has been studying octopuses for 40 years, was a signatory on the 2020 Harvard letter. “As we expand the populations of species that we use for research, we have to also expand our thinking of what matters to them, and how we can take care of them,” she says.
To that end, she says researchers need to think about how to raise and house cephalopods. These animals require shelter or dens, and they need regular enrichment so that they can express their normal behavior. And she notes that because many octopuses and squid are cannibalistic, they should be kept in separate tanks.
Another consideration is the water quality of their tanks, says Clifton Ragsdale, a professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago who studies octopuses. Poor water quality can make the animals stressed or even kill them. He thinks the NIH’s proposal is very reasonable and welcomes new rules. “I’m hopeful that these regulations won’t be onerous and will improve the quality and kind of research that’s done,” he says.
Frans de Waal, a biologist and primatologist at Emory University, says new regulations could help reduce invasive experiments on cephalopods, such as ones that involve detaching their arms. “I think there are going to be questions about: Is this really necessary?” says de Waal, who also directs the Living Links Center, which studies ethical and policy issues related to animal sentience. “I would love for scientists to start thinking in alternative ways.”
De Waal thinks research guidelines should also extend to other invertebrates, such as crustaceans. He points to a 2013 study in which researchers from the University of Belfast showed that crabs in tanks learned to avoid electric shocks and sought out areas in the tank where they could escape them. The authors argued that this was evidence the crabs experience some form of pain, rather than just a reflex.
“Basically, every animal that has a brain—I’m going to assume that they are sentient for the moment because the evidence is going in that direction,” De Waal says. It’s thought that animals without brains, such as starfish, jellyfish, and sea cucumbers, do not feel pain in the same way humans do.
Crook is in favor of regulations for cephalopod research, but she says it’s not as simple as including them in current policies that apply to vertebrates. “Because these are a fundamentally different evolutionary branch of animals, it’s really hard to know whether a drug that you would give to enhance welfare in a vertebrate animal is at all effective in a cephalopod,” she says.
For example, the opioid buprenorphine is often given to lab rodents and monkeys as a painkiller. Its effects on cephalopods, however, is unknown. “How do you look at a cephalopod and say, ‘That one’s in pain and that one’s not?’” Crook asks. “There’s no point regulating if we have no idea whether or not we’re actually enhancing the welfare of the animal.” She thinks more research is needed on anesthetics and pain relievers to learn how to best carry out experiments that may cause pain to these animals.
For now, the NIH is only considering changes, and the agency hasn’t yet set a date on when those revisions would be implemented. As scientists learn more about how invertebrates experience pain, research protections may one day extend to much more of the animal kingdom.
Discover what it took to build the Panama Canal, and how this colossal construction project changed the region.
In the 19th century, the California gold rush brought thousands of settlers to America's west coast.
But finding gold may have been easier than transporting it back east.
The only hope for avoiding a grueling six month wagon journey was to travel the narrowest portion of the continent — the 48-kilometer Isthmus of Panama.
Alex Gendler details the creation of the Panama Canal
The Coast Guard has proposed removing hundreds of buoys and navigational markers from the Northeast. Professional mariners and recreational boaters are not happy about the proposal.
(U.S. Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Amber Howie)
Professional mariners and recreational boaters are unhappy about the Coast Guard's proposed cost-saving measure.
On April 15, a Coast Guard Local Notice for District 1 advised mariners that the service proposes to remove hundreds of navigational markers in Northeastern coastal waters. According to the Coast Guard the buoys, day beacons, and lights are outdated technology, but boaters are not happy about it.
The proposal has already drawn the ire of mariners up and down the New England coast, including Maine, where over 150 buoys are to be removed or altered and where navigation is particularly tricky due to fog and the coast’s rocky nature. Buoys marked for elimination include ones that mark rocky ledges and underwater hazards. In Penobscot Bay alone, just south of Vinalhaven, the service proposes the elimination of nine ledge markers, most of which lurk just beneath the surface.
But it’s not just Mainers who are upset. On the Sailing Anarchy forum one member wrote, “It’s an absolute hatchet job. For example, axing 11 buoys in Woods Hole. Anyone who’s been through Woods Hole knows how tricky it can be, and it really doesn’t feel like they can afford to get rid of any buoys there. I’ve personally seen more than one sinking due to pilot confusion and this will just make it worse.”
According to the USCG, the effort is to modernize and rightsize the buoy constellation, “whose designs mostly predate Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC), and Electronic Charting Systems (ECS), for long-term reliability and serviceability.”
The USCG thinks the reduced number of buoys is justifiable since most mariners today rely on chartplotters, electronic charts and smartphone apps rather than taking multiple fixes on landmarks and navigational aids, but many boaters don’t agree. “This feels different than an approach buoy here and there being obsoleted by GPS,” a commenter on the Sailing Anarchy website wrote. “Many of the proposed removals mark rocks or shoals where straying a few feet from the channel could be highly consequential.”
A beached buoy is pulled off Wells Beach by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Marcus Hanna on April 22, 2024.
Carl D. Walsh/Portland Press Herald
A lot of mariners believe it could impact safety because skippers rely on visually locating nuns and cans to confirm their location. Lobsterman Gregory Turner told Maine’s WGME Channel 13 that in a snowstorm or thick fog he relies on Coast Guard buoys to confirm what his navigation system is showing him. “When you become disoriented in the fog, and you go alongside a buoy to see what that number is, if there’s no buoy there, how are you going to figure it out?” Turner said. “You’re not supposed to rely on only one kind of navigation. I have paper charts from years ago.”
The Coast Guard says the removals are intended to modernize navigation aids and to deliver effective, economical service. “The message we got from the Coast Guard was that it was to help with budgets,” Portland Deputy Harbormaster Hattie Train told WGME.
A Sailing Anarchy commenter said the buoys are needed in particular if the GPS system went down or if the electronics failed, adding that cost savings were not a good enough reason to eliminate the buoys. “Redundancy is a good thing in our particular endeavor,” the commenter wrote. “Tax me if you have to, but leave the [expletive] buoys in place.”
The Coast Guard will be accepting comments on the proposal until June 13. The USCG will not be accepting phone calls, so all comments must be made in writing. Refer to Project No. 01-25-015. E-mail can be sent to: D01-SMB-DPWPublicComments@uscg.mil.
From May 1, 2025, the Mediterranean Sea has officially been designated as an Emission Control Area (ECA) for Sulphur Oxides and Particulate Matter (PM), under MARPOL Annex VI.
This means that ships sailing in the region must now use fuel oil with a sulphur content no higher than 0.10%, which is five times lower than the 0.50% allowed outside these zones.
The decision was made by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) during the 79th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 79) back in December 2022.
This step aims to reduce air pollution from ships and improve public health and marine safety in the Mediterranean region.
The IMO regulation is expected to bring significant benefits.
It is estimated that sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions from ships will drop by 78.7%, which translates to a yearly reduction of around 8.5 million tonnes of SOx released into the air. Additionally, emissions of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) are expected to go down by 23.7%.
The Mediterranean region, which handles about 20% of global seaborne trade and is home to 24% of the world’s ship fleet, is one of the busiest maritime zones in the world. With over 17% of worldwide cruise traffic passing through its waters, the new rules are expected to bring major health and environmental benefits.
According to studies from the UN Environment Programme’s Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP), these changes could help prevent approximately 1,100 premature deaths and over 2,300 new cases of childhood asthma each year.
Visibility across regions like North Africa and the Strait of Gibraltar is also expected to improve, lowering the risk of maritime accidents.
The cleaner air will also reduce the risk of acidification, which harms crops, forests, aquatic species, and coastal ecosystems.
Health experts say that lowering sulphur emissions from shipping reduces the chances of lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, strokes, and asthma, especially in port cities.
This move has been made possible through a collaborative effort by all 21 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the European Union.
The entire process was coordinated under the Barcelona Convention, with UNEP/MAP serving as the main platform for negotiations.
Technical support came from the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) and the Plan Bleu Regional Activity Centre.
This makes the Mediterranean Sea the fifth official Sulphur Emission Control Area in the world, following:
The Baltic Sea area
The North Sea area
The North American area (covering coastal waters off the U.S. and Canada)
The United States Caribbean Sea ECA (around Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands)
In 2024, the IMO further designated two more ECAs – the Canadian Arctic and the Norwegian Sea.
Later in April 2025, the MEPC 83 session approved a proposal to designate the North-East Atlantic as an ECA as well.
French officials said the fuel now required under the new regulation is five times less polluting than what was previously allowed.
According to the French maritime authority for the Mediterranean (DIRM), many ship operators had already begun using cleaner fuels in anticipation of the law.
Fanny Pointet, who leads sustainable shipping at the NGO Transport & Environment, stated that Europe already has tough port regulations.
However, she added that “the strength of this new measure is that it will apply across the whole of the Mediterranean Sea, so not only in European ports, but also in North African ports.”
The success of previous ECA zones has shown positive outcomes. Since 2014, sulphur emissions in Northern Europe have dropped by 70% due to similar rules.
However, the European Commission and Mediterranean coastal countries are now considering the next step: establishing a Nitrogen Oxide Emission Control Area (NECA) to tackle nitrogen-based pollution from ships, which has increased by 10% between 2015 and 2023.
Back in January 2020, a separate IMO rule had already reduced the sulphur limit outside ECAs to 0.5%, leading to a 70% drop in global sulphur oxide emissions from shipping.
