excerpt from The Ocean’s Message
The Ocean’s Message
Total run time: 4:30 minutes
The ocean is facing an environmental crisis and we are living with the consequences. The Ocean’s Message will take you on a brief journey around the globe giving the viewer a glimpse of the beauty of the ocean and also it’s crisis. Viewers will be introduced to the enormity of this crisis and show us how we can become agents of change in healing the ocean. This short film is an introduction to the Every Second Breath Project.
Producer/ Director: Cynthia Abbott & Andrea Leland
Editor: Wilson McCourtney
Assistant Editor: Ashley Barry
Narration: Emily Gillaspy
Footage Courtesy of: David L. Manard, Dream Reef Cinema, Shark Stewards, Cynthia Abbott, Wendy Eemington, NOAA, NASA
Music: “Eyes Wide Open” Tony Anderson
Selected Screenings
International Ocean Film Festival
Thunder Bay International Film Festival
Sharktoberfest
San Francisco Zoo, “ World’s Ocean Day”
The Midway Gallery, Ocean Bound panel discussion
Study Resources
Rainforests are responsible for roughly one-third (28%) of the Earth’s oxygen but most (70%) of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced by marine plants. The remaining 2% of Earth’s oxygen comes from other sources. The ocean produces oxygen through the plants (phytoplankton, kelp, and algae plankton) that live in it. These plants produce oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, a process that converts carbon dioxide and sunlight into sugars the organism can use for energy.
Ocean Currents Podcast: Learn more about Phytoplankton with Dr. Bill Cochlan, Senior Research Scientist at the Tiburon Romberg Science Center, SF State University
For Educators:
- How do Plankton in the ocean effect the air we breathe? National Geographic has a comprehensive classroom activity on this topic, easy for teachers to implement. Click here to learn more.
Do you know…?
- Plastic & Chemical Pollution: Each year, 26 million pounds of plastic travel hundreds of miles from inland areas to our oceans and the beaches beyond, killing one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals. Oil spills are more common than we realize, affecting sea-life dramatically.
- Ocean Acidification: The burning of fossil fuels and industrial farming of cattle has increased carbon dioxide in our environment. Carbon dioxide is absorbed in the ocean, destroying coral reefs and the habitat for one out of four ocean species.
- Global warming: The oceans absorb about 90% of the heat generated by global warming creating rising ocean temperatures and sea levels. This in turn contributes to: the inundation of coastal habitats; forcing island people from their ancestral lands; and contributes to destruction of coral reefs.
- Overfishing: 29% of the world’s fish stocks are overfished, 61% of the world fish stock is fully fished moving toward extinction. The result is a depletion of the food source for billions of people who rely on fish for protein.
C. Abbott