New Netflix documentary explores world's most underestimated natural marvel

Connecting with nature can be as simple as stepping into your yard, but there are also more remote parts of the natural environment that few humans ever see. The world below the waves is among the hardest to access — but it's teeming with life in all its wonder and variety. This month, Netflix is bringing that world into your living room with its new documentary series Our Oceans.

What's happening?

Our Oceans released on November 20, only on Netflix. Following in the footsteps of Our Planet and Blue Planet II, it's a deep dive into ocean life, with five 60-minute episodes, each focused on one of the world's five oceans. The series is narrated by Barack Obama.

One by one, Our Oceans introduces viewers to a star-studded cast of beloved sea creatures, from huge whales to tiny bioluminescent plankton. Cuttlefish, puffins, dolphins, clownfish, and more live out their stories in never-before-seen detail.

Why is learning about the ocean important?

The bottom of the ocean might feel like another world, but the marine ecosystem is a vital part of our world, and one that lives depend on. People throughout the U.S. and around the globe rely on the ocean for a range of foods and other products. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the ocean is estimated to produce $2.3 trillion of value annually — that's an economy the size of Germany's, which is the world's fifth largest.

Sadly, that ecosystem is in jeopardy, as Our Oceans' team saw firsthand while filming. Every day, tons upon tons of garbage, especially plastic, makes its way into the water and disintegrates into microplastic — where it not only threatens sea life, but becomes part of the human food chain and threatens our health too.

Executive producer James Honeyborne discussed this problem in a featurette titled Our Plastic Oceans.

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"It's an indicator of ocean health, and ocean health is in decline," said Honeyborne, adding that about a garbage truck's worth of plastic enters the ocean every minute. "The oceans have become our trash can."

What is the Our Oceans team doing about plastic pollution?

The crew stepped up in a big way when they found a whale trailing over 100 feet of fishing gear that was caught on its tail. They helped guide the rescue team to free the gentle giant, as Honeyborne recounted.

However, perhaps their biggest contribution is the series itself. "When we made Blue Planet II, the audience responded really strongly to seeing plastics in the ocean," said Honeyborne. "People went out and beach cleaned, and sorted out their plastic recycling, stopped using single-use plastics — and it did make a difference."