99-Year-Old David Attenborough Returns with Documentary on 'Why Our Ocean Is in Such Poor Health' (Exclusive)
David Attenborough wants to help the world's oceans return to their full, majestic glory.
To help him achieve this goal, the renowned naturalist and broadcaster, 99, created a new documentary with National Geographic titled Ocean with David Attenborough, which premieres on June 7, the day before World Ocean Day.
"My lifetime has coincided with the great age of ocean discovery. Over the last hundred years, scientists and explorers have revealed remarkable new species, epic migrations, and dazzling, complex ecosystems beyond anything I could have imagined as a young man. In this film, we share some of those wonderful discoveries, uncover why our ocean is in such poor health, and, perhaps most importantly, show how it can be restored to health," Attenborough said in a statement about the documentary obtained by PEOPLE.
According to National Geographic, the upcoming documentary took two years to film and features stunning cinematography focusing on the plight and power of the world's oceans and the countless creatures they support. The film promises to provide never-before-seen footage of the toll human activity has taken on ocean habitats and the inspiring stories of how animal lovers can help reverse these effects.
PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the documentary. In the sneak peek clip, an array of ocean animals traverse great distances in search of food, including travelling to seamounts — underwater mountains up to three miles high.
Attenborough provides his celebrated narration skills to Ocean, including in the clip, where he tells viewers, "Now, a new, far more connected picture is emerging of the big blue."
In the footage, sharks, whales, fish, and dolphins traverse great expanses of empty blue water, or at least it seems empty to the human eye.
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"We have only just learned how these voyagers find their way out here, steering along the twist and turns of particular currents," Attenborough narrates in the clip, adding that many of the world's sea creatures manage to make sense of vast oceans to travel to the "few precious places" where food often abounds.
The importance of seamounts as "pit stops" for the world's marine animals is one of many newer discoveries explored in Ocean, where viewers can also expect to catch footage of the largest yellowfin tuna school ever captured on film.
Ocean with David Attenborough premieres June 7 on National Geographic and will be available to stream on Hulu on Disney+ on June 8, World Ocean Day.
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2 hours ago
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What it's really like working with David Attenborough behind the camera
Sir David Attenborough is a national treasure with a remarkable career that spans eight decades; and he's still working at 99-years-old. Attenborough even worked on his 98th birthday to film BBC show Asia last year. Now Yahoo UK speaks to those who worked closely with the natural historian on his latest film — Ocean With David Attenborough — that reveals the ocean is vital for our survival and shows "shocking" never-before-seen footage of bottom trawling. The nature documentary movie will air on National Geographic and be available to stream on Disney+ on Sunday, 8 June. Director Keith Scholey shares insight into what it's really like to work with Attenborough after working together for more than four decades. He tells Yahoo UK: "It's always incredible [to work with David Attenborough]. I've worked with him for 44 years so it's not a new experience but every time, it's a different experience. "I learned so much, always through my whole life I keep on learning from this amazing man, and this has been a really special film because together we've all been on this mission to try and tell the world about the power of ocean protection and it's such an uplifting story... And wow! It's just amazing seeing David, a 98-year-old man, giving performances like he did for our film. It's extraordinary." Working with Attenborough for four decades, Keith reveals the new thing he learned from him while working on film Ocean together. He adds: "Well, I think the thing with David is that so much has happened to him in all his life. That when you, when we sit around and tell stories, he always comes up with a new story about something he did. Which you thought, 'wow, you were there'. "You saw that happen, you were part and parcel of that moment in history, and which I thought I had no idea [about], and it's that depth of his experience. He's probably known every prime minister this country's had since Winston Churchill and just that alone [is impressive]. "Another prime minister comes along, they will want to meet him! And it's just, 'I've met a lot of those.' But he has a sort of an amazing insight over so many things way beyond natural history." Also in conversation with Yahoo UK, director Colin Butfield hails Attenborough as a "living legend" and "absolutely brilliant" to work with. "It's all you could have ever hoped for and more," he says. "He's the living legend and I'm sure you did, but I grew up watching David Attenborough from an extremely early age. "And to be working on this with him, directing, producing this really authored personal piece that he says is the greatest message he's ever told is just the biggest privilege ever." Check out Ocean With David Attenborough in pictures below Ocean With David Attenborough released 8th May 2025 Executive Producer, Scientific Advisor and National Geographic Explorer, Enric Sala praises Attenborough as the voice everyone trusts. He explains: "For me, the biggest satisfaction is to see him tell that story in the film, right, to have all that scientific information, all that evidence, told in the voice for nature, the voice of authority, that's such a gift." In the movie, the 99-year-old reflects on his own mortality as he has lived on the planet for nearly 100 years. Butfield explains why this is an important part of the film and absolutely crucial to include. "He [David Attenborough] is the most trusted voice and storyteller in the world so when he says something everyone listens," director Butfield says. "So that's a heck of an attribute to a film. And as you say, this is his journey, [his] discovery as much as anyone else's. This film is a love letter to the world to save the ocean. After nearly 100 years on Earth, he reaches this epic conclusion and that's just amazing. "The film is the end of this big journey of discovery for him. It's a journey of discovery of the ocean and hopefully the beginning of a journey of discovery for all of us. It certainly was for me, it's the beginning of a completely new journey for me. It's changed my life forever, what I found out by making this film." Ocean with David Attenborough ends with the powerful message that there is hope and Attenborough predicts that the ocean "may not just recover but thrive beyond anything anyone alive has ever seen". Ocean with David Attenborough airs Sunday 8 June at 8pm on National Geographic and streams the same day on Disney+.
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David Attenborough's 'Ocean' is a brutal, beautiful wakeup call from the sea
NICE, France -- An ominous chain unspools through the water. Then comes chaos. A churning cloud of mud erupts as a net plows the seafloor, wrenching rays, fish and a squid from their home in a violent swirl of destruction. This is industrial bottom trawling. It's not CGI. It's real. And it's legal. 'Ocean With David Attenborough' is a brutal reminder of how little we see and how much is at stake. The film is both a sweeping celebration of marine life and a stark exposé of the forces pushing the ocean toward collapse. The British naturalist and broadcaster, now 99, anchors the film with a deeply personal reflection: 'After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea.' The film traces Attenborough's lifetime — an era of unprecedented ocean discovery — through the lush beauty of coral reefs, kelp forests and deep-sea wanderers, captured in breathtaking, revelatory ways. But this is not the Attenborough film we grew up with. As the environment unravels, so too has the tone of his storytelling. 'Ocean' is more urgent, more unflinching. Never-before-seen footage of mass coral bleaching, dwindling fish stocks and industrial-scale exploitation reveals just how vulnerable the sea has become. The film's power lies not only in what it shows, but in how rarely such destruction is witnessed. 'I think we've got to the point where we've changed so much of the natural world that it's almost remiss if you don't show it,' co-director Colin Butfield said. 'Nobody's ever professionally filmed bottom trawling before. And yet it's happening practically everywhere.' The practice is not only legal, he adds, but often subsidized. 'For too long, everything in the ocean has been invisible,' Butfield said. 'Most people picture fishing as small boats heading out from a local harbor. They're not picturing factories at sea scraping the seabed.' In one harrowing scene, mounds of unwanted catch are dumped back into the sea already dead. About 10 million tons (9 million metrics tonnes) of marine life are caught and discarded each year as bycatch. In some bottom trawl fisheries, discards make up more than half the haul. Still, 'Ocean' is no eulogy. Its final act offers a stirring glimpse of what recovery can look like: kelp forests rebounding under protection, vast marine reserves teeming with life and the world's largest albatross colony thriving in Hawaii's Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. These aren't fantasies; they're evidence of what the ocean can become again, if given the chance. Timed to World Oceans Day and the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, the film arrives amid a growing global push to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 — a goal endorsed by more than 190 countries. But today, just 2.7% of the ocean is effectively protected from harmful industrial activity. The film's message is clear: The laws of today are failing the seas. So-called 'protected' areas often aren't. And banning destructive practices like bottom trawling is not just feasible — it's imperative. As always, Attenborough is a voice of moral clarity. 'This could be the moment of change,' he says. 'Ocean' gives us the reason to believe — and the evidence to demand — that it must be. 'Ocean' premieres Saturday on National Geographic in the U.S. and streams globally on Disney+ and Hulu beginning Sunday.
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6 hours ago
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David Attenborough's 'Ocean' is a brutal, beautiful wakeup call from the sea
NICE, France (AP) — An ominous chain unspools through the water. Then comes chaos. A churning cloud of mud erupts as a net plows the seafloor, wrenching rays, fish and a squid from their home in a violent swirl of destruction. This is industrial bottom trawling. It's not CGI. It's real. And it's legal. 'Ocean With David Attenborough' is a brutal reminder of how little we see and how much is at stake. The film is both a sweeping celebration of marine life and a stark exposé of the forces pushing the ocean toward collapse. The British naturalist and broadcaster, now 99, anchors the film with a deeply personal reflection: 'After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea.' The film traces Attenborough's lifetime — an era of unprecedented ocean discovery — through the lush beauty of coral reefs, kelp forests and deep-sea wanderers, captured in breathtaking, revelatory ways. But this is not the Attenborough film we grew up with. As the environment unravels, so too has the tone of his storytelling. 'Ocean' is more urgent, more unflinching. Never-before-seen footage of mass coral bleaching, dwindling fish stocks and industrial-scale exploitation reveals just how vulnerable the sea has become. The film's power lies not only in what it shows, but in how rarely such destruction is witnessed. 'I think we've got to the point where we've changed so much of the natural world that it's almost remiss if you don't show it,' co-director Colin Butfield said. 'Nobody's ever professionally filmed bottom trawling before. And yet it's happening practically everywhere.' The practice is not only legal, he adds, but often subsidized. 'For too long, everything in the ocean has been invisible,' Butfield said. 'Most people picture fishing as small boats heading out from a local harbor. They're not picturing factories at sea scraping the seabed.' In one harrowing scene, mounds of unwanted catch are dumped back into the sea already dead. About 10 million tons (9 million metrics tonnes) of marine life are caught and discarded each year as bycatch. In some bottom trawl fisheries, discards make up more than half the haul. Still, 'Ocean' is no eulogy. Its final act offers a stirring glimpse of what recovery can look like: kelp forests rebounding under protection, vast marine reserves teeming with life and the world's largest albatross colony thriving in Hawaii's Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. These aren't fantasies; they're evidence of what the ocean can become again, if given the chance. Timed to World Oceans Day and the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, the film arrives amid a growing global push to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 — a goal endorsed by more than 190 countries. But today, just 2.7% of the ocean is effectively protected from harmful industrial activity. The film's message is clear: The laws of today are failing the seas. So-called 'protected' areas often aren't. And banning destructive practices like bottom trawling is not just feasible — it's imperative. As always, Attenborough is a voice of moral clarity. 'This could be the moment of change,' he says. 'Ocean' gives us the reason to believe — and the evidence to demand — that it must be. 'Ocean' premieres Saturday on National Geographic in the U.S. and streams globally on Disney+ and Hulu beginning Sunday. ___ Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram @ahammergram. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit Annika Hammerschlag, The Associated Press
