What a fascinating glimpse into Sylvia's life. She is incredible. The film has a good balance of story, and covering ocean issues at the same time. It is entertaining, enjoyable, sometimes humorous, and inspiring.
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KellieStanley33457 May 2021
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Mission Blue is the "Silent Spring" for oceans -- a wake up call to the world to act now before it's too late. It's also an extraordinary story of how one individual -- Sylvia Earle -- can build a movement of hope. This wonderful film should be main-streamed into classrooms, board rooms and state houses so that the the national park idea can be brought to our oceans. One leaves the film wanting to join the movement to create hope spots -- and learn more about what are the institutional levers that must be pulled to make those marine protected areas a reality. Perhaps the most powerful part of the film was the narrative on Earle herself, whose passion since childhood for seaweed and all things blue transformed her into an unstoppable force for good. Imagine the generations of young people who could be inspired by her example. Nixon is a creative genius and Earle a remarkable protagonist.
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aquaphoenix25 August 2014"Mission Blue", Netflix's original documentary featuring legendary oceanographer, marine biologist, environmentalist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle is thought provoking and inspirational with a real call to action! In her own words, "The Ocean is dying! A world without the Ocean, is a world without us". As of 2014, less than 3% of the Ocean is protected. Mission Blue's goal is for at least 20% by 2020 through creating "Hope Zones".
Some may fault this documentary as being more about the crusader than the crusade. What Rachel Carson was to insecticides, birds and our planet in 1962, Sylvia Earle is to the Ocean today. After spending an excess of 7000 hours underwater in connection with her research since 1953, Sylvia brings a lifetime of priceless observations helping to bring awareness and causing people to talk about the issue and ultimately helping to re-wire the way people look at our relationship to nature. Courageously and untiringly, her invaluable and passionate research has caused a rippling effect of conversations, of action, of bringing Hope and restoring life to the Ocean. We shall in 50 years look back at today and see what difference it has made.
In her words, "If I could be born anywhere in time, it would be now. It would be now because this is the time as never before. That we understand what we didn't 50 years ago. If we wait another 50 years, opportunities we now have will be gone. This is the moment. Our decisions. Our actions will shape everything that follows." -
casper-3633128 July 2021Must see for all of us. There is still time to safe the earth.
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Gillian_A8 May 2023Mission Blue is an amazing documentary about Slyvia Earle, who is known for her extensive research in marine biology and her position at National Geographic. Along with Dr. Earle's life story and work in her field, this documentary tracks the progress of her new campaign for promoting and protecting marine areas. She refers to these zones as "hope spots" because she hopes to see these areas grow back to their former glory and beauty. Her campaign, Mission Blue, is aiming to "protect the ocean the same way we protect the land."
Throughout the documentary, she shows many reasons behind the need for her project and helps the audience understand the importance of her work. She goes on to explain many topics such as dead zones killing marine ecosystems, the process of shark finning, the extreme reduction of marine species from 1950-2014, and the importance of different marine organisms to the ecosystem. Dr. Earle points out that most of our problems with the marine ecosystem have been caused by human impact. Since 1950, around 50% of the coral reef remains due to human impact on our ecosystem and the extensive exposure we put other organisms through. An intense rise in temperature from climate change has caused most of the coral reefs to bleach, which results in them dying off.
In addition to climate change, the human population has grown immensely and has led to overconsumption of marine organisms. Since 1950, only 5% of the Pacific Bluefin fish remains, 10% of sharks remain, and 5% of the North Atlantic Cod remains. The intense consumption of fish is leading to the extinction/endangerment of these species. In many cases, the fish/marine organisms that humans eat are the most important to the ecosystem. The Menhaden fish species was shown to be a major factor in keeping the ocean clean since they are known as the "kidneys" of the ocean. This species will clean the excess phytoplankton and detritus that covers the sea and are fish at the base of the marine food chain.
Overall, this documentary captures the most amazing parts of the sea and the importance of protecting it from further harm. Dr. Earle's work has left an empowering impression on how I look at the Earth and the environmental impact I have on the ecosystem. I hope everyone will watch this movie because it leaves a meaningful impact on the audience and helps drive the need for change. -
chelseapie1110 September 2014Although I agree 100% with the fact that the world's oceans have been devastated, I was very disappointed that there was so much emotional appeal and focus on Dr. Earle's career than hard-hitting footage of the devastation of coral reefs, algae blooms, trash islands in the Pacific, etc. Time is wasted because the first part of the film doesn't even show the real evidence and facts in depth. Also, the audience is told to 'do something' to help save the ocean. Unfortunately, that 'something' is very vague. It would have been more inspiring if the audience had been shown examples of specifically what changes in lifestyle or activism could help solve the issue rather than just raise awareness.
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adi-thirsty4 April 2021Left watching after an hour. They shouldn't have named it Mission Blue because it's less about that and more about the lady oceanographer.