Seaspiracy: De-Bunked?

In honor of Earth Day, I will be discussing the new documentary that has captured the eyes of the world, Seaspiracy. Now, being someone who is in love with the ocean, but also consuming fish, I learned a lot from this documentary. But, there are a few things that I would like to discuss.

Some take away points,

Fishing nets take up 46% of the Plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Now, being a resident in Hawai’i, I have learned much about the large bulk of trash floating in the ocean just north of the island. And if you have been to any of the beaches on the East side, like Waimanlo, Maks (Makapu’u) or anywhere near Ha’ula, you can easily see the remnants of such trash covering these beaches. I was actually shocked by this fact though. I have always been told, in my various marine biology courses, that plastic, such as straws, take out food containers, and bags were the bulk of the plastic trashing the oceans. To say I was shocked that this information is not known is an understatement. 

Sharks kill 12 people a year. We kill 11,000 to 30,000 sharks an hour.

Now I was not shocked by this fact. For years, I have followed One Ocean, a crew on the North Shore headed by Ocean and Juan, who have made it their goal to show people that sharks are not the enemy, they are actually one of the most important factors in keeping the ocean healthy. Sharks are APEX predators, but due to the media, the world is fearful of them, so many people decided that killing them was the way out of that fear. But the thing is, sharks are the cleaners of the sea. They keep fish populations in check, and they also eat all of the diseased animals. In the years I have been on O’ahu, there have been two large whale carcasses off the shore of Waikiki and this weekend there was a whale carcass off the shore of Waimanalo. This attracts sharks, who are the decomposers of the sea. They are extremely important in keeping reef ecosystems healthy. They maintain the delicate ecosystem that the ocean is, and killing them is not the answer to our fear. My best advice, go shark diving. LIke I mentioned earlier, I have kept up with One Ocean for some time. Go shark diving with them, face that fear, and learn the science behind sharks and how beautiful those creatures actually are. 

Now, I liked the majority of this film, except for a couple of things.

One, I don’t believe that not eating fish will help save our oceans. I actually do not believe that at all.

For years, environmentalists have been urging people to not consume meat, due to the large amount of carbon emissions that that industry lets out every year, yet people still eat meat, I included. 

We have been hunter gatherers from the start of our time. And there are many people who have to live off of the ocean, as depicted in the film. They discussed that these big fishing rigs break a lot of rules, so why don’t we push to get them to stay within the limit? All I have learned from this generation is that we are not afraid to fight for what matters, so why stop and not try as hard for our oceans? Why don’t we start supporting local fishermen instead? 

This industry is driven by one thing and one thing only; money. There has to be a way that we, as a whole, can fight this. Because if we don’t, we will see no fish in the ocean in our lifetime, and that is catastrophic to the lives of everyone on this plant. We are uncovering the real truths about this world, the blanket has been taken off and all of the issues have been brought to life.

Happy Earth Day to Mother Earth. We NEED to do better, for the sake of every individual species that calls this beautiful earth, home. 

With love, Jaclyn.

• earth day
• ocean