This short film by oceanographer Sylvia Earle highlights the urgent need to protect our oceans from pollution and overfishing. It was released to coincide with World Oceans Day in early June this year.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and complete the blanks in the transcript with the missing words.
The activity is suitable for Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students.
The world is blue. If you look at it from (1) ..., that image should alone inspire us to think that we, too, are sea (2) ... . We are as dependent on the ocean as any (3) ... or any coral reef. Take away the ocean, and there is no us. We have looked to the ocean as a place to put things that we don't want, and a place to take things that seemed in (4) ... quantity... We’ll never run out of fish, it was thought.
We’ve lost on the order of (5) ... of many of the big fish like tunas, swordfish, sharks, marlin, cod. Some of the techniques for fishing should definitely be (6) ... . That includes bottom trawling. They are so destructive. It’s like using a bulldozer to catch some (7) ... . You shake up a few pounds of protein but you’ve destroyed the (8) ... and everything that is in it.
What can you do? Think about what you're eating. Make better (9) ... . Know where the fish come from. I think of the ocean as the blue (10) ... of the planet. But how much of your (10) ... do you want to protect?
Key:
1 space 2 creatures 3 whale 4 infinite 5 90% 6 banned 7 birds 8 forest 9 choices 10 heart
