We are over the moon to have been cited by David Attenborough as a leading light in local action for nature. In his stunning new book, Ocean, the 99-year old legend covers the fall and rise of the Sussex kelp and flags the importance of our work across the Sussex landscape to protect our underwater forests.

Currently showing in cinemas, Ocean is, like the book, both incredibly moving and shocking. It shows us both the terrible damage we are doing to our marine ecosystems, and the amazing capacity for recovery.

With just weeks to go before the United Nations Ocean Conference 2025 in Nice, France, we are reminded of the incredible potential impacts of increasing marine protected areas globally. In Sussex we are privileged to have our own first hand experience of this thanks to the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project. Their work, along with a powerful community, led to the designation of a byelaw banning trawling on the nearshore. Thanks to this ban, there is evidence that the tiny remaining areas of kelp, fragments of a once thriving 100km2 underwater forest, are starting to recover, demonstrating the power of removing human pressures in the marine environment.

While it is a message of hope, large-scale recovery of the ocean remains against the odds without political and public support. Ocean also shows us the catastrophic consequences for biodiversity, climate, and sustainable food if extreme degrees of over-exploitation continue. There has never been a more urgent time to learn about our seas.