Ocean with David Attenborough which has been making cinematic history across the UK, is coming to Arran next week!
Tickets can be booked for screenings on Saturday 7th June at Lamlash High School Theatre, and Sunday 8th June at Lochranza Village Hall. Doors at 7pm, film viewing will begin at 7.30pm
For full information about the film event and to secure your place for our special Arran showings, visit the COAST website
Read on for the story of COAST’s involvement with the film:
Featured image shows the COAST team at the recent world premiere of Ocean in London ©COAST
L-R: Funding Officer, John Hesketh; Executive Director, Áine Purcell-Milton; Lesley Wood; Co-Founder, Howard Wood; Kathleen MacNeish; Co-Founder, Don MacNeish; Skipper, Euan Ribbeck.
Arran conservation charity showcased in Sir David Attenborough’s OCEAN
After over two years of collaboration and advising during production, COAST (Community of Arran Seabed Trust) is celebrating the release of OCEAN, Sir David Attenborough’s latest natural history production, which explores the role of the ocean in all life on Earth.
Through stunning cinematography, the film showcases coral reefs, kelp forests, maerl beds and the vast open ocean, while exposing the threats facing marine ecosystems from destructive fishing to mass coral bleaching.
The film features a powerful narration from COAST’s co-founder Don MacNeish, reflecting on the devastation of scallop dredging in Arran’s seas:
“The first time I dived over an area hit by a scallop dredger, it was devastating, like swimming from the Garden of Eden into a nuclear wasteland. Everything smashed, life wiped out. From shore, the Arran community watched helplessly as boats went back and forth, scraping closer every time, destroying generations of sea life for a few scallops. They were taking the future out of the sea, leaving us only wreckage. How could this be allowed? People don’t realise how rich, how abundant our waters once were or how much we’ve already lost.”
OCEAN also shines a spotlight on inspiring grassroots efforts, comparable to the Isle of Arran’s pioneering No Take Zone and Marine Protected Area as examples of successful marine recovery. COAST’s involvement in the production of the film underscores the importance of community-led action in protecting the seas.
“To see the story of Arran’s seas shared on the global stage, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, is deeply moving. It shows that small communities can have a global voice and that what we do here in Arran matters far beyond our shores.” reflected COAST’s Executive Director, Áine Purcell-Milton.
In response to the urgent challenges facing the ocean, as highlighted in the film, one of the film’s co-producers, Dynamic Planet, has launched a bold global initiative: Revive Our Ocean. This initiative aims to transform inspiration into action by supporting coastal communities worldwide to protect and restore their local marine environments.
COAST has joined forces with grassroots projects from Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, the Philippines, and Indonesia each recognised as an exemplar of community-led marine protection.
Co-ordinated by Dynamic Planet, in partnership with National Geographic Pristine Seas, Revive Our Ocean seeks to ignite global change and accelerate coastal protection by inspiring, empowering, and equipping local communities to establish as many new well managed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as possible.
The initiative works by inspiring a growing network of leading ocean conservation organisations to deliver a powerful solution to overfishing and climate change. Its ultimate goal: to help protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.
After accepting the invitation to be the initial UK partner for this new Collective, COAST Co-Founder Howard Wood said:
“Scotland’s MPA network is victim to over a decade of mismanagement by the Scottish Government; unless destructive bottom-towed fishing is stopped in our inshore MPA’s, legally binding international targets for recovering marine biodiversity will not be met. In 2014, the Scottish Government designated a nation-wide network of MPA’s and 11 years on more than half of them exist only on paper. So called ‘Paper Parks’ do not equate to protection in reality. The mission of Revive Our Ocean – to unite diverse voices for ocean health – mirrors our own to protect and restore the seas around Arran for all and we’re delighted to bring our local story to the global stage.”
