Watching “One Ocean: The Changing Sea,” a workable solution becomes apparent in a film where no one suggests anything like a tactical plan.
Interlaced with marvelously photographed creatures of the sea, at least a dozen scientists explain years and years of study. These researchers thrive in the waters off Vancouver, British Columbia, and Cape Perpetua, Oregon, and Monterey, California. They congregate around the Florida Keys. They run up expense accounts off the coast of Italy, fgahdsakes.
What comes of it? They report that ocean temperatures are rising, bad for sea life. They measure decreasing oxygen levels, dead zones for sea life. They catalog increasingly acidic chemistry, devastating for sea life.
What to do? Get rid of the scientists.
The photographers are good people. Their artistic flare suggests abundance, beautiful to behold. The squid are elegant monsters. Halibut seem to swim sideways. Sea cucumbers wave alien, plant-like fingers. Coral releases millions of larvae in a slow-motion explosion of reproduction. Tiny plankton reveal themselves as geometrically wondrous, both in form and number.
But get rid of the scientists. They are bad news.
A well-implemented documentary, graced by the photogenic vitality of diverse life forms, “One Ocean: The Changing Sea” helps organize awareness about an unprecedented acceleration in the threats to planetary life. Too many scientists may just tip the balance irretrievably.