Richard Brock´s Penultimate Film Released on his 87th birthday
By Jason Peters
22nd December 2025
Richard Brock sadly passed away on the 30th December 2024. To mark what would have been his 87th Birthday, today the 22nd of December 2025, Gareth Trezise has completed his penultimate film, which has been approved for release by the estate solicitors.
Thus, the past, present and future of man and wildlife in the Mediterranean, Richard´s film Man, wildlife and the Mediterranean, can now be enjoyed by us all!
Man, Wildlife and the Mediterranean traces the deep history of the Mediterranean Basin—from its dramatic birth 5.5 million years ago, when a colossal Atlantic waterfall filled a vast trench, to the modern ecological pressures reshaping it today. The film highlights how ancient human societies quickly settled around this new sea, cultivating crops, domesticating animals, and exploiting marine resources with traditional fishing techniques. Over millennia, these activities transformed the landscape, altered ecosystems, and contributed to the distribution of species such as the bluefin tuna, now seen as far north as Britain.
The documentary then examines contemporary pressures. Climate change, fuelled largely by fossil-fuel-driven industries including aviation, is intensifying extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, and Mediterranean forest fires. Rising tourism—once enabled by cheap air travel—has had mixed effects: it brings economic benefits but accelerates habitat damage, plastic pollution, and wildlife disturbance, including the decline of the endangered Mediterranean monk seal.
Human reshaping of ecosystems continues through introduced species (like prickly pear cactus, and Red-Legged Partridge), changes in grazing pressure from goats and pigs, and persistent overfishing of key species. Traditional hunting and farming practices coexist with modern pressures, often straining fragile habitats, affecting species such as the Painted Lady butterfly.
Yet the film also showcases hopeful conservation efforts: the rehabilitation of nature reserves, renewed protection for marine areas, the return of species such as black vultures, and grassroots attempts to safeguard clean water and shoreline ecosystems. It concludes with a call for sustainable tourism, firm environmental regulation, and proactive conservation strategies to preserve the Mediterranean’s extraordinary biodiversity in the face of accelerating climate change.
Richard was very keen that as part of his legacy his ¨Wildlife Winners & Losers¨ films be used and shared for the good of nature, so please watch, comment and share this film, and all of his others.
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