‘I’m so glad people are finally talking about plastic pollution’
Jo Ruxton produced the multi-award-winning documentary film A Plastic Ocean, which showed the world the crises in our sea. She now runs Ocean Generation, which has been endorsed by Sir David Attenborough.
David Attenborough has been hugely supportive
As a child, I pored over The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley and The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, wishing I could live under the sea. My dad worked in the RAF, so we lived in Singapore, Malta and Cyprus and we were never far from the water. After a degree in biological sciences, I worked for a pharmaceutical firm, but I wasn’t cut out for sales and I didn’t find it fulfilling. So when I married and had my two daughters,
Jessica and Heather, I was grateful to be in a financial position to stop working. In 1983, we moved from the UK to Hong Kong for my husband’s job, and I had 10 years out of the working world. But once the girls were at school, I learned to dive and started volunteering with WWF (World
Wide Fund for Nature). Eventually, I headed up its marine programme in Hong Kong, working with the government to protect the incredible marine life there – including pink dolphins!
In 1997, newly divorced, I returned to the UK after applying for a job at the BBC. I’d heard it was producing a new ocean series, and was looking for people with diving skills and contacts in Asia. I joined as a researcher and loved working on underwater documentaries for 12 years, including The Blue Planet.
While working on shoots and risk assessments for diver safety, I became aware of how much plastic was in the seas. We had to clear the beaches and water of rubbish to get the shots we needed. I thought, ‘People need to see this. We can’t show the oceans as pristine when they’re not.’ No one seemed to be listening, so I decided to make a documentary on my own. After leaving the BBC in 2008, I spent time with scientists in the north Pacific Ocean and discovered just how insidious plastic pollution really was. I learned that the oceans were full of microplastics that attract chemicals, polluting the fish and the wildlife. It was terrifying, but I knew that exposing this problem was important. To raise funds for the documentary, I started a charity, now called Ocean Generation, so that the film would have a legacy that would create awareness, promote behavioural change and influence policy makers, too.
Eight years later, the film – A Plastic Ocean, led by world champion freediver Tanya Streeter and journalist Craig Leeson – was ready to show. I was so nervous when it premiered on World Oceans Day in 2016. Once it finished, there was a huge round of applause; I had to fight back tears.
The film won 15 awards and is often credited with starting the conversation about plastics in the seas.
Sir David Attenborough has been hugely supportive. The film is now on Netflix and I’m so glad that even more TV shows, including Blue Planet II, have highlighted the impact of plastics on our oceans. People are becoming so engaged.
Now, I am raising funds for my next film, while continuing my conservation work with Ocean Generation.
I’m based in Cornwall, and my daughters and granddaughters live nearby. I’m still just as enchanted by the ocean as I was as a child. I’ll do everything in my power to protect it.
For more information, visit oceangeneration.org