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Did the world need this new single, Mr. Jagger? Perhaps not.
Documentary has some people swearing off fish. Others are just swearing Laura Brehaut
Seaspiracy, the new Netflix documentary suggesting an oversimplified solution to the complex issues plaguing industrial fishing, has elicited support from celebrities, and criticism from scientists and marine conservationists.
Made by the same team behind Cowspiracy, the 2014 film executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio (and presumably the reason why it isn't called Conspirasea), Seaspiracy follows British director and narrator Ali Tabrizi's journey of discovery.
His lifelong love of the ocean sparked by watching films by David Attenborough, Jacques Cousteau and Sylvia Earle, Tabrizi set out to create a documentary “about just how incredible the oceans were.” Instead, wide-eyed, he trips down a rabbit hole of marine plastics, commercial whaling, shark finning and bycatch (marine species caught unintentionally).
Tabrizi draws the conclusion that commercial fishing is to blame for the state of the world's oceans as he pokes holes in dolphin-safe labels and fish farming, questions whether sustainable fishing can even exist, and highlights the issue of human trafficking and slavery on vessels.
The solution, he posits, is to establish and enforce “no-take” zones, stop government subsidies and avoid eating marine animals. This last point especially seems to be polarizing viewers.
In all of the issues Seaspiracy explores — from beach cleanups to the emotional capacity of fish — Tabrizi makes a notable omission, paying little attention to smallscale fisheries, and the vital role they play in alleviating poverty and bolstering food security.
The industrial seafood supply chain is lengthy (typically five to seven steps from boat to plate), opaque and difficult to regulate, making it rife for food fraud and human rights abuses. According to a recent report, canned tuna brands have made little progress in stopping slavery and human trafficking. Improving many aspects of industrial fishing would benefit the environment, people involved in its production and consumers.
But what the documentary fails to touch on is that it isn't the only type of fishing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, roughly 90 per cent of the world's 35 million fishers are small-scale and 20 million more are involved after harvest.
Ninety per cent of these smallscale fishers live in developing countries and about 50 per cent of them are women. “It is likely that more than 200 million people worldwide depend in some part on small-scale fisheries for their livelihood,” according to the agency.
While the issues with industrial fishing Tabrizi explores in Seaspiracy are well-founded, established subjects of scientific study and mainstream discussion, experts are questioning the validity of some of the statistics used in the film, saying they fail to provide the full picture.
Among Seapiracy's most startling statistics — and there are many — is that “the ocean will be empty by 2048.” This is false, The Telegraph reports, and originated in a 2006 paper that “was based on a massive extrapolation into the future,” which lead author Boris Worm has since overturned.
In a response to the use of the statistic, Tabrizi told The Guardian: “We are not scientists nor did we claim to be. Despite there being some confusion about this particular projection, the overall state of fisheries are in severe decline.”
Representatives for Dolphin Safe and Marine Stewardship Council say the film contains misleading statements, The Guardian reports. And in the case of the former, interviews taken out of context. In a statement, David Phillips, director of the International Marine Mammal Project, said Seaspiracy “does a disservice to a number of organizations that are doing critical work to protect oceans and marine life.”
But for all of the criticisms and debunking, Seaspiracy seems to have garnered at least as much praise from fans, possibly even inspiring a Kardashian to give up seafood and Hong Kong grocery store Slowood to phase out its fish products.
Tabrizi effectively, if simplistically, connects the dots between industrial fishing and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a raft of plastic debris three times the size of France, 46 per cent of which is fishing nets — depleting stocks and climate change.
Acting as our guide, drawing on our emotions, he makes his points persuasively. One of the most profound examples was when, after the sea had turned sanguine during the Faroe Islands' annual whale hunt (the grind), Tabrizi reflected on the meaning of sustainability. It was an especially difficult scene to watch, punctuated by a worthy question.
“In the chaos of everything that happened, I finally understood sustainability. It just meant that something could continue on and on forever regardless of how much suffering it caused,” he says in voice-over. “In reality, the grind was about as sustainable as you could get. But I began to wonder whether sustainability was truly the right goal for how we took care of the ocean.”
As Tabrizi travels from Asia to Europe, Seaspiracy raises important questions around the future of the oceans and marine life, but neglects to acknowledge the role culture and geography play in people's food choices.
Tabrizi told The Guardian that he “did not expect people who were facing poverty, hunger and malnutrition around the world to reduce or eliminate their fish consumption.” But in equating saving the world's oceans to avoiding eating marine animals, he's passing a moral judgment on Indigenous, small-scale and subsistence fishers, and anyone who relies on fish as a local source of protein.
As Vancouver-based Skipper Otto Community Supported Fishery put it in a Seaspiracy response post, “Lumping small-scale coastal fishing together with industrial-scale fishing would be like comparing horse-logging a woodlot to industrial deforestation.”
Small-scale fishers share little in common with factory boats bottom trawling the high seas. Not eating fish may be the solution for some, but just as there is no one kind of fishing, improving the health of the world's oceans is not likely to be one-size-fits-all.