Early bird · 23 days leftLog in

❝ Monologues · 23 lines · C1

This habitat was the subject of the series The Blue Planet, which we were filming in the late '90s.

From wonder to a dying ocean · David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)

This habitat was the subject of the series The Blue Planet, which we were filming in the late '90s.

Line 1 of 23

It was... an astonishing vision of a completely unknown world, a world that had existed since the beginning of time.

No pauses, keep up with the actor

Space play/pause · ← → previous/next line · R replay

1This habitat was the subject of the series The Blue Planet, which we were filming in the late '90s.
2It was... an astonishing vision of a completely unknown world, a world that had existed since the beginning of time .
3All sorts of things that you had no idea had ever existed ,
4all in a multitude of colors, all unbelievably beautiful.
5And all of them completely undisturbed by your presence .
6 For much of its expanse , the ocean is largely empty.
7But in certain places, there are hot spots
8where currents bring nutrients to the surface and trigger an explosion of life .
9In such places, huge shoals of fish gather.
10The problem is that our fishing fleets are just as good at finding those hot spots as are the fish .
11When they do, they're able to gather the concentrated shoals with ease .
12 It was only in the '50s that large fleets first ventured out into international waters ...
13to reap the open ocean harvest across the globe.
14Yet, they've removed 90% of the large fish in the sea.
15At first, they caught plenty of fish in their nets.
16But within only a few years, the nets across the globe were coming in empty .
17The fishing quickly became so poor that countries began to subsidize the fleets to maintain the industry.
18Without large fish and other marine predators, the oceanic nutrient cycle stutters.
19The predators help to keep nutrients in the ocean's sunlit waters ,
20recycling them so that they can be used again and again by plankton.
21Without predators, nutrients are lost for centuries to the depths
22and the hot spots start to diminish.
23The ocean starts to die .

Why it's worth practising

Wonder comes first, intact and ancient; then empty nets and a faltering cycle take it apart.

From

reap the open ocean harvestWatch the full chapter →

Phrases in this speech

since the beginning of time undisturbed by your presence hot spots just as good at reap the open ocean harvest coming in empty stutters lost for centuries to the depths

Make shadowing a habit

Sign in to save monologues and keep track of the lines you've practised.

More monologues from David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

All 13 monologues from this movie →

More monologues

All monologues →