The Québecois documentary L’Océan vu du Coeur (Ocean Seen From the Heart) proves that marine restoration must be done with a post-industrial, Indigenous-led focus.

The film is directed by Iolande Cadrin-Rossignol and Marie-Dominique Michaud, with an original score by Fabienne Lucet. Over the course of 90 minutes, the late astrophysicist and science popularizer Hubert Reeves speaks with 19 experts in coral ecology, ichthiology, environmental policy, and traditional Indigenous fishing practices. 

Scene transitions utilise aerial and underwater footage of the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and St. Lawrence River. Biological processes are explained by experienced field biologists, and illustrated by intricate animations. 

Ocean Seen From the Heart highlights the role of colonialism in accelerating unsustainable fishing practices. Daniel Pauly, marine biologist, explains that Indigenous communities in British Columbia created rules about how much they can fish in order for the local salmon to reproduce. As a result, some communities have been in the same place for seven thousand years. The rules also allowed enough salmon to die naturally, providing nutrients for trees lining the riverbanks. However, when colonisers arrived, they forbade Indigenous peoples from river fishing, and introduced unsustainable ocean fishing instead. Although some communities—including the Cowichan Tribes—are able to river fish again, ocean fishing has become industry standard.

Valerie Cabanes, an international lawyer, outlines many of the flaws of international policy around marine ecosystem protections. For starters, no country can impose laws on international waters—only their domestic ones. Since 60% of oceans aren’t in any country’s jurisdiction, this means that over half of the ocean remains unprotected. Cabanes suggests several policies that could resolve this, beginning with recognising these ocean regions as “natural commons” and giving them their own legal rights and protections.

True to its name, Ocean Seen From The Heart has an emotional focus, urging viewers to protect the oceans from a place of understanding. Jonathan Balcombe, ethologist and author, encourages the audience to understand fish as social, emotionally complex creatures. Balcombe describes the male white-spotted pufferfish’s ritual of making mandalas to impress females of the same species. When a female pufferfish has selected a partner, she lays her eggs in his mandala, and both partners work to protect the eggs with shells and further decorate the mandala. This is one of many anecdotes in the documentary that evokes empathy for marine life in viewers. 

Claire Nouvian, founder of the scientific education organization BLOOM, highlights the importance of concrete action on protecting oceans accompanying this empathy. 

Nouvian explains, “Knowing and loving are vital to act, [but] it’s definitely not enough. Unfortunately, decision chains and power relations in the real world are extremely violent and we have to be ready to say to young people: Keep your freshness, keep your high standards, keep your ambition, keep your total unwillingness to make any concessions to a world of immense economic, social and ecological brutality. But know that it’s going to be tough.”

As someone who became involved in climate activism as a teenager, this resonates with me. Starting out, I believed that civil protests could result in immediate, dramatic change. However, as I learned more about the convoluted process of policymaking, I grew increasingly pessimistic about the possibility of any change happening before it was too late for many species-at-risk. Nouvian’s message is a refreshing reminder that while it is not too late to protect marine life, doing so requires constant pressure on policymakers. 

‍Ocean Seen from the Heart recentres oceans and rivers as deserving of protection and restoration not because they are finite resources, but because they are living, breathing societies.