A free film screening of Attenborough’s Ocean at Clonakilty cinema will be followed with a practical question and answer session about what people can do to safeguard our seas.
With an introduction by the well-known Irish TV presenter and wildlife filmmaker Colin Stafford-Johnson, the screening of the documentary at 7pm on Thursday October 16th will give people a chance to engage with global issues at a local level.
Calvin Jones of Ireland’s Wildlife and Save Our Sprat West Cork, said the 200 seats in the auditorium will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
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People will already have seen trailers for the 2025 documentary in which Sir David said: ‘I now understand the most important place on earth is not the land but at sea.’
Sir David’s warnings that ‘we are draining the life from our ocean’ and ‘today, the ocean is in such poor health I would find it hard not to lose hope were it not for the most remarkable discovery of all’ are offset with the positive message that ‘the ocean can recover faster than we can ever imagine – it can bounce back to life.’
Now in his 100th year, Sir David has described this documentary as the most important film he has ever made.
‘It’s a powerful documentary with global scope, but one that resonates strongly with issues we’re seeing right here off the West Cork coast, where the relentless overexploitation of key forage species, particularly sprat, has left our inshore waters practically barren,’ Calvin Jones told The Southern Star.
Save Our Sprat has welcomed recent Government measures to restrict trawling by large industrial vessels in Irish inshore waters.
‘The new measures are a good start,” said Calvin, ‘but on their own they don’t go far enough. That is why we are calling on the government to introduce additional protections that will give sprat populations around the Irish coast the respite they need to recover.’
