Is the ocean ‘having a moment’? This was the UN summit where the world woke up to the decline of the seas

A slew of global leaders met in the south of France to discuss the future of the oceans. There was momentum' and enthusiasm', but there were critical voices too

The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope ... and we are all in the same boat." So said Jacques Cousteau, the French explorer, oceanographer and pioneering film-maker, who notably pivoted from merely sharing his underwater world to sounding the alarm over its destruction.

Half a century later, David Attenborough, a year shy of his 100th birthday, followed Cousteau's trajectory. In the naturalist's acclaimed new film, Ocean, which highlights the destructive fishing practice of bottom trawling, he says he has come to the realisation that the most important place on Earth is not on land but at sea".