Seaspiracy is a must see film, and should be required viewing for everyone 13 and above! It is not a perfect movie, as there were a couple of surprising omissions (e.g., I am curious to know why the director decided not to mention both the toxic runoff from animal factories that can often lead to dead zones in our oceans, as well as the the award winning documentary “The Cove”). Having said that, these are terrific and courageous filmmakers who have once again hit a home run (they also brought us the game changing films “Cowspiracy” and “What the Health”).
Here are ten jaw dropping statistics from the film: If the current rate of “fishing” continues, the oceans will be empty by 2048, 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of fishing nets, Six out of seven species of sea turtles are either threatened or endangered due to fishing, Scientists predict that 90% of the world’s coral reefs will die by 2050, Over 300,000 whales and dolphins are killed each year as a result of by-catch, While 1,000 sea turtle deaths are caused by plastic each year, 250,000 sea turtles are either captured, injured or killed each year in the US by fishing vessels, The fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico destroys more animals in a day than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill did in months, The fishing method called bottom crawling decimates around 3.9 billion acres of seabed each year, Fish farming creates massive amounts of waste (a single salmon farm in Scotland produces as much waste as a town of up to 20,000 people each year). Phew, and Wow.
Although “Seaspiracy” does encourage viewers to adopt plant-based diets, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed by the film’s ending which seemed to use the mantra of not eating fish as the single rallying cry for saving our oceans. How about not eating animal products, period? Regardless, this is still a desperately needed and powerful documentary. The bottom line? Highly recommended of course! 🙂
