The unnoticed casualties of undersea progress

June 9, 2026

As global citizens, we have been fortunate to witness David Attenborough’s groundbreaking documentary Ocean. Australia has signed the treaty to preserve 30 per cent of our oceans. And yet alongside this, we are signing up to launch more military hardware into our oceans, continue to open areas to deep sea mining and green light fossil fuel drilling of sensitive reef systems along our coastline. One would have to be dimwitted indeed to think that all of this incredibly noisy destructive activity is not putting sea life, especially those acutely sensitive mammals, such as whales, dolphins and turtles under further threat. How desperate and disoriented must a whale be to drive itself onto a beach to escape the defeating noise we humans generate? The right hand must acknowledge what the left hand is doing. Are we really so intent on destroying the chance of future generations to witness and share the planet along with these magnificent creatures? To destroy such life knowingly, I believe, is the definition of evil.