A new documentary featuring Sea Shepherd is seeing unpredicted success and recently scored the position of top 10 most-watched shows on Netflix in Australia and other regions.
Titled ‘Seaspiracy’, the documentary explores the plight of the ocean and claims to ‘uncover alarming global corruption’.
The film is sparking heated debate across the globe, and the controversy is fueling much-needed interest in the health of the ocean. New research shows that overfishing could cause the ocean to collapse as early as 2030.
Sea Shepherd is an anti-poaching organization that campaigns against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing as well as other environmental crimes.
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Credit: Robert Marc Lehmann/Sea Shepherd.
Interviewee, George Monbiot, a writer for The Guardian says that the main point of the film is correct: the fishing industry is the greatest cause of the ecological destruction of the oceans, and he cites the 2019 IPBES report as evidence to back this assertion.
Sea Shepherd founder, Paul Watson adds that “corporate industrialized fishing interests, as expected, are working overtime in their attempts to discredit Seaspiracy.” He accused critics of “cherry-picking the science and trying to suggest that industrial fishing is both sustainable and necessary. It’s not.”
Sea Shepherd recognises that an animal protein diet among Western consumers is one of the top four contributors to climate change. For the past two decades, Sea Shepherd ships and events have been plant-based.
While Seaspiracy can’t cover all the complexities of issues facing the ocean in one documentary, it does an excellent job of distilling the core message; the ocean is in crisis due to industrial fishing and this is not only an imminent threat to the survival of humanity, but also a daily threat for subsistence fishers.
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Many people rely on traditional fishing practices to feed themselves, and industrial fishing is threatening their survival. We must approach this as a climate justice issue and listen to First Peoples across the globe.
The documentary has made a huge splash, and many people have questions about Sea Shepherd’s campaigns and how they can help save the ocean.
Sea Shepherd is releasing a 10-minute follow up documentary titled ‘On the FRONTLINES: Illegal Fishing in Africa’ that dives deeper into the reason why the organisation is now focused on protecting important marine conservation areas of the coast of the African continent.
You can watch the video on YouTube here.
Media release submitted by Sea Shepherd. All image supplied.
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Cover image of Sea Shepherd anti-poaching vessel.
