Why the seafood industry cannot afford to ignore 'Ocean' documentary

David Attenborough’s new documentary, Ocean, hasn’t exploded onto social media. It hasn’t generated the same headlines or fury that Seaspiracy did. There’s no #BoycottSeafood campaign trending online. For many in the seafood industry, that might seem like a relief.

It shouldn’t be.

Because while Seaspiracy was a flash in the pan - emotionally charged, short-lived, and easy to dismiss - Ocean is something else entirely. It is quiet, thoughtful, and deeply moving. And it is reaching the audiences that matter most.

This is not a documentary built for rage clicks or shock value. It’s not designed to go viral. It’s designed to last, airing on a platform like Disney+, quietly reaching high-income, educated households and young families - people with purchasing power, political influence, and cultural reach.

And it’s giving them a compelling emotional framework for understanding the oceans: that they are fragile, endangered, and under assault from human activity - including fishing.

This isn’t accidental. It’s strategic. And it’s working.

Where Seaspiracy tried to ignite a culture war with a provocative (and ultimately unrealistic) call to action - “Stop eating fish” - Ocean plays a longer game. It makes the same emotional impact without alienating its audience by providing an easy to understand, seemingly “win, win” solution of Marine Protected Areas. It offers a sense of urgency without outrage.

It ends not in fury, but with a quiet, powerful ask: Care. Act. Change.

And the messenger matters. David Attenborough is not a YouTuber or a film school activist. He is one of the most trusted and beloved voices in the world. His legacy is beyond reproach. When he speaks, people listen. His films don’t need to go viral to change minds - they simply need to be seen. And Ocean is being seen - by the people whose opinions shape our future.

British broadcaster and biologist Sir David Attenborough, pictured in 2018. Photo: Shutterstock

'A messaging war'

So, while the seafood industry has spent the past few years preparing defenses against sensationalist attacks like Seaspiracy, it is dangerously underestimating the long-term impact of Ocean.

Because this film isn’t an attack. It’s a shift in narrative. A narrative that impacts our industry’s social license to operate.

It paints commercial fishing as a threat - not because seafood is inherently bad, but because of the scale and methods used to produce it. Bycatch and overfishing are portrayed as devastating consequences of commercial fishing, and the film handles these issues with empathy and emotional depth.

The result? Viewers - especially younger ones - are left with a powerful takeaway: fishing is part of the problem.

This is the message quietly embedding itself into classrooms, family living rooms, and long-term public memory. It is shaping the worldview of future consumers, regulators, and decision-makers. The social license for the industry to operate, for both farmed and wild, is under threat and the seafood industry is, once again, watching it happen instead of leading its own narrative.

Let’s be very clear: this isn’t a one-off. The surge in anti-seafood messaging is not a coincidence. It’s coordinated. The investment behind anti-seafood media, campaigns, and lobbying is growing rapidly - and it now outpaces seafood industry communications by a wide margin. We are not just in a messaging battle; we are in a messaging war. And right now, we’re losing by forfeit.

The seafood industry has solutions to the problems presented in Ocean. Real ones. It is innovating. It is advancing sustainability. It is modernizing gear, reducing bycatch, investing in data, improving traceability, and meeting global demand while navigating complex ecosystems. But none of that matters if we’re not telling that story - and telling it well.

This is our moment of reckoning. We cannot afford to treat each new documentary as a threat to be “debunked” and dismissed. That defensive posture keeps us reactive, out of step, and invisible to the audiences who are shaping the future.

The public doesn’t trust counterattacks. They trust transparency. They trust stories. And right now, Ocean is the story that’s being told - by someone the world listens to.

'Start telling your story'

Our call to action is simple: start telling your story, or risk others continuing to tell it for you.

That means investing in meaningful, ongoing communications. It means showing the human side of seafood - the communities, the stewards, the innovators. It means aligning with the emotional values of audiences, not just countering their claims. It means being present where the next generation is watching, learning, and deciding what kind of world they want to live in.

Ocean is not a passing threat. It’s a cultural marker. It represents where public sentiment is going. And we can either follow that current or try to swim against it, in silence.

Let’s be clear: we’re not sounding the alarm over nothing. Ocean is not just another documentary. It’s a deliberate, well-crafted piece of public influence - one that will shape how a generation views fishing, conservation, and the role of humanity in the ocean.

If you're in the seafood industry and you think this film doesn’t matter because the public outrage wasn’t visible on your feed, because it wasn’t loud, or because it didn’t call you out by name - you’re wrong.

If you're waiting for the threat to look more obvious before you act, you're already behind. The narrative is shifting - quietly, powerfully - and if we don't meet it with equal thoughtfulness and clarity, we risk losing not just the story, but any public trust we had with it.

Ocean offers us an opportunity. A chance for seafood to finally get it right - to show up, speak up, and tell our story with the honesty, nuance, and hope it deserves. Let's not waste it.