A documentary exploring the excesses and consequences of commercial fishing - including certified, supposedly 'sustainable' practices. I'd give it a watch whether you're toying with vegetarianism or simply interested in where your little fishy on a little dishy comes from.
Main bloke's personal and emotive tone annoyed me for about two minutes (and he illegally uses the word 'trash' instead of 'rubbish'), but that's not very important. Crucially, the documentary targets the individualistic, feelgood narrative that banning plastic straws and using wooden spoons will do the job of saving the oceans.
Post-watch talk:
As is wise, I Googled 'seaspiracy fact check' after viewing, and found accusations of at least one outdated statistic and an overriding vegan agenda, but it's difficult for such criticism to draw from the point of the documentary. The MSC, an organisation that slaps 'sustainable' labels on seafood products, come under fire in the doc. They've provided rather
a vague response that seems totally in-keeping with what the documentary itself alleges:
Fisheries certified to the MSC Standard must provide evidence that they are actively minimising unwanted catch. Fisheries that need to improve in this area, can be set goals that they have to meet in order to keep their certificates or risk being suspended.
The MSC don't, however, give any detail on how this 'evidence' is verified - which is exactly what the doc criticises them for in the first place.
If there
is a financially motivated 'vegan agenda' involved, it's not something I'd really care to condemn.
'All this consumer cash is being insidiously diverted from commercial fishing and farming into meat-free markets, creating new products and jobs that don't depend on the killing of animals and the destruction of land.' Oh... no?
[1]Also, I'd note as well that whilst the filmmaker comes away extolling a meat-free diet, the film highlights fish-eating communities that have suffered because of commercial industry - it doesn't condemn the locals of Liberia or the Faroe Islands, for example, for fishing and even small-scale whaling, even though the filmmaker has a personal moral distaste for these practices.
