Planet Ocean

Planet Ocean

2012, Environment  -   59 Comments
8.62
12345678910
Ratings: 8.62/10 from 452 users.

An elegantly filmed documentary, Planet Ocean takes us on a beautiful adventure into the strangest domains of our planet - the oceans. Directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand - the noted environmentalist, journalist, and photographer, whose previous environmental documentary work includes the Home Project - this award-winning documentary pivots around the relationship between the Earth's oceans and the entire planet's ecosystem.

Unlike other ocean documentaries, such as Deep Sea, Planet Ocean does not focus on specific ecosystems or pockets of life, but rather on the entire planet as an ecosystem. While the film does guide us through various series of events (sailfish relying on mackerel; mackerel relying on zooplankton; zooplankton relying on marine prairie) it is not simply to demonstrate the function of a food chain, but to illustrate the way in which all life is intrinsically interconnected. What happens to our oceans happens to our selves.

The oceans support us: not just through fishing (which sustains some 500-million people), but also with seaweed, which is used in medicines, cloth, fertilizer, and food. However, worldwide, 80 percent of commercial fish stocks have been declared over or fully exploited. Our fishing has reached a ceiling: the footprint of humanity is felt everywhere.

Planet Ocean features both the magnificence and the exposure of Earth's oceans. The dangers that threaten the whole planet also threaten us. The documentary asserts that the greatest threat to our oceans is humanity. Ironically, that means we're the greatest threat to ourselves, as well. As opposed to the more common omniscient viewpoint and narration which allows the viewer to remain a detached observer, uniquely, Planet Ocean employs first person narration to directly connect the audience to the subject matter.

There is no overt call-to-action directed at the individual in the film; however, it does impart the sense that conservation is a globally shared responsibility. Although the documentary warns that we must learn to live in harmony with our oceans - as it our duty to protect and respect our planet (as well as being in our own best interest) - Planet Ocean also points out that it is not too late. Humanity can redeem itself yet.

More great documentaries

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

59 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Melwin
Melwin
2 years ago

A good work for our plante earth.Hatts off to the whole team who were part of this incredible work

Andy
Andy
3 years ago

Exceptional, eye opening documentary but 500,000 Euro for a tuna? I know tuna are highly sought after but that seems a bit steep to me. Again, great job!

D
D
5 years ago

I really enjoyed this, especially the aerial views of the ocean. Makes you think the world could be flat

Tony Zoltan
Tony Zoltan
5 years ago

Excellent documentary. My comment is not that important - I am just curious: the doc says a 100 kilo sailfish will eat in its lifetime 1000 kilos of food. That must be an error - at only one kilo of food a day (and that would be of course way too little) this would give only a three year supply (of course sailfish live longer than three years). Any experts out there? (I'm guessing they missed a zero - i.e., 10,000 kilos of food a year.)

shashikumar b s
shashikumar b s
5 years ago

it is an excellent documentary film, ever. dont miss to watch this...

tianhao wu
tianhao wu
6 years ago

the only solution is the extinction of human race which is not far from now on.

Finian S
Finian S
6 years ago

You're off the point - this is about the documentary and here's a bit of info for you. The Environment office in the European Parliament (Brussels) has so much money, compared to when they began, that they don't know what to do with it. Luc Besson made a film about oceans (simply gorgeous) but up in Brussels they decided, "well, we want our own". Nothing to do with environment, just buddy buddy play and Bertrand that had never run so fast, saw the opportunity of just adding one shot to his name. Result : 5 years of filming and billions of dollars. Yes, it's nice and beautiful, but there was no need for it - there are enough documentaries and, there was already a film out there.

Faty
Faty
6 years ago

This documentry wanted to tell us
Please be careful about every thing in world specially water and ocean

fred
fred
6 years ago

just goes to show how humanity cant see past their fukn noses or their wallets the arseholes kunts

Alberto Hernandez
Alberto Hernandez
6 years ago

Too badly USA....has chosen an INCOMPETENT as president....THAT CARES NOTHING ABOUT.....ENVIROMENT ISSUES.....

very sadly.....

Susan
Susan
6 years ago

Very enjoyable, huge interest in the ocean and its currents. But this was all spoken about before hand that man would ruin the Earth. The good news is That Gods Kingdom will bring about a wonderful change and we will see the Earth and the ocean flourish once more. That's the God of the Bible the creator.

Susan
Susan
6 years ago

Very enjoyable, have huge interest in the ocean and current.
But no he Elite

Serephanie
Serephanie
7 years ago

Solutions?! Seriously!? There wasn't a single tangible feasible solution suggested! May have just said "Go Green!" Or, "Fish...less!" Which it actually suggested. Please people, on behalf of all the Earthlings, watch the documentaries "Cowspiracy" and "Earthlings" and go vegan- we don't need to destroy the planet, it's creatures and ourselves "less" we need to STOP paying for and causing this before our total destruction. Love, the Earthlings

Jeff Steeber
Jeff Steeber
7 years ago

more turtles*

Jeff Steeber
Jeff Steeber
7 years ago

There should be turtles in this movie.

Josh
Josh
7 years ago

Absolute sh*te! The doco got to being a descendant of stramatelites I had to turn it off lol. Load of cr*p.

deborah
deborah
7 years ago

this is so important everyone should see this it should be seen by every child in school so they can learn that we need to stop this. all the suits in the world should see this. (suits)means the higher ups. the people who run this world.

JS
JS
7 years ago

People who think the earth is too overpopulated are ignorant to the truth. This documentary doesn't address the issue of overpopulation and it doesn't need to, because there is no overpopulation of the earth. The problem is not overpopulation, it is over-killing of every species of life on the planet both in and out of the oceans, as well as uneven distribution of food and resources. The rich corporations stripping mass areas of resources to feed a few. How many houses and cars to people need? How many cell phones do they need? Do they need to replace these things every year? How many different types of perfectly shaped and colored fruits do you need in your supermarket isles to satisfy your greed? How about perfectly sized chickens, and eggs? The list goes on.

The problem is NOT overpopulation, the problem is greed and selfishness, pure and simple. Currently with a world population of 7 billion, we produce enough food to feed 10 billion. What happens to the excess food? It gets thrown away. Governments (actually tax-payers) all around the world spend billions and billions of dollars each year to throw food away. Think about how much McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, and all the other fast food and non-fast food restaurants throw away in food every day all around the world. We are talking tonnes of food, each day.

Overpopulation is an excuse to shift the blame from the corporations that rape and pillage our planet on a daily basis, legally and without restriction all for the dollar and nothing else matters. The average person (90% of the population) really don't care, because right now they can go to a supermarket or a restaurant or a fast food chain and happily select whatever they want to eat from ample menus and not have to think about where the food came from, what and who suffered to allow them so much choice. No one really gives a s#"& because that is human nature, if it doesn't effect 'me' and 'I' can benefit from it with minimal effort, then bring it on right!

Here's a few fun facts;

Plankton make up 3 times more biomass than all 7 billion poeple combined

Every man, woman, and child on earth could each have 5 acres of land each

Everyone in the world could stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the island of Zanzibar.

Every person on the planet could live in the state of Texas alone (that is just one state of the country of America) and the population density would be little more than what New York city currently is. Add in Oregon, California and Nevada and the population density of the entire planet would be less than half of New York City. And we still haven't even left the United States. Imagine how little the population density is when you add in Australia, Russia, China, India, all of Europe and Africa.

To say the planet is over-populated is ignorant at best. Man, humankind, needs to stop over-killing and start distributing and sharing the resources that are amply available.

BC
BC
8 years ago

did they just completely mis-discripted hammer head sharks? they mostly hunt bottom sand stuff man. and how decease are there to control population? what BS is that? nothing is there for a "purpose". They are there because of natural selections

Alin
Alin
8 years ago

It's ok people, no need to panic, abrupt climate change (triggered by us, of course) will reset life on this planet (...if we don't go venus of course, then... even though life is quite persistent... it might not be able to keep up). Some scientist say it can happen even in a few years (and you must admit... we are trying our hardest to bring our extinction as fast as possible), so we don't necessarily have to wait for the end of the century, but... we'll see how it turns out...

Michael
Michael
8 years ago

Humanity is to involved with the notion that symbolism of a selfie is more of an involvement for now is more important that a reality of earths now to want to give a (like) care. When tomorrow is to late, then those will care (like). Stupidity had taken over society!

AlexanDr Moskalenko
AlexanDr Moskalenko
8 years ago

Homo sapiens is a part of Nature, so his super-predatory way of life must be in natural order of things as well. Sure it leads to depletion of resources and extinction, so that must be the choice for species: hundred millions years of existence in your niche or couple thousand years of aggressive predatory civilization. But there's no need to pretend to be gods: we're mere one of the species of the world, and Nature will take care of things

scribblegenie
scribblegenie
8 years ago

I loved this documentary.

And, while it is alarmist, maybe it should be. I don't see how anyone can ignore the scenes of millions of enormous storage bins being transported by ocean every day. I don't see how one can watch this documentary without seeing the drastic effects it's having on our oceans. Or maybe, it's an out of sight out of mind thing for you. So then, if you don't like the message, turn off the sound, but watch how we are turning our pristine planet into the garbage dump of the solar system.

Many, many years from now we'll be looked on as the self-destructive, self-centered slobs in this corner of the galaxy. Which reminds me of a very famous quote, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life..." It fits us perfectly and I can practically hear it being shouted at us on Judgment Day.

Anna
Anna
8 years ago

Love this film, everybody should see it. In order to save this world we have to go also vegan!

bfleisch
bfleisch
8 years ago

Well - let's face it, this documentary well disguised as a pleasant "nature/science" treat supports what we all need to face. That is that there are human created forces in motion currently that are unlikely to be stopped in time for any meaningful recovery or sustaining of our current civilization (i.e., over the coming hundreds to thousands of years). You and I will most likely be long gone during the primary period of this global transition. Humans are crafty organisms however, and I would expect significant survival rates and recovery. What happens after that - who knows? Very difficult to predict. Of course, there is always the possibility of some other global "killer" or otherwise catastrophic event that may occur (e.g., asteroid collision or viral epidemic) between now and then. What I am sure of, is that there is a momentum of human over-development and over-utilization of resources that is unstoppable at this point. Population is secondary and not significant. If anything there will continue to be a significant decline in the population of most of the developed world. This is life and death on a grand scale. It is inevitable. Science vs. paranormal vs. spiritual vs. religious vs. existentialism vs. what ever fantasy you believe in is irrelevant. It is cold, cruel, chaotic, space-time reality. Having said that, there is always hope :)

Hoender
Hoender
9 years ago

eh these videos are always so depresing :( . makes me wana stop eating fish and become a vegetarian but with eggs and cheese on the menu.

Dave Bliss
Dave Bliss
9 years ago

A whole bunch of innaccurate data and junk science as usual. Tuna selling for 500,000 dollars for 300Kg. WTF! There was one case I saw in Japan of record blue fin tuna that sold for 1.7 million dollars, in 2012 but today same quality fish was 23,000 dollars. Alarmist crap at best, global warming caused by manmade CO2 yawn ... same old bogus science and lies... Good photography but poor data. Watch with a large bag of salt.

Jimbo1672
Jimbo1672
9 years ago

Beautiful film. Disturbing but necessary message.

Personally, I don't share the materialist, atheist perspective of the filmmakers, but I do share their concern for the future of our planet.

However, the 'solutions' offered at the end seem utterly inadequate to the problem. Most of them are too confined to those activities directly affecting the oceans, when really, everything is connected to everything else. To me, the problem is capitalism, which demands endless growth on a finite planet. Nobody has described a credible way in which the planet can support endless economic growth.

But actually, the deeper problem is probably the mistaken belief that life is a meaningless accident, and living things are just machines. This leads to a devaluation of nature that in turn supports the absurdity that is capitalism.

I also take issue with the idea that the problem is the total human population. Certainly, a large population makes solving our problems tougher, but the real problem is the lifestyle of those in the wealthy countries, where populations aren't growing much. The population explosion is occurring in poor countries where people use a tiny, tiny fraction of the resources we in rich countries use (especially considering all that happens out of sight - when we buy a product, there is a huge amount of material, energy and waste behind it that doesn't come in the package). One researcher compared the climate impact of a couple in the U.S. deciding to have another child versus that of a Bangladeshi couple, and found that the former had an impact 130 times that of the latter. So, we should be careful about blaming 'people in Asia or Africa pumping out babies.' They're not the problem. We are.

UBK
UBK
9 years ago

"Intelligence contains the seed of its own destruction." Isaac Asimov.
If only it is intelligent enough to see its own mistakes, learns to discard its myths and fallacies and to cooperate, use self control - instead of striving to control others and accept solutions to the problems of its own making, no matter how unpalatable they may seem.
For every problem there is a solution, it all depends on accepting the solution without seeking an easy way out. Self discipline, constraint and education the prime requirements. Mankind must stop the wishful thinking of placing 'faith' in Gods of any kind, and discover faith in him/herself if your offspring are to survive. The ultimate commonsense of the common man worldwide is the one hope for survival of the species. Faith comes with action.

Iggsy
Iggsy
9 years ago

Great comments. I just think we are our own desease. Life will prevail but not the way we know it.

terencegalland
terencegalland
9 years ago

Dominion without respect over the worlds creatures shows utter ignorance not worthy of an advanced species of being, that of the human!

stefan
stefan
9 years ago

One of the best documentaries i have ever seen but humans need to die.... and that's coming from a human. We are the cancer of this earth.

User_1
User_1
9 years ago

I'm sure this doc must of mentioned that our population is soon to be 10 billion and we're facing all these obsticlices. Basically we're F**ked!!!

Too Many People
Too Many People
9 years ago

Best line in the movie: "Nature doesn't tolerate excess". This documentary ignores the obvious problem, Earth can not sustain 7 billion humans. Their list of solutions near the end had no mention of curbing or reducing human population. Everything shown in this film is a symptom of overpopulation. The delicate balance of the planet will not be restored until that issue is resolved.

McJoint
McJoint
9 years ago

What more need be presented,the facts are in.

James Hunt
James Hunt
9 years ago

Brilliant documentary!...what a f*cked up race we are!