The expanse of the sea appears vast and clouds of fish swarm in its waters, yet these appearances hide a startling and dangerous reality. Since the 1980s, fishermen and scientists have noticed that the bounty of the sea is providing them with smaller catches each fishing season.
Previously, the yearly hauls had always risen because of advances in technology and the expansion of the fishing industry. No one was quite sure what was happening. A new film currently showing in the UK presents the answers, and the findings are alarming. However, the hard-hitting documentary also provides light at the end of the tunnel.
End of the Line reveals the devastating impact of unsustainable overfishing, and the consequences the world faces if we do not change our ways. The documentary was described at the Sundance film festival as the “Inconvenient Truth” of our seas. Journalist Charles Clover accompanied by prominent marine scientists investigates an industry that is removing wild fish from the sea at rates that will completely deplete stocks in less than 40 years. By 2050, if no effective action is taken all fish species could be commercially-extinct.
Based on Clover’s book of the same name, the film opened in the UK on World Oceans Day, and may have as much impact as Al Gore’s popular and revealing documentary.
Over the last few decades, supermarkets moved from one fish to another as species were fished out by predatory companies looking to maximize their profits. Good fishing practices recommended by marine experts were routinely ignored. Governments stood by idly, not wanting to upset the status quo.
Shots from the film show massive fishing ships hauling in their catches in nets loaded with fish, huge tuna hang by their tails, and graphs show just how fast the curve is moving toward exhaustion of current fish populations.
A possible sign of the woes that await us comes from the failure of the Newfoundland cod industry in the early 1990s. Newfoundland was once the largest cod fishery in the world. In 1992, more than 40,000 people lost their jobs, and the local communities still have not completely recovered. In 2003, the government announced the outright closure of the cod fishery in Newfoundland, the Maritime Provinces and Quebec.
The Atlantic cod fishery has still not recovered. By removing excessive numbers of adult cod, the natural balance in the ecosystem is disturbed endangering the entire cod population.
“Individuals need to choose sustainable seafood”, Clover said in an interview with The Times. “Consumers have eventually come around to the benefits of organic food, for their health. For the health of their children - if they want them to eat fish - they should be similarly selective over how they choose fish.”
We see a similar pattern that led to collapse of the Atlantic cod now threatening the endangered Mediterranean bluefin tuna that is served by Robert de Niro-owned Nobu restaurant chain. In the film, Clover exposes Nobu’s practice motivating a group of celebrities including Stephen Fry, Elle Macpherson, Alicia Silverstone, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson to protest the inclusion of bluefin tuna on Nobu’s menu.
Nobu refused to take bluefin tuna out of its restaurants, but has added a footnote to its website and menus: ‘Bluefin tuna is an environmentally threatened species, please ask your server for an alternative.’
According to conservationists, at current fishing rates that bluefin tuna breeding stocks could die out in just three years. Nobu has said that it would explore the use of farmed bluefin tuna from Australia as an alternative to wild fish poulations.
“End of the Line” though does offer hope for the future. Clover notes that many fishing companies are obtaining certification though groups like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) that allows consumers to identify sustainably-caught fish. Fisheries voluntarily pay MSC to inspect their companies and, if they should pass muster, they are awarded the MSC seal of approval. The MSC label is found both at supermarkets and restaurants. The group also has a directory that lists all MSC-certified shops and eateries throughout the world.
The MSC assures that fishing activity is maintained at a level that will sustain the fish population for a given species, that companies minimize environmental impact, and that they comply immediately with all local, national and international laws. The organization makes a detailed assessment of each fishery against a set of 31 performance criteria. Certification lasts for five years after which it must be re-tested.
In order to make sure fish are not mislabeled, MSC has instituted an advanced traceability standard that requires complete chain of custody certification. Every link from the fishing boat to the dinner plate is checked and certified to assure trust in the MSC eco-label. The idea is to prevent non-sustainably-caught or illegally-caught fish are not mixed together with certified-caught fish somewhere in the chain of custody - the transit points through which the fish move into the marketplace. In each case, the certification lasts for three years before a new review is required.
Clover likens progress in sustainable fishing to the changes in attitude over the last 15 years toward farming practices. “There was a time when you couldn’t get a story about organic farming in Farmers Weekly. Now you can’t stop them writing about it,” he told The Times.
MSC has enjoyed a yearly 50 per cent increase in fishing companies that display its label, and approximately 20 per cent of the world’s wild catch are MSC-approved fish. In 2007-2008, products with the MSC label doubled. Supermarkets are cooperating, and Waitrose has been ahead of the game championing sustainable seafood for the last 12 years. Wal-Mart and its outlet ASDA have also gotten into the game.
Wal-Mart, which presently sells about 20 million lbs of fresh fish yearly, is targeting 2011 as the year it will offer only fish that are sustainable-certified fresh and frozen fish.
Most supermarket chains are following the example of Waitrose and Wal-Mart. In Japan, the number of MSC-labeled products shot up by 614 per cent in 2007-2008.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) believes that aquaculture may offer a solution to wild fishing practices, but not everybody agrees. The WWF plans to co-found the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, which will be modeled after MSC but focused on farming fish rather than catching them in the wild.
“This is an unprecedented effort to ensure that future aquaculture is environmentally sustainable, and also well positioned to meet the growing demand for seafood worldwide,” said WWF-International Director General James Leape in January.
“These new standards will raise the bar in the industry, giving consumers assurance that their food purchases are helping to protect the environment.”
Opponents claim that practices like shrimp and salmon farming hurt local and indigenous communities, and are not sustainable or environmentally-sound. They also claim that the WWF has been influenced by “the vested interests of the aquaculture industry.”
What is clear is that action must be taken quickly. More than 2.6 billion people in developing countries get more than 20 per cent of the animal protein from fish. A significant percentage of this comes from wild marine sources. A quarter of ocean fisheries are now classified as overfished or depleted. However this need not be the case; with natural alternatives such as algae based omega 3, along with the efforts outlined by Wal-Mart, Waitrose and the efforts of other organisations mentioned, consumers have a choice as to whether to continue funding this unsustainable approach to fish farming.
The marine biologists appearing in “End of the Line” though were not pessimistic. They did see hope for solving this problem before it’s too late. In order to restore past productivity — possibly 20 times today’s catch — fishing must be banned from some areas altogether.
“End of the Line” promises to be one of the rare films that goes beyond simple entertainment and education. By telling this compelling story with vivid imagery and in a way that penetrates and is easy to understand, Clover and his film crew spur people into action that may help to save the world’s marine fish populations.