Octopus Teacher

“A lot of people say that an octopus is like an alien, but the strange thing is that when you get close to them, you realize that we are very similar in a lot of ways.” Craig Foster, one of the world’s leading natural history film makers and co-founder of the Sea Change Project.

Okay friends, you don’t want to miss seeing My Octopus Teacher, a recently released documentary film on Netflix.  My Octopus Teacher takes viewers on an underwater sea experience that few have ever seen. It documents Craig’s year long transformative journey becoming a trusted friend to an octopus in the African Sea Kelp forest.  The non-profit Sea Change Project’s mission is to tell stories that connect people to the wild, motivating them to become part of the regeneration of our planet. Their emotional ecology movement is showing people how to relate to and care about sea animals.  Watching My Octopus Teacher with tears rolling down my cheeks, I can attest to the very real and quite lovely connection I made, as Craig did, with an octopus.

I’m reminded how as humans we don’t have to merely be observers of the natural world perceiving ourselves separate. When we invite in the unique language of wild creatures and wild environments, we better understand why we must protect our vulnerable ecosystems and the innocent animals that inhabit along with us, Earth our most sacred and magical planet. By design, we all belong here. We all need each other.

Over the last decades kelp forests have declined as much as 40%.