OCEAN - Press release

Who: Dr. Carl Safina and John Angier
What: OCEAN, a new television series
When: Filming to start December 2007 in Belize
Why: To portray the mystery and magnificence of the oceans, their challenges and the hopeful solutions for their survival.

OCEAN TELEVISION SERIES STARTS PRODUCTION IN BELIZE

Adventure, Challenge, and Hope Collide at Sea
in Show Hosted by Author Carl Safina

East Norwich, NY and Watertown, MA -- Award-winning author and scientist Dr. Carl Safina and acclaimed producer John Angier have announced their collaboration on OCEAN, a new television series exploring the thrills and mysteries of ocean life, challenges facing the seas worldwide, and solutions to ensure their survival.

The pilot episode of this series enters production next week in the Central American country of Belize where shark conservation has taken hold in the innovative Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve. Early next year, the series team heads to Zanzibar for the pilot’s second story, which explores the influence of Muslim imams, or preachers, on the conservation of local coral atolls.

OCEAN’s themes of hope and endurance amid serious threats will offer viewers insight and inspiration, while highlighting positive developments in marine conservation. Combining the best of nature, travel, and adventure shows with investigative reporting and exotic locales, OCEAN promises a compelling new approach to contemporary environmental issues.

The series has been developed by Angier and Safina for broadcast on public television stations nationwide. The team will present the pilot episode to programmers at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as part of the series development process, and to potential funders of the series.

Safina, a marine biologist and best-selling author, will blend his scientific prowess and lyrical story-telling skills as on-camera host for the series. Angier, one of the founding team members behind the acclaimed Nova science series among others, is the OCEAN series producer and executive producer. The show will be filmed in high definition video format.

OCEAN was conceived to counteract the litany of bad news about the world’s marine environments. Safina, who made number two in Popular Science magazine’s list of the ten Worst Jobs in Science 2007, remains confident that the good can outweigh the bad news, of coastal dead zones, coral reef destruction, global overfishing, ocean acidification, and extinction—if solutions and hope are offered to audiences.

“It’s not all bad news ,” Safina says of the state of the planet’s oceans. “We’ll show people how things could be so much better and inspire them to ask: ‘How can I help?’”

Every episode will show ways forward, perhaps tentative or small-scale, but nevertheless real world examples of positive and constructive developments in ocean environments. In Belize, Safina will learn how to surgically implant a miniature acoustic beacon in a shark. Using about 50 implanted sharks, researchers have been able to build a picture of shark behavior and abundance throughout the 30-square mile protected reserve area. The question -- does the limited reserve area actually protect sharks, which can travel long distances, from heavy fishing pressure? The good news -- yes, the reserve system is working and local fishermen still have good catches.

In Zanzibar, Safina will meet the imam of the Central Mosque on the island of Pemba, who will explain how an impending crisis of fisheries overexploitation has been averted, and how inspiration for the remarkable turnaround was found in the pages of the Koran.

Future episodes will focus on the great ocean dinosaur – the Leatherback turtle, the comeback of great whales, and the ocean gladiators – swordfish and marlin.

Funding for production of the pilot episode of OCEAN has been generously provided by the Fisheries Conservation Foundation, the Save Our Seas Foundation and Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited.

About Dr. Carl Safina
Dr. Carl Safina, host of OCEAN, is a marine biologist by training, best-selling author of popular books about ocean subjects, and founder of the conservation organization, Blue Ocean Institute, www.blueocean.org. His hundred-plus publications and award-winning books include Song for the Blue Ocean, Eye of the Albatross and Voyage of the Turtle, and his writing has been featured in National Geographic. He’s been profiled by the New York Times, Nightline, and Bill Moyers. His awards include a Pew Fellowship, Lannan Literary Award, John Burroughs Medal, and a MacArthur Prize, among others (not forgetting the Popular Science “Worst Jobs in Science” Award).

About John Angier
John Angier, OCEAN producer, has been intimately involved in the creation of some of public television’s most successful national programming. He is a founding member of the team that created the Nova science series on PBS; he co-created PBS’s first science magazine series, Discover: The World of Science, hosted by Peter Graves, and the long-running popular science magazine Scientific American Frontiers, hosted by Alan Alda. He has placed special emphasis on bringing stories of the environment and nature to the screen. His work has won many awards, including a national Emmy and two Special Citations from the prestigious international documentary competition, the Prix Italia.

Blue Ocean Institute           Chedd-Angier-Lewis Production Co.
P.O. Box 250                        70 Coolidge Hill Road
East Norwich, NY 11732      Watertown, MA 02474
516 922 9500                      617 926 8300
www.blueocean.org            www.chedd-angier-lewis.com