Seaspiracy

Seaspiracy | Official Trailer | Netflix
Netflix
Bill Blain reviews the new Netflix documentary Seaspiracy: 

Greenwashing the ugly truth about Oceans

Excerpts:

If you think the global environment matters, and you aren’t watching what’s happening to the oceans, then you are looking in the wrong direction.
. . .
There have been a lash of accusations [about the movie] that interviewees have been taken out of context, their quotes misused and manipulated to make them appear foolish. Many of the facts it glibly presents have been questioned. It’s been made in the style of Michael Moore on crack-cocaine, spiced up with exaggerated naivety and fantastically done shocking cinematography. Call me a cynic, but it feels like the young director Ali Tabrizi, a Brit, carefully choregraphed his run-ins with authorities for best dramatic effect. For every positive comment about the film, there is dissent.
None of that matters. It is still a film you must watch.
. . .
If we want to clear CO2 from the atmosphere – then protecting the oceans will be the way to do it.
. . .
The reality is the bulk of plastic pollution at sea is from the fishing industry. 46% of the plastic floating in the oceans is discarded fishing nets. . . . Plastic straws are 0.03%, but it’s good for the middle classes to feel they are doing something.

Bill tackles an ugly problem. Commercial fishing operations might be destroying the oceans. I suspect if we continue to let them operate unfettered we are going to be in a world of hurt. It might not be that bad. After we kill all the fish, we will still have algae, and some whiz kids will probably come up with a way to make a tasty fake steak out of algae harvested from giant corporate algae farms.

Zillions of people depend on fish for sustenance. What happens to those people if we curtail fishing? Are they going to pop round to the local McDonalds and get some sustainably grown chicken nuggets?

Previous blog posts about commercial fishing:

• Fish
• Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith
• Hair of the Dog by Barbara A. Oakley

P.S. This stirred up some old memories and after a bit the story about the Sea Shepard pursuit of fishing vessel Thunder surfaced. I thought I put up a post about it, but since I cannot find it, I suppose not. Anyway, here's some reports:

• Catch Me If You Can: The Global Pursuit of a Fugitive Ship
• Thunder versus Sea Shepherd: The true story of the world's longest ship chase
• Poaching Vessel, Thunder, Sinks in Suspicious Circumstances