N.S. law student highlights importance of ocean conservation with 'Dolphin Dude' film

It's not every day you meet a law student who's also a filmmaker and bestselling children's author.

Ashoke Mohanraj studies law in Halifax and is making waves by turning his second book “Dolphin Dude” into an animated film for kids with the message of ocean conservation.

Mohanraj says he wanted to go to law school ever since he was an undergraduate student.

“I think along the way during my advocacy journey I realized an idea is only as good as you can communicate it and that’s where I kind of found a love for storytelling and I’ve been trying to balance both in this crazy world, but I enjoy it,” he said during an interview on CTV Morning Live Atlantic.

Mohanraj said people often have a misunderstanding that they have to have a deep connection to nature to be an environmental advocate.

“But like Dolphin Dude, I’m just a dude. I grew up in the suburbs of the GTA and I think we want to reduce those barriers to having people become advocates,” he said.

“I think at some point we all need to be advocates and we are living in a world where we all need to have some kind of role to play, that’s kind of the idea here that like every ordinary person can be a sustainability advocate.”

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“Dolphin Dude” highlights issues like plastic pollution, overfishing, coral bleaching.

“But if you dive a little bit deeper, it’s kind of about showing people that caring is cool,” Mohanraj said.

“And I know that sounds like a simple message but simple is effective, right? But we really want to encourage young audiences to show that being caring and being compassionate is one of the coolest and most bravest things they can do.”

Mohanraj said the animation for the accompanying film is taking a lot of effort, because he’s not one by trade.

“I’m a law student, so its very new to me, I’m learning a lot and that’s the beauty of it too. I like the challenge. I love learning new things and I think one thing that we’ve really emphasized in bringing this production to life is youth talent. All of our team is under 30,” he said. “So we really want to not only give youth a chance, but really highlight that youth are extremely capable people of creating amazing productions like this.”

Mohanraj said his team is working on fundraising for the film and finishing the script for it.

“And then hopefully we’ll do a series of short films and then hopefully stream those on platforms like Netflix, Amazon… or maybe Disney will pick this up,” he said. “It’s about creating a nice, educational film, and that’s kind of the key component. It’s not just a film, it’s an educational tool.”

Mohanraj’s dream is to eventually get the film shown in schools.

“(An) integrated part of the curriculum. So when I was a kid they brought out ‘Reading Rainbow’ or Bill Nye, so hopefully when teachers talk about marine biology they bring out ‘Dolphin Dude’ and that’s kind of the goal,” he said.

“I hope that they think caring is cool and that’s all I can preach, that’s what I’ve been honing in on. And hopefully they see this, they read this, they watch this and realize every wave of change starts with a ripple of courage.”

Mohanraj also hopes to get into international environmental law.

“Specifically relevant to this book is we have the ongoing plastics treaty negotiation, that’s going to be super relevant to how we tackle plastic pollution, which again ties into ocean conservation,” he said. “Everything is interconnected – the law, creativity, storytelling.”

He said he also loves living by the ocean.

“I love Halifax, the people are the nicest, the ocean’s great, it’s great for your mental health, great for your physical health and I’m just super happy to be here because it’s the perfect setting for this book and this film.”

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