Seaspiracy: an unflinching look at the damage of overfishing

The Truth

As we follow Ali down the rabbit hole into the dark depths of the fishing industry, we are presented with several harrowing facts along the way. In a documentary that contains sickening footage of dolphins being brutally slaughtered, it says something about the levity of these facts that they remain the most frightening aspect of the film.

Seaspiracy does a spectacular job of putting into perspective the damage fishing is doing to our planet. Revelations such as 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch being made up of discarded fishing equipment, or the fishing industry killing more marine life in a day than the 2010 BP oil spill did in 3 months stick in the brain long after watching.

When Thred’s favourite environmentalist George Monbiot reveals curbing plastic waste from the ocean entirely still wouldn’t halt the decline of marine life due to commercial fishing, the pernicious price of having fish readily available in supermarkets all year round begins to settle in.

1. I watched #Seaspiracy on Netflix last night. It’s a brilliant expose of the greatest threat to marine life: fishing.
This thread explores why we have so seldom heard the the truth about what’s happening to our oceans.#TellTheTruth @GretaThunberg https://t.co/rSEb3aGcKZ

— George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) March 26, 2021

Illustrated by slick infographics, these facts are so damning physiatrists are proposing a new method of detecting psychopaths by having subjects watch this film, then offering them fish and chips for dinner and noting their response.

Of course that’s not true (as much as I wish it were), and there are critics who claim that Seaspiracy offers false facts just as brazenly. The documentary does it’s best to convince you of its claims by giving fishing companies and environmental agencies the chance to be interviewed, and showing its audience how more often than not, these conversations were concluded by the asking for cameras to be turned off.

It’s fair to say Seaspiracy does offer the most apocalyptic and pessimistic data available. One questionable ‘fact’ shown in the documentary came under fire from experts for suggesting oceans could be empty as soon as 2048.

As the Guardian reported, Professor Callum Roberts, a professor from the University of Exeter who specialises in marine conservation addressed critics by stating:

‘It’s not been made for its scientific rigour. It has used the techniques of film storytelling to make its case. My colleagues may rue the statistics, but the basic thrust of it is we are doing a huge amount of damage to the ocean and that’s true. At some point you run out. Whether it’s 2048 or 2079, the question is: ‘Is the trajectory in the wrong direction or the right direction?’’

Does Seaspiracy deliver?

There is a lot I could criticize Seaspiracy for from a film-making perspective. The pace at the start is so fast, with so many devastating facts heaped on top of one another, that you quickly become desensitized leaving the final half feeling sluggish.

However in context of the reality portrayed by the film, these cinematics aspects don’t mean much. Sometime after the credits I found myself contemplating what to have for dinner and wrestling with shocking facts in the forefront of my mind. Days later, I still can’t escape the mental image of a reddening sea.

If Seaspiracy’s purpose was to open-eyes to the scale of damage being done by the fishing industry, and draw activist attention away from the distraction of plastic straws (which only make up 0.03% of plastic waste in the sea) – and towards the true culprit of the marine massacre – it does an excellent job.

The documentary begins with a protagonist searching for a simple solution he can action to help save the ocean, and after 90 minutes the collusion of the doc delivers a final message that everyone can apply to their own life: eat less fish.

In short, yes. Seaspiracy does deliver.