"Our Planet" Coastal Sea Review: Netflix's Groundbreaking Nature Documentary

Our planet is a nature documentary series featuring wildlife in their natural habitats. This series is narrated by the world-renowned environmental activist and conservationist- Sir David Attenborough. The 8-part series is the culmination of a 4-year collaboration with Silverback Films and the World Wildlife Federation. That latter partnership is what really sets this series apart, though, as it leans in heavily to conservationist themes. Other than celebrating the magnificent lives inhabiting our planet, this series also focus on the great impacts of human activities towards the wildlife and their home regions with the immerse consequences that follow which could collapse the whole ecosystem and food chain and what can we do before it is too late. In this review, I will be focusing on one particular episode, my personal favourite feature- the "Coastal Sea" where we are able to witness the fascinating and highly coordinated creatures in coastal sea, where 90% of marine creatures reside.

The episode starts by revealing the teamwork between giant trevally and mobula rays when hunting down their prey, shoals of anchovies. This phenomenal is not uncommon with the superabundance that coastal seas provide, as the seafloor is within the reach of sunlight, the regions become extremely productive. The next scene brings us to the Everglades National Parks in southern Florida where we are able to observe the hunting process of dolphins. Their special way of hunting- enables them to have good servings of their preys, mullets. Seagrass carpet the shallow water of the park, where they absorb 35 times as much carbon dioxide as the same area of rainforests. The mangroves protect the coasts from hurricanes and they too, capture carbon dioxide. Young fish also lives in mangroves until they are ready to leave for the coral reefs. Sharks maintain the health of the reefs by hunting the predators that feed on small grazing fish, where the grazers keep corals free of parasites and seaweed. Coral reefs are bleaching at an alarming rate all around the world, over a thousand kilometers of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia bleached and died. 

Coral bleaching (Image via Netflix: Our Planet: Coastal Sea)

Next, we are brought to the stunning coast of California, where it is rich with giant kelp functioning like rainforests on land. Sea otters nestle in these kelps, while sea urchins graze on the kelps but the otters, together with sheephead wrasses, feast on these urchins to prevent the kelps from being overeaten by the urchins. In Alaska, when spring arrives, shoals of herrings head to the shallower waters to lay eggs. Steller’s sea lions, bald eagles, and whales arrives to have their first meals after cold winter. Unfortunately, the population of herrings has greatly reduced due to overfishing and jellyfish are taking over waters. However the nature has unbelievable recovery power. The once disappeared colonies of seabirds on the Pacific Coast of South America have recovered to a population of over 3 million after controls were introduced. They sustain their lives by hunting down the great shoals of anchovies. The anchovies are food to millions of seabirds and marine creatures, if they are overfished, millions of creatures will suffer. The islands of Raja Ampat shows the miraculous recovery rate of mother nature. Sharks and other large fish were stripped due to unregulated fishing and now, after the area has been protected, there are 25 times more sharks than a decade ago. Other marine creatures such as turtle and manta rays have returned to the sanctuary and the biodiversity is slowly increasing. The documentary ends urging humanity to protect the seas to help sustain both humanity and the nature world.

Sea otter surrounded by giant kelp at the coast of California (Image via Netflix: Our planet: Coastal Sea)

This documentary is packed with beautiful visual, sound effects, music, cinematography, and knowledge. The effort put into the making of this documentary series is worthy of praise. The crew spent months or even years just to capture a rare moment of a certain species. The cinematography and editing of this documentary are top-notch. Not to mention the captivating voice of Sir David Attenborough is the icing on the cake for this series. This series revealed that human activities are the main cause of coral bleaching, species extinction, climate change and the need to take action to conserve this beautiful planet. 

Rating: 5/5, a once in a life time must-watch series.

If you are interested to watch this episode or the entire Our Planet series, you can find it on Netflix or Youtube here. You can also visit the Our Planet website to learn more.