- The Swahili are ocean people
that have sailed and traded and fished.
But not many people have seen underwater
you know, even the fishermen.
It's only the lobster divers who would go underwater now,
but we've found that when you show people these places
and, you know, we've been able
to film some incredible places
and they're like, "Wow, that's what we have."
And the funniest thing is like,
but that looks like the movies we see from somewhere else.
And it's like, yeah, because we have it too.
(gentle music)
We need to conserve these areas.
Not only because they're hugely important places
for biodiversity, for the health of humanity
but they're also hugely important places
for vulnerable coastal communities.
Yet with a properly managed fishery
in the sense where the community is in control
and knows what's going on and understands the science
and the destruction behind it, that community is
in a much better place to make informed decisions
about what kind of fishing they allow,
where they want that fishing to happen.
(gentle music)
(bright music)
(gentle music)
You know, a lot of films that are done in Kenya
sort of have a different audience at heart, you know,
sort of maybe a more Western audience
and don't quite resonate very much with the culture here.
And so we wanted to make a uniquely Kenyan film
that spoke from a local perspective.
(gentle music)
In certain areas we've been moving
from more subsistence fishing to, you know,
sort of massive trolling and this and that.
And often what happens is the local fishermen
are vilified yet no one's really looking
at why they're fishing badly
because you know, their fishing grounds
are being so severely over-fished
by big international ships.
So it's kind of trying to get that narrative across
that, you know, we need to conserve these areas,
not only because they're hugely important places
for biodiversity, for the health of humanity,
but they're also hugely important places
for vulnerable coastal communities.
(gentle music)
First of all, I realized there's very important stories
that need to be told here
but then we're making discoveries
of our own little amazing places
and places that no one's dived before,
no one's filmed before
and, you know, places we didn't know what was there.
And to me, that gives me so much more purpose
because we need to know what's there
because then we need to know what we need to protect.
(gentle music)
A lot of the time the communities where you come into film,
especially with natural history,
you forget that these are the people
at the frontline of conservation
and these are the guys you need on your side.
And also these other communities
that actually could have answers to your questions as well.
(gentle music)