Stacy VanDeveer (@stacydvandeveer.bsky.social)

Attenborough at 100: the battle to save the oceans he revealed to the world Sir David Attenborough turns 100 today. He has done more than anyone to show us the vast expanses and unimaginable depths of our oceans. From spider crabs living below two metres of Antarctic ice to the jelly-like snailfish existing in total darkness seven miles deep, advances in filming have taken us places that previous generations could not have dreamt of. And all from the comfort of our sofas. But the last century has also seen the plundering and poisoning of our oceans on an unprecedented scale. Attenborough is one of the last humans alive to have witnessed the transition from sail- and steam-powered trawlers to diesel engines and vast supertrawlers. This transformation from coastal gamble to global industry enabled fish to be harvested faster than they could reproduce. It led to rampant overfishing and the near collapse of species such as the humpback whale, Atlantic cod and bluefin tuna. Microplastics were first observed by scientists in the Sargasso Sea in the 1970s. Since then Greenpeace has documented plastics in the furthest reaches of our oceans, contributing research that helps us understand that these tiny fragments of plastic waste are both omnipresent and deeply harmful to wildlife. The last few years... https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/2026/05/attenborough-at-100-the-battle-to-save-the-oceans-he-revealed-to-the-world