New Attenborough film shows what can be achieved by empowered locals

The National

22-05-2025

Reviewers are unanimous. It's magnificent. The hard-to-please Rotten Tomatoes gives it a very rare 100% rating.
'The celebrated broadcaster's lifetime has coincided with the great age of ocean discovery … and he points to inspirational stories from round the world to deliver his greatest message: the ocean can recover to a glory beyond anything anyone alive has ever seen.'
The Guardian gives it five stars. '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.'
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Even the conservative Telegraph is keen. 'This cracking documentary shows the otherworldly splendour of our planet's sea life – and the crisis that mortally threatens it.'
Clearly, Ocean is a triumph – but what has this sweeping global story got to do with Scotland?
Put simply, this ecological blockbuster was conceived years ago in Arran by a couple of divers appalled at the destruction they were witnessing in and around Lamlash Bay.
Don MacNeish features in the documentary, partly filmed by his nephew Doug Anderson, an Emmy-winning underwater cameraman with credits on all the Attenborough classics, whose film and diving career began in the seas around Arran.
Howard Wood co-founded the community marine charity COAST with Don and negotiated the first no-take zone in British waters with local fishermen, supported by their island community.
That joint effort protected an important part of the world's marine ecosystem – our own – an achievement recognised by the film's producers, who invited the men along with their wives Kathleen and Lesley, to the documentary's gala launch at the Royal Festival Hall in London earlier this month.
It was long overdue recognition.
The idea for Ocean With David Attenborough was essentially hatched in 2003, when the campaign to protect the waters around Arran started gathering momentum. But for most people, the seabed was out of sight, and out of mind.
(Image: Supplied)
As Wood put it: 'If people can't see what's at stake, the richness that still lingers in hidden coves and the devastation caused by dredging in once-thriving seabed habitats, how can they be expected to care?'
So, he started gathering old photos of sea anglers and commercial fishing boats, from the days when herring and whitefish still dominated Clyde fishing, and paired them with current underwater photos.
The contrast was stark: vibrant marine life was somehow clinging on to the remote corners of Lamlash Bay, but vast stretches of lifeless seabed had been gouged out by dredgers. These images became the backbone of talks in Arran and beyond.
By 2005, after a decade of dialogue, community discussions, government meetings, and detailed proposals, COAST's call for a modest No Take Zone, and a broader Marine Protected Area for low-impact fishing was still being blocked by civil servants and the dredging industry's trade body.
So, Anderson returned to Arran in 2006 with his family to help the Lamlash divers tell their story. That summer, they made The Bay, an educational film for schools, and Caught In Time, a documentary on COAST's YouTube channel today. This was just the beginning.
(Image: VisitArran)
Over the years, in between filming the Blue Planet and other documentaries around the world, Anderson came home to dive around Arran with MacNeish and Wood, documenting the resilience of marine life and the scars left by industrial dredging.
Together they imagined something more powerful – a film that would inform and stir emotion, combining breathtaking footage with the voices of Clyde fishermen, marine scientists, sea anglers, and officials to tell the compelling story of marine ecological collapse and community resistance.
According to MacNeish: 'It became clear the most powerful weapon used against communities seeking protection for the seabed, was isolation.
'Making people feel small, unheard, and powerless. But what we came to realise and what the film OCEAN powerfully affirms, is that we were never alone. From Mexico to the Philippines, from Scotland to Turkey, coastal communities have been rising up to defend their seas. What began here on Arran is now part of a global movement.'
In one of the film's most powerful moments, MacNeish appears on screen, speaking movingly about the sense of loss he felt watching once-thriving seabeds being wiped out.
The final spur came in 2021 from environmental lawyer Tom Appleby – invited to draft a global overview of the legal and ecological threats facing our oceans. That paper prompted interest from Silverback Films and the concept for Attenborough's Ocean was born.
In 2022, film crews were dispatched across the globe to destinations including Arran, as part of a major international production. Dozens of staff and hundreds of volunteers and advisers contributed time and expertise.
While the filming of new bottom trawl footage went smoothly, capturing dredge footage in the UK was difficult. Again, Arran played a part.
At the 11th hour, Dr Bryce Stewart – a leading scallop expert and research lead for Arran's Marine Protected Areas – offered access to his research, which proved vital for the scallop dredge filming scenes.
Three years later, the film was complete. It weaves together breathtaking marine imagery with uncompromising truths about ecological damage, political inertia, and the transformative power of community-led action.
Ocean is not just a documentary about what's at stake; it's a testament to what's possible – when local people lead the charge.
It may be that Ocean represents a turning point; it certainly is a rallying cry from the trusted voice of Attenborough, backed by rigorous global scientific research.
In the world of marine conservation, some of the most powerful ripples begin in the quietest of coves.
More than two decades ago, few would believe that a small island community on the west coast of Scotland could inspire a ground-breaking documentary narrated by the world's most respected naturalist. And yet, that's exactly what has happened.
Twenty years ago, COAST was just a handful of people on the Isle of Arran; divers, fishers, families, neighbours coming together because the seabed they knew and loved was being torn apart by dredgers and trawlers. And because no one in power seemed to care.
For almost a decade, they were met with silence, indifference, and quiet pressure to stop making a fuss. But they kept diving, kept filming and kept campaigning.
And this month, something extraordinary has happened: the story of Arran's Lamlash Bay has become part of a global film.
The lesson is simple. Scottish island communities can help shake and shape the world. Imagine what more they could do with more local power and less quango interference.
Ocean proves the divers of Lamlash Bay are not alone – and never were.
Ocean with David Attenborough is in cinemas now. OceanFilm.net