In 1988 cod started disappearing off Nova Scotia.
It's not easy being awake, educated, and good-hearted.
But your next meal has the power to help or hurt the environment, oceans, and fishing industry.
What's it
going to be?
To learn how you can help the oceans, fish, and climate change (yes fish and carbon dioxide have a connection) rather than deplete our interdependent eco-system, I recommend the 2009 selection at the Sundance, Toronto and Seattle Film Festivals, a film by Rupert Murray--
The End Of The Line.
Over-fishing comes down to you and me.
Once plentiful in Nova Scotia, cod appears to be going extinct.
Narrated by Ted Danson, The End Of The Line documentary asks, "Where have 90% of the world's fish gone?"
We ate them.
In moving pictures and interviews taken around the world, we learn we ate most of the fish in unsustainable and unconscious ways because short-sighted politicians gave into the fishing industry--without realizing one day there may not be a fishing industry if we don't demand sustainable fishing--and people like you and me ate fish we shouldn't have.
I'm guilty, too.
I eat a mostly vegan diet with occasional fish. A few years ago I was at the Monterey Aquarium (where I took photo above), and where they hand out a Seafood Watch leaflet with information on which fish are abundant and well-managed, and which are endangered.
I carried the leaflet around for awhile, and then I got lazy.
We can't afford to be lazy. Yet...
I've ordered salmon without asking where it's from, ahi tuna (also goes by Yellowfin), and albacore tuna, too. Except for wild Alaskan or British Columbian salmon, which is caught in sustainable ways, these are mostly endangered fish. You can check out the differences in where and how a fish was caught to know if it's "kosher" by clicking here.
Many big fish are endangered.
Some experts suggest we focus on eating small fish like herring, mackeral, and anchovies rather than feeding them to farm-raised fish, for it takes 5 kilo of anchovies to make 1 kilo of farm-raised salmon.
Being unconscious or unaware combined with big industry greed, seems to be at the heart of the ocean's problem.
The solution will come in the choices we make, including demanding marine reserves, which currently only make up .6 of the the ocean.
Over 99% of the ocean can be fished.
$15-$30 billion a year in subsidies go to the fishing industry instead of creating marine reserves.
To contribute to the solution:
- eat sustainable fish (eat less or cut it out)
- ask politicians to respect science and cut fishing fleets. (I was surprised to learn Mitsubishi is guilty of over-fishing in unsustainable ways)
- ask for marine reserves to protect fish and give them a chance to grow their populations once again.
- if you go to a restaurant that has an endangered species on the list, tell them to take it off the menu.
Click here to download your own guide to endangered and safe fish throughout the world. And click here to learn more about The End of The Line. If you're a teacher in our suffering Los Angeles Unified School District, feel free to contact me for a loaner copy if you'd like to share with students.
The DVD will
be available to rent and own on DVD and digital format Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010.
To read more about clashes between man and the sea, I reference ill-effects of farmed salmon on wild salmon in British Columbia in this article.
To read about efforts to save Bluefin Tuna, click here.
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