Aiden Hoffman, Senior
Are the creators of Seaspiracy really telling the truth about the damage done to the oceans? Seaspiracy was directed and starred Ali Tabrizi, whose main goal behind the documentary was to inform the public about the dangers of the fishing industry. Tabrizi’s first point is against the over-focus on plastic pollution like plastic straws and bags. He claims the real issue of this plastic pollution is from old fishing gear, especially large fishing nets. One solution to this issue was to eat fewer fish in order to reduce the fishing industry as a whole. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or the GPGP, is located between California and Hawaii and roughly 46% of it is old fishing nets. Microplastics like plastic bags and straws only accounted for 8% of the GPGP, and this shows a reasonable reason to be concerned about the fishing industry pollution as a whole. The GPGP continues to grow each year and with the demand for seafood continuing, more and more fishing nets will be left to the sea (Lebreton et al).
Tabrizi also focuses on foods widely popular in Asian countries like Shark fin soup, which is expensive and brings in good money for the restaurants that serve them. These dishes encourage fishermen to catch sharks, cut off their fins, and throw them back into the ocean, leaving them for dead. These attacks have made a dramatic decrease in shark populations. Bycatching is another major issue within the fishing industry. Bycatching is when fishnets catch other animals that were not the intended catch. This practice has decreased the population of dolphins, as well as other mammal life. Organizations like the Sea Shepards take to the oceans and fight back against fighting particles, like whaling and finning. They often go out to sea for months in search of large whaling ships and attempt to shut them down.
I agree with Tabrizi’s main points throughout the documentary and the need to decrease the amount of plastic waste within the ocean. We need to monitor fishermen from cutting off shark fins and leaving them for dead. If this continues, shark populations will remain low until they eventually become extinct. We need to create a better way to decrease the number of other animals getting caught within bycatching. I disagree with Tabrizi’s points against eating seafood due to there being contradictory information praising the benefits of eating seafood. From my personal research outside of the documentary, I found similar sources that agree with Tabrizi’s claims.
Works Cited
Lebreton, L., et al. "Evidence That the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Rapidly
Accumulating Plastic." Scientific Reports, vol. 8, no. 4666, 22 Mar. 2018.
Scientific Reports, www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w. Accessed
12 Apr. 2021.
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