A tone-deaf happy birthday message to David Attenborough

Thursday, 15 May 2025

Famed naturalist and television presenter Sir David Attenborough, whose latest documentary, Ocean, has been released as a movie, coinciding with his 99th birthday.

Kayla Kingdon-Bebb is chief executive of WWF-New Zealand.

OPINION: You’d be hard-pressed to find a dry eye in the room if you attended any of the cinema screenings of Sir David Attenborough’s new Ocean film.

Attenborough’s film is a spectacular, haunting exposition of the state of the world’s ocean. The incredibly graphic – and horrifying – footage showing the damage that bottom trawling does to marine life and ecosystems has gone viral across social media.

The film is a powerful rallying call for countries to take urgent action to protect 30% of our ocean – the lifeblood of our planet.

That’s why I was astonished to see the tone-deaf – and, frankly, bizarre – response from Seafood New Zealand – the lobby group representing New Zealand’s commercial fishing sector.

Instead of demonstrating any degree of contrition – or perhaps even just a hint of recognition of the impacts of commercial fishing on our fragile marine life – Seafood New Zealand decided to push some of the most outrageous greenwashing I’ve ever seen.

They described New Zealand’s fishing industry as “the sort of good news a global treasure like Sir David needs on his 99th Birthday” and remarked that “we do things differently here in Aotearoa” – before rolling out a litany of what I can only call “alternative facts”.

Firstly, they claimed New Zealand has already protected 30% of its ocean in marine protected areas. This is demonstrably false.

New Zealand has protected less than 1% of its ocean – despite committing to the global target of highly protecting 30% by 2030.

King Charles III with David Attenborough at the premier of Ocean in London.

Seafood New Zealand argues this commitment has already been met because it counts a type of protection called a “benthic protection area”. These areas only restrict bottom trawling on the seafloor, but they don’t protect above the seafloor or any of the marine life there.

In fact, these areas were recommended by the fishing industry itself in 2007 – largely because they are too deep for trawl gear to reach the seafloor. And make no mistake – these “benthic protection areas” are still open to mid-water trawling and surface long-lining. They are still actively exploited, and to call them protected is utterly disingenuous.

Scientific assessments show that just 0.4% of New Zealand’s ocean qualifies as highly protected — an embarrassingly tiny fraction of what’s needed to meet the global goal.

Attenborough’s film shines a light on the destructive practice of bottom trawling – where large, weighted nets drag across the seafloor – in stark detail. It’s well established this is an indiscriminate fishing method that destroys everything in its path, decimating habitats across an area larger than the Amazon rainforest every year. As Attenborough says, “it’s hard to imagine a more wasteful way of catching fish”.

More than 70% of Aotearoa’s commercial catch is bottom trawled – and most is exported overseas. We’re the only country still bottom-trawling on seamounts in the South Pacific, and twice now the coalition Government has blocked the implementation of international decisions taken by consensus – and in which New Zealand was directly involved – to restrict this practice.

Just this week, Oceans Minister Shane Jones confirmed the Government would not be progressing the closure of any part of Tīkapa Moana/the Hauraki Gulf to the destructive practice of bottom-trawling – despite this being a key plank of the response to the dramatic decline in its biodiversity, and a key recommendation arising out of the Sea Change Plan.

Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, chief executive of WWF-NZ, criticises Seafood NZ for lauding its own environmental track record as a birthday tribute to Sir David Attenborough.

It’s well-known that our marine environment is in a sustained state of decline, with pollution, rampant overfishing, and the impacts of climate change pushing fragile habitats and species to the brink.

Since 1970, some commercial fish stocks have plummeted. In the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana, scallop and crayfish fisheries have nearly collapsed. Our waters are home to half the world’s whale and dolphin species, but 22% of our marine mammals are now on the brink of extinction. More species of seabird breed here in Aotearoa than anywhere else on earth – but a staggering 90% are now threatened or at risk.

To pretend the state of our marine environment is a “good news story” does a disservice to all New Zealanders. And frankly, commercial fishing industry companies – which are only too aware of their declining social licence – deserve better from their representative body.

Sir David Attenborough has spent a lifetime advocating for the natural world and educating us about its wonder. He was present at the founding of WWF in 1961, and remains an ambassador for our collective efforts to halt and reverse the loss of nature before it’s too late. His latest film reminds us how vital the ocean is to all life on Earth – and why we must act swiftly to protect it.

The film intentionally leaves audiences with a sense of hope that despite the state of our ocean, the answer is right in front of us and we can turn things around with concerted effort. New Zealand’s seafood industry has completely misread the room.

Seafood New Zealand should be ashamed that it has used the film’s powerful message and David Attenborough’s 99th birthday as an opportunity to peddle such outrageous greenwashing.

For a countering view, read Seafood NZ CEO Lisa Futschek’s response here.