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David Attenborough at 99: 'I will not see how the story ends'

The natural history presenter, who turns 99 today, has an obsession with sea life that began in boyhood. Here he reflects on his most moving encounters

To date we have done such a good job of telling the stories of demise and collapse that many of us can all too easily picture a future ocean of bleached reefs, turtles choking on plastic, sewage plumes, jellyfish swarms and ghost towns where fishing villages were once full of life. Indeed, in the past 100 years alone we have dramatically reduced infant mortality, suppressed many of our most feared diseases, increased access to education and healthcare, acquired scientific knowledge that has transformed our understanding of the world and co-operated on global issues to a degree never seen before. Capuchins are often described simply as “inquisitive”, but when watching them at close range for a period of time you realise that, much like ourselves, they are able to imagine the future and plan how to deal with the problems it will bring — exactly the characteristics required to exploit the complex world of mangroves.

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