St George and Sutherland Shire residents are invited to a free community film screening of the multi-award-winning documentary Blue to hear about the threats to our global oceans and what they can do to protect our ‘‘blue backyard’’.
The community event is being held as part of a campaign to create a marine park for Sydney, a project that would directly benefit the Sutherland Shire and St George areas.
Blue is an Australian film about how the oceans are broken and what can be done to fix them. Half of the world’s marine life has been lost in the past 40 years.
Featuring passionate advocates for ocean preservation, the film tackles themes of habitat destruction, species loss and pollution.
Filmed in the seas around Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and the USA, Blue looks at how the very nature of the ocean is being altered.
Filmgoers will be joined by one of the film’s stars, local ocean guardian and keen spearfisher Lucas Handley.
Handley said the film Blue was made at a time when countries are making critical decisions that will decide the legacy we leave for generations to come.
‘‘Australia has the opportunity to be a marine conservation leader because 90 per cent of the marine creatures here occur nowhere else in the world,” Handley said.
Sydney Marine Park campaigner Sharnie Connell said Sydney’s coast and ocean are at the heart of our enviable lifestyle.
‘‘Our beaches, bays and waterways are truly iconic, but our beautiful blue backyard is under pressure, yet few Sydneysiders realise how much,” Connell said.
‘‘Impacts from coastal development, fishing pressure, pollution and climate change are mounting, yet less than 1 per cent of our waters are protected.
‘‘We need a Sydney Marine Park to protect our coastal lifestyle for generations to come.”
The free community screening of Blue will be at GU Film House Cronulla, 2-6 Cronulla Street, on Wednesday, September 12 at 6pm.
Tickets: Eventbrite
