I'm all for documentaries taking the time to highlight some of the damage that humans are doing to the Earth's ecosystem. There's always room for us to learn about where we are making mistakes, and Sonic Sea highlights one more of our failures as a species. However, it simply doesn't contain enough information to warrant a full hour. In fact, it could have been summed up by narrator Rachel McAdams in about 30 seconds, "Humans make a lot of noise in the oceans with our machines, and that disrupts the normal way of life for a great deal of sea creatures. We need to cut it out!" That's pretty much all there is to this documentary, and they go on for a long time rehashing the same examples again and again without adding to the conversation in any meaningful way. The most enlightening part of Sonic Sea was actually when they started discussing what steps could be taken to halt this problem, and how those changes could actually be a cost savings in the long run. Otherwise, Sonic Sea is just a glorified episode of Nightline or some other news program, not a film that needs an hour to make its point.

7/10

In short: If you have not heard, viewed or otherwise gotten to know about this problem this is a good introductory documentary.

In long: This docu. does not show much new, it touches on what can partially be news to the viewer.

It's cinematographically similar to the "new" types of documentaries where the production company doesn't want to shell out on scientific experts crossed with the normal discovery docu. It does however visualise how sonar and other sound is used underwater well which is a big plus.

When it comes to the message it tries to reach out to you on a rational human level (which there is nothing wrong with) somewhat missing introducing some alternative techniques and possibly also visualising how you can do your part by whom to contact etc... Simply making sure you know that your voice is what these people are partially counting on to make change happen. It basically directs you that way with the docu. but never mentions that continuation.

Pro's • Introductory for those unfamiliar with the subject • Easy to grasp • Simplyfies the subject for both good and bad.

Con's • Does not explore a possible drop in the fishing industry as a result of sonar usage - a BIG ball to passively let drop (not following up on) after mentioning it. • Lacks specifics (two examples - 1: about which specific technologies that could alternatively be used to what cost. 2: Specific about what studies has been made and which needs to be made on hearing-ability in fish and whales, if sonar and oil & gas ventures have a huge impact on the fishing market and it can basically eliminate it with shared ocean maps, new technology etc that needs to be clear and given time, once you can connect that dot things would change rapidly).

Spoiler below

It touches on some solutions casually as using more Katamarans, that there are systems that negate almost all harm the oil & gas industry does with better results (new or unused technology). They also put forth that 90% of the sound from the larger shipping vessels could be removed. The solution to the latter partially being go slightly slower (with a reference to the average waiting time in dock to unload for these kinds container-ships being 3 days - which would allow the slight speed decrease).

The largest contaminating sources is the military (which is changing),the oil industry (which uses sonic bombs to map the ocean floor and its composition) and the cargo industry.