Finding Nemo: The Reality Series

To increase academic interest in the oceans you need to aim your efforts at current students and would be students, but also think about the long term interest in the science. As a many to many “solution” or rather partial solution, I propose the creation of a “social” network but with a twist. This social network is for sealife. Instead of people posting status updates, and different angles of the most recent thing they’ve eaten–this network will be filled with actual images, video and data collected by different marine life equipped with cameras/GPS equipment and other technology that could track and report back. There already considerable interest in different cameras that provide live streams of different environments (like this one focusing on sharks). For the documentation of wild animals, Animal Planet aired a series called Meercat Manor and BBC created Tigers: Spy in the Jungle which even included cameras carried by Elephants who had been trained to get good shots.

The difference between these and my idea is that it wont be a TV show, but a sort of way for people to watch, discuss and experience the way the animals live in a very personal, and generally unavailable way. Along with the data collected by the different cameras (on different animals), I feel like it would also be a good idea (like what was done in Meercat Manor) to build a sort of fictional narritive around the data, by creating first person updates from the perspective of the animal. That way people gain a personal connection with the animals and they have a vested interest in their well-being. There could be daily updates, or live updates for certain animals and in most ways real life would heavily influence the semi-fictional narritive that writers would build around the animals. For example if everyone’s favorite sea turtle ends up suffering by eating a stray plastic bag, it would evoke more of a reaction than a statistic about the number of sea turtles affected by pollution would, it’s like the quote “One death is a tradgedy, a million is a statistic”.

By creating this network of people surrounding the everyday experience of sealife, and giving them a place to discuss their plights, it would create more empathy than most of the current methods we use to raise awareness. Such a system could allow users to vote for their favorites and request more frequent updates of specific animals, and individuals could pick and choose which animals they care to watch. It could also point people towards ways they can help or how they can learn more.