I have a confession to make: I still haven’t watched ‘Seaspiracy’ And I don’t think I will. Simply put: I don’t have Netflix, my closest family and bubble doesn’t have it either and there is a pandemic on so, no ‘Netflix and chill’ recommendable.. If I could just buy or rent it, I would, but subscribing? No thanks. But I have heard about it a lot from all points of view, from activist friends who are part of groups such as extinction rebellions, from other members of the sustainable community (this blog post for example) , from newspapers (e.g. this great BBC article), from general culture magazines (I mean, even Marie Claire talked about it… ) from my twitter feed full of colleagues who work in fisheries, and even listened to two different podcast episodes about it (from the Cosmic Shed and from Average Canuks ).
And well, even Daniel Pauly (a famous marine biologist, and a serious researcher, who has often expressed anti-fishing-industry thoughts) had its say about it . And it has been great to hear all of these different view points on the matter. Now, I recommend you to do some of your own research but I want to give you my idea and some suggestions for further thoughts.. Beware of anything that ends with ‘..spiracy’ , yes, while the authors probably meant that the fisheries are the ones conspiring, actually I have a bit of a feeling they are the ones conspiring. The cow-spiracy film (made by the same producers) already had the same issue - wanting to be a film unmasking the meat and dairy industry, while actually conspiring against it. Yes, it is true that we are (still, sigh) treating the sea as if it was something of an infinite resource. The reason behind it is that probably we don’t really see it, and thus we don’t really grasp it. We are raised being taught in school that 71% of Earth is water, that’s quite a lot right? If it’s full of fish to eat, and if it has more food things inhabiting the seabed (crustaceans, mussels, oysters, flatfish) and even living inside the sediment (clams and other bivalves), then we can just keep harvesting. I mean, there are so many fish species, that we cannot run out, right? WRONG! But understanding that the ocean is a complex complex environment, where we harvest more trophic levels than on land, which is harder to study (for the same reasons for which we believe it’s infinite) and to comprehend, which is subject to human pressures at an even bigger scale than land, due to it’s interconnectedness - it’s FAR from saying we are doomed, and can’t ever eat fish again. And yes, maybe sustainable labels are not that sustainable after all, but that’s a problem with labelling of anything. The same thing that goes for fairtraide labels on land (most ‘faitrade’ coffee and bananas are far from fair) applies here. And the issue is that these big labels are part of the market and subject in a way to the market rule. I know that some people working at MSC are truly believing in it. I personally stay clear of it. Maybe because I was raised listening to the issues of labelling with ‘organic’ and learnt to research a product by myself. I have learnt to know what’s in season, i try to see if they are fishing above the minimum size, and i try to support local, small scale, traditional fisheries . The solution (which I don’t know whether the film actually makes or just hints to , but is a key point that many viewers have taken from it) about stopping to eat fish altogether is a drastic but not necessarily a totally useful one : think in fact about all of those small local economies relying on it that actually have always done it in such a respectful way. If you hear old fishermen speak often you will be amazed at just the respect for the sea that they have , the understanding of seasons, of sizes , of releasing egg bearing females etc .. okay, I hear you ‘don’t generalise’ and yes there are also some terrible fishermen out there that just throw rubbish out and don’t care at all but only about making money . But trust me. I have met quite a lot of fishermen in my life , and while many of them are closed introvert people that still somewhat believe women on board are bad luck (ugh) - they are also very passionate and understanding. So , generalising regarding all types of fisheries is not good. Of course , you may say , there are ‘jobs’ to protect also when we are taking about the large scale fisheries , with those huge boats having a lot of workers on board , but if you for a moment think about prices of those fish , you may do some calculations and may be right in suspecting that these people are more slave than workers (read for example this ) - so let’s make a difference here. Also, the documentary claims that fishing is one of the major plastic polluters - but is it ? Perhaps it’s true (even in Italy it was found that a lot of plastic on beaches comes from the mussel growing industry) but it is not as if nothing is moving : there are projects that are addressing this issue ! Aside from clothing being made out of ghost nets , there are Adrinet and Life Ghost working in the mediterranean dealing with ghost nets , and there is also biogears dealing with new materials for the industry. So , yes , it is an issue but not one that is not being tackled . So, my take and my suggestions going forward? (1) Read labels (2) Be aware (3) shop local (4) avoid cheap stuff !
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