Boat International US Edition - June 2018

THE OCEAN AWARDS 2018

Sixteen years after the original Blue Planet series, the BBC’s

Natural History Unit, in partnership with the UK’s Open

University, produced a follow-up, a seven-episode series

presented by Sir David Attenborough. It attracted audiences of

17 million in Britain, and premiered in the US in January this

year. When British prime minister Theresa May visited China in

January, she took president Xi Jinping a copy of the box set.

The series was filmed over four years, involving 125 shoots in

39 countries and 6,000 hours of underwater filming. This was

serious television setting the agenda in a way anyone concerned

with the plight of the world’s oceans could only find cheering.

The final episode, Our Blue Planet, examined the toll taken on

the oceans by humanity. If we do not act, was its message, then

the marine life you have marveled at will be gone.

The BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, expects to sell

Blue Planet IIin 200 territories. As the series’ executive producer

James Honeyborne puts it: “Ocean-related problems tend to be

global issues. If you drop a bit of plastic in one ocean, it can end

up in another, even several oceans away. So it’s great for this series

to get into every country it can.”

The Public Awareness Award

JAMES HONEYBORNE

MARK BROWNLOW

Blue Planet II: breathtaking BBC series highlights oceans’ plight

Winner

SARAH BAULCH

Microbeads campaigner helps UK

outlaw production

On January 1, 2018, the UK outlawed the

manufacture of products containing

plastic beads smaller than 5mm and on

June 30 their sale will be banned too.

This is thanks in no small part to Sarah

Baulch, senior oceans campaigner at the

Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA),

and her part in a campaign group also

comprising Fauna & Flora International,

Greenpeace UK and the Marine

Conservation Society, under the umbrella

Microbeads Coalition.

As Baulch herself has said: “Microbeads

are a totally unnecessary source of

microplastic pollution that result in up to

80 tonnes of microplastic waste entering

the sea every year from the UK alone.”

The ban won’t solve the problem, but this

is a significant step in the right direction.

Finalists

The Microbeads Coalition
has helped bring about a UK
ban on the manufacture of
products containing plastic
microbeads from January 1
and a ban on their sale, which
comes into efect in June 2018

JO RUXTON

Filmmaker’s self-funded

documentary hits Netflix

Jo Ruxton spent four years making the

documentaryAPlasticOcean.Itwasa

project that, she says, pushed her to her

limits, “both personally and financially.”

They filmed in 20 locations across the

globe, including the Polynesian state of

Tuvalu, “which was this beautiful pristine

tropical island until 1978,” says Ruxton,

“when it became an independent nation

and began to import goods, and everything

camewrappedinplastic.There’snowhere

to bury it so they burn it.”

To self-fund the documentary Ruxton and

Sonija Norman, a lawyer and the film’s

executive producer, set up the Plastic

Oceans Foundation, through which the

film is available for screenings.

“We’ve made the film,” she says.

“Now the real work begins.”

AND TEAM

PHOTOGRAPHY: BBC; DAVID MIRZOEFF/GREENPEACE; GETTY IMAGES