Totally reef- stricken: complete devastation
Film-maker’s call to action to save coral
In an an acclaimed career capturing the wonders of wildlife on film, there is little left to shock award-laden cameraman Doug Allan.
The devastation being wreaked by climate change on the world’s coral reefs and plastic pollution on world’s sealife, however, is so appalling, he says, that enough is enough.
Doug, whose work has earned him eight Emmys and five Baftas, said: I’m very saddened by what I see and it does fire me up to do what I can about it.
“There is so much evidence about the effect we’re having on the seas and the wildlife in them.
“There is indisputable scientific proof. You look around and think, ‘Come on. We owe it to ourselves and especially to our kids who are going to have to live with the consequences’.
“I’ve been working in the natural world since the 1970s and if we didn’t know enough about it then, we certainly do now.
“We need some big national programmes.”
Doug’s work on major BBC series like Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet have taken him all over the world and earned him a plethora of awards.
Having reached the milestone of 35 years filming wildlife, he has seen nature in all its glory – and sometimes goriness.
But it’s what man is doing that really tugs at his heartstrings, especially some of the sights witnessed during filming on A Plastic Ocean. The film, about the pollution caused by plastic waste in our oceans, has been hailed for raising awareness and changing attitudes like Blue Planet II.
Doug, 67, says it’s both the visible plastics, that get swallowed and tangled, and micro-plastics that get ingested by creatures that feed by filtering the waters.
“People often ask me whether I get saddened by seeing wee animals eaten when I’m shooting a hunting sequence,” said Doug.
“But animals eating other animals is a part of nature and my job is to be there and record what’s happening.
“What’s much sadder is when you see an animal suffering because of what we’ve done.
“That can be a turtle eating a plastic bag or a seal with discarded fishing net wrapped around its neck. You can see it’ll be condemned to a long, painful death because it can’t swim or feed properly. And I was present on a remote island in the Pacific where scientists were cutting open dead albatross chicks and finding large amounts of plastic.
“The plastic had been taken in by the adult and fed to its young.
“That’s what’s sad, not nature raw in tooth and claw.”
Doug, who was born in Dunfermline, admits his initial amazement and wonder at the natural world has gradually given way to concern during his decades behind the camera.
And his work with the Living Oceans Foundation has really brought home the changing face of our planet.
The environmental science organisation aims to preserve, protect and restore the world’s oceans and they’ve been using Doug’s expertise to track the state of beautiful, but