Note: I gave this speech in 2003, when I was asked to be the keynote speaker at The Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific Counsel Meeting in Hong Kong just about the time that Coral Reef Adventure released in IMAX theaters worldwide. Our most recent film Deep Sea 3D is a “blue chip” natural history film which we hope will demonstrate why biodiversity is important in our oceans.

Nature Conservancy Presentation
Hong Kong 2003

Howard Hall

Howard Hall

For the past 30 years I have built a career of capturing images of the marine wilderness. And I admit it has been just about the best job in the world. I began my career using a still camera to capture these images and a typewriter to create stories about marine natural history. Yes, I said typewriter. When I began writing, word processors didn’t exist.

After a few years I began taking a 16mm motion picture camera underwater. Eventually, many of the films I made were seen by millions of people who might otherwise never have known such beauty exists in our oceans.

During my film making career I have concentrated on making two kinds of underwater films: High quality, pure natural history films (called “blue chip” natural history within the industry) and conservation films. Conservation films deal directly with conservation issues in an effort to educate audiences about man’s impact on wildlife and wilderness habitat. Blue chip natural history films depict pristine wilderness and animal behavior often ignoring related conservation issues at best until the very end of the film.

For many years there has been an on-going debate within the natural history film industry as to the impact natural history films have had on the conservation movement. Environmentalists often complain that blue chip natural history films inaccurately depict pristine wilderness when, in actuality, no truly undamaged wilderness remains. And many veteran natural history film makers believe that both blue chip and hard core conservation films have had a negligible impact on public opinion and behavior. In other words, beyond making a living (and having a really good time of it) we have been wasting our time.

There is good reason to believe that natural history and conservation films have essentially no impact. Despite a constant flow of these films via television and even theater, wilderness habitat and endangered species almost universally continue to decline. This is especially true in the ocean. The change in undersea environments today, as compared to when I began diving 40 years ago, is negative and astoundingly so. In the ocean, during the last 50 years, 90 percent of the large predators have disappeared and 50 percent of the biodiversity is gone. And the rate of decline is rapidly accelerating.

So, perhaps we have been wasting our time. Certainly, my film making colleagues and I have not succeeded in inspiring an effective worldwide conservation movement. The lack of success has enormously disheartened many within the natural history film community. A group of film makers recently began a study of the impact, or lack of it, natural history films have had. Many of us within the community were asked for evidence that our films have had any measure of impact. I gave this some serious thought. And I think my films have had an impact. In fact, some of the films I have worked on had immediate and impressive effect on public behavior.

A film called The Coral Triangle produced by Lenora Carey and made with my help in 1988, featured the Muro Ami fishery in the Philippines. This fishery uses hundreds of children to drive reef fish into nets. The film resulted in new laws to protect coral reefs in the Philippines. It also resulted in child labor laws to protect children used in fisheries.

A film directed by Pierre De Lespionois and Bob Fishman and filmed by me in 1991 had an even more dramatic impact. The film was called Dolphins, Whales, and Us. The film was a celebration of dolphins and whales, but included powerful scenes of dolphins being killed in tuna nets. This film, which was released primetime on the CBS network, and another film that showed similar footage on PBS the same week caused the tuna industry to announce that it would begin its “Dolphin Safe” labeling program.

In 1980, I began working for acclaimed marine mammal conservationist Hardy Jones on a series of films documenting the killing of dolphins by fishermen in Japan. The first footage we shot of dolphins being killed at Iki Island, Japan was syndicated on US and worldwide network news shows within 24 hours of our arriving on the island. This dramatic footage, which showed bays turned crimson with dolphin blood and fishermen using spears to lance dolphins, resulted in several international letters of protest from foreign governments.

Other conservation films I’ve made or contributed to including our recent IMAX feature, Coral Reef Adventure, have not always had such obvious effects on ocean conservation, except to make a lot of people concerned and upset. But whether the effect is dramatic or not, I do believe conservation films certainly serve to increase public awareness of the problems facing wilderness today.

I also believe that natural history films that don’t directly address conservation issues; blue chip natural history films that have little or no conservation message, are just as important as conservation films.

Blue chip natural history films usually take many years for a film maker to create. They’re made using stunning photography that often depicts pristine wilderness in breathtaking beauty and animals engaged in fascinating behaviors. Environmentalists often say that blue chip natural history films are poor documentaries because they avoid showing the wilderness as it really is.

But I think images of breathtaking pristine beauty and the often anthropomorphic behavior of wild animals increases the value people place on these environments and the creatures that live there. They help create a value to people who may otherwise never experience wilderness except through these motion pictures. People will not conserve something they don’t value. People will not be distressed by the loss of something they don’t love. And people will seldom act when confronted with a crisis unless it is personal.

I believe that beautiful marine natural history films can make people fall in love with wildlife and wilderness. It is this love that works in concert with the deluge of disturbing environmental news published by conservation organizations like the Nature Conservancy that inspires people to act when they become aware of crisis.

One recent anecdote about Coral Reef Adventure was sent to us by the Museum of Discovery and Science in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. They were hosting King Sarpong, the King of Ghana. After seeing the film, he grabbed the hand of Kim Cavendish, the Museum’s IMAX theater director and said “Thank you, thank you for this! I am embolden in my resolve to curb deforestation in my country.” If he was sincere, that single statement made making the film more than just an enjoyable waste of time.

I think that no single strategy is going to turn the tide of environmental decline, especially in our oceans. But I do believe that continued activism and education provided by organizations like The Nature Conservancy are critical to stimulate change in human behavior. And I believe that films on television and in theaters play a critical role in predisposing people to follow the leadership of people like you and other the leaders our environmental movement.