Watch: The makers of ‘My Octopus Teacher’ on saving the Cape Kelp Forest [video]

After the team behind the South African documentary, My Octopus Teacher, won the Bafta Award for Best Documentary Feature, the makers of the film sat down with the BBC and explained how they are planning to preserve the aquatic forest.

Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed’s My Octopus Teacher has been a fan-favourite ever since its release on Netflix and tells the gripping story of Craig Foster, suffering from a loss of purpose, who begins a daily diving regimen in the freezing kelp forests at the tip of Africa in order to re-energize himself. He subsequently befriends an octopus. But, according to the BBC, the unsung star of the show is the kelp forest off the coast of Cape Town.

Saving the kelp forest of My Octopus Teacher

That’s why the BBC’s Andrew Harding checked in with the work being done by the Sea Change Project, “a community of scientists, storytellers, journalists and filmmakers, dedicated to exploring and documenting The Great African Seaforest”:

The nonprofit’s goal is to protect South Africa’s marine environment by making the Great African Seaforest a global icon. According to their official website, Foster and Ross Frylinck founded the Sea Change Trust in 2012. Through hundreds of hours of underwater exploration, they have come to understand this unique environment and the community of creatures that live within it.

As ‘spectacular as the Serengeti’

“To date, we have generated millions of rands worth of publicity for our kelp forest. We support the call to sustainably increase South Africa’s marine protected areas. We are committed to furthering global marine conservation goals by 30% by 2030. We have also discovered a plethora of new species and animal behaviours.”

It is said that the Great African Sea Forest protects thousands of species and in terms of endemics, it is vastly richer than the Great Barrier Reef; in terms of wildlife drama, the relationships between predators and prey, are as spectacular as the Serengeti.

The Great African Seaforest

“All kelp forests are extremely vulnerable sensitive ecosystems that can only grow in shallow inshore waters – areas that are most at risk to human pressure. The seaforest is under pressure due to pollution, over-fishing, poaching, climate change and the future threat of off-shore mining.”

The team are therefore, working with partner organisations and advocating for change to the current marine protection laws.

My Octopus Teacher is also nominated for an 2021 Academy Award.