Plankton film distributed to UK schools
Ocean Drifters combines cutting-edge plankton science with remarkable images to popularise this unseen world
The distribution of 7000 DVDs to be used as an educational tool for schools around the UK has been made possible with a donation from The Fishmongers’ Company, London.
During the week 20-24 August ‘Ocean Drifters – A secret world beneath the waves’ was dispatched to all 6956 UK secondary schools, in time to arrive in science departments before the start of the new academic year.
Written, produced and directed by Dr Richard Kirby, an internationally respected plankton scientist and research fellow at Plymouth University, Ocean Drifters combines cutting-edge plankton science with remarkable images to popularise this unseen world, and to relate a story of life on Earth that is often untold.
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, this 15 minute film combines astonishing images and a newly commissioned musical score by Richard Grassby-Lewis, to reveal how the marine plankton influence almost every aspect of our daily lives, and how current climate change is affecting their distributions and abundance with ensuing ramifications for the marine food chain and the ecology of our entire planet.
Nigel Cox, the clerk of the Fishmongers Company said, “We are delighted to be able to support this worthwhile project. Ocean Drifters is a wonderful film which can be used as an educational tool to explain the science in a new and exciting format. The implications that plankton biomass have on our fisheries are astounding but few people are aware of them. We applaud Dr Richard Kirby’s inspired and refreshing vision and wish him every success in this venture.”
Dr Richard Kirby said, “Plankton underpins the marine food chain. Without the plankton there wouldn't be any fish in the sea, no whales, dolphins or seals, no seabirds in the sky, or polar bears on the ice.”
For more information please visit www.oceandrifters.org.
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