Death at Sea Film Nominated for the 2025 Maritime Media Awards (UK)

Death at Sea' directed and produced by Sara Pipernos has been nominated for the 2025 Maritime Media Awards under the category for the Most Influential Use of Social and Immersive Media.

The Maritime Media Awards have been recognising public understanding of maritime issues and the UK’s dependence upon the sea for 30 years, celebrating the UK’s best maritime journalists, authors, filmmakers, digital creators and others. This year, they are taking place on Thursday 20 November at Six Park Place, London.

The Award is made to the individual or institution that, in the opinion of the Awards Committee, has achieved through social media, video gaming or immersive media (Visual Reality and Mixed Reality) the most positive influence and stimulated the most change in the understanding or environment of any or all aspects of the maritime dimension.

The nomination, alongside 10 other nominees, reflects the broad scope and diversity of maritime media submissions this year.

Death at Sea

Website: www.deathatseafilm.com

Eritara Aati Kaierua died in March 2020 while working onboard a Taiwanese flagged commercial fishing vessel WIN FAR 636 as a fisheries observer. Five years on, his family are still searching for answers to his unexplained death at sea.

The investigation into Eritara’s death by Kiribati authorities was fraught with inconsistencies and, to this day, Eritara’s family has yet to receive official worker compensation. The ongoing campaign by Human Rights at Sea through fieldwork and investigations by Human Rights at Sea International aims to change these circumstances through concerted advocacy and legal advisory support, alongside wide-ranging international awareness raising.

Death at Sea, Pipernos’ debut film, has won a national Royal Television Society student award and been nominated at Jackson Wild, commonly known as ‘the Oscars of Wildlife Filmmaking.’ Mikey Sneddon and Nyal Mueenuddin also contributed, acting as the Director of Photography and Assistant Director, respectively,

The subsequent impact campaign, titled ‘The Death at Sea Justice Campaign,’ launched in 2024 and also led by Sara Pipernos, has resulted in the film being shown at closed-door government meetings, industry events, film festivals, and university classrooms across the world.

Many credit the film for further energizing the conversation regarding the lack of protection for fisheries observers aboard high seas industrial vessels. The first conservation and management measure (CMM) targeted specifically toward fisheries observer safety was adopted at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in the year following the film’s justice campaign.

Sara commented: I am deeply grateful to the Maritime Media Awards for recognizing Eritara’s family’s fight for justice and ensuring their story his not forgotten. The timing of this recognition is particularly meaningful as the film will be publicly released in the coming months."

Watch the Trailer

Watch the CCTV Update film

About the Maritime Foundation

The Maritime Foundation champions the vital role maritime plays in the prosperity, security, and sustainability of our island nation. The UK’s population relies on maritime, with around 95% of all imported and exported goods transported by sea and the Foundation works to sustain the UK as a global leader in commercial shipping, the maritime leisure industry, nautical education, defence and environmental consciousness.

About the Maritime Media Awards

Presented since 1995, the Maritime Media Awards recognises the UK’s best journalists, authors, filmmakers, digital creators and others whose work in the media has created a greater public understanding of maritime issues, and of the UK’s dependence upon the sea.

ENDS.

Source: Human Rights at Sea 2025, Maritime Foundation.

AI. AI was not used in the research of this article.

Photo Credit: Human Rights at Sea 2025, Sara Pipernos 2024-2025.

Contact: If you have any questions, please write to us at enquiries@hrasi.org.

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