Marine biologist Nayantara Jain feels that shows like Blue Planet Revisited are needed to dispel myths around animals and help people explore marine life. By Team Viva

The increasingly unsustainable use of marine resources for economic activities, fishing, boating, tourism etc, has hurt the health of our oceans, seas and coasts. However,  the wake of Coronavirus and the lockdown has turned out to be a opportunity to revive the marine ecosystem. To throw light on the varied and vast marine ecology, Sony BBC Earth has brought a show called Blue Planet Revisited. The two-part series celebrates marine life from all corners of the globe, exploring the challenges facing the ecosystems and wildlife in two key locations — Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and the Bahamas. As the breeding season gets underway, the series focusses on the action following whales and their calves, turtles and their hatchlings and the scientists who know our oceans best. It is packed with insight and spectacle. Incredible shark dives in the Bahamas. The underwater dawn chorus of the Great Barrier Reef, home to 600 different kinds of coral and more than 1500 species of fish.

To build relevance around the show through her expertise, the channel reached out and on-boarded Nayantara Jain, Executive Director of Reef Watch Marine Conservation — one of India’s oldest and only organisations committed to protecting India’s coasts and oceans. Excerpts:

Can you tell us about your journey as a marine biologist and what led to resource marine conservation India?

I learned how to scuba dive when I was 16. I think a lot of what drove me towards learning diving was the incredible nature documentaries that I’ve watched before, like the original Blue Planet and oceans and all the BBC documentaries, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Watching them really inspired me to learn how to dive. And once I started diving, because I was very passionate about it that I became a scuba diving instructor. After working as a scuba instructor for a few years, I realised how our life on lands were impacting the ocean and especially coral reef ecosystems. That’s when I became very passionate about conservation, and that’s what led me to study marine biology and then work with Reef Watch. 

Tell us about the various initiatives undertaken by Reef Watch Marine Conservation India?

We have two sort of key field placements. One is in the Andaman Islands, and the other on the coast of Karnataka, to the West coast of India. In the Andaman, we work a lot with coral reef restoration and conservation. So, we have various ongoing projects where we are looking at different ways to regrow and repair the damaged reef areas. In another mainland, on the West coast, the work that we’re doing is to do with injured and stranded marine megafauna, like sea turtles, dolphins and even whales. We have a lot of them on our ports, even on the mainland, and a lot of them often get stranded on land, either dead or sometimes alive and injured. So, we have a project where we look after the injured or ill megafauna that come up to our coast and study the ones that was wash up dead.

What is your take on the show Blue Planet Revisited? Do you think shows like these help people understand oceans and its life better?

Yes, and this is one of the main reasons I am associated with the channel, to talk about this show, because my own journey began very much with shows like these. A lot of what I knew before I did my masters on the subject, a lot of what I knew about the ocean and the animals that live in it came from shows like this. Such shows also help dispel a lot of myths and bring things into the right perspective for a lot of people. One of the episodes of the show is about sharks. I believe they are one of the most misunderstood animals on our planet today... so many people are terrified of sharks. I was just telling somebody earlier that when I worked as a full time instructor, the question I was asked most frequently was, ‘are there sharks in these waters and are they going to attack me?’

Shows like this and nature documentaries teach people a lot about these animals. They teach them which animals are dangerous and which ones are not. They create a lot of excitement and curiosity, leading to more people exploring these spaces in real life. It’s wonderful to have such shows. One of my greatest dreams is to make a documentary about India’s coast specifically.

Can you tell us about some of the astonishing encounters in your journey underwater? What keeps you going in this field?

One of my most memorable diving experience ever, was when I got to do something very similar to what they have shown on this show about the sharks in the Bahamas. A few years ago I got to dive in Galapagos Islands, which is another sort of shark sanctuary we have on our planet today. So, I got to dive with hundreds of different species of sharks. And, I could see these really powerful, magnificent beings swimming around me — I can never forget that moment in my life. So, it was really cool to see something similar like that on a particular episode of the show.

What is the future of our islands and marine world, especially in India?

I’ve been working as a diver and then as a conservationist for the past 10 years. Over the years, I have seen a lot of damage to our oceans. Areas that boasted of a lot of sharks are completely fished out of it now. I’ve seen a lot of coral reefs being degraded over the years. There’s an increasing amount of litter and plastics on our coastline and waters. It is very concerning, but the silver lining here is that I’ve seen a surge of young children concerned about the environment. They get in touch with me, wanting to be marine biologists or wanting to come and volunteer with the organisation or know how they can organise a beach clean-up in their city. Indians are coming in to learn how to dive and surf and just interact with the ocean more. This is really encouraging. Right now, the interest of youth in all of this is rising and if more people connect with the ocean and want to preserve it, things can change for good. We still have coral reefs in the Andaman. We still have sharks in our ocean, we still have whales in the sea, and we can have sea turtles along the coastline. So, this is really the time for us to act. If we as a society realise the importance of a healthy ocean and come together we can bring about a change.

(The show airs on January 23, 9 pm on Sony BBC Earth.)