CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Seaspiracy

LADY MAE T.
CASTILLANO
FSH154 B
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Seaspiracy
Seaspiracy is a 2021 documentary film about the environmental impact of fishing

which directed by and starring Ali Tabrizi. The film examines various human impacts on
marine life and advocates for ending consumption. The film premiered on Netflix
globally on March 2021. As we all know whales and dolphins are a widely distributed
and diverse group of fully aquatic marine mammals. Mostly we can see dolphins in
parks or in different tourist places.
Narrator Ali shared on how he was being fascinated with dolphins and whales
when he was still a kid. He loves documenting and capturing dolphins and whales like
David. The seas/oceans serve as inspirations to him. However, as he discovered that
plastics today is invading the oceans and seas which kills many aquatic organisms. He
tried to get and picked the plastics and garbage’s in different places just to help the
environment. There was a time as he was documenting and capturing something he
sees that a vessel from Japan is fishing dolphins and whales which makes him sad and
question something. He do searching in the internet to answer something and find out
that they are catching dolphins and whales to sell them in different farms which high in
price. Moreover, many dolphins and whales killed by the human beings by simply
throwing plastics and garbage’s in the oceans and seas. It is very heartbreaking to know
and discover that many aquatic organisms are killed by the doing of humans.
The film features human impacts on marine life such as plastic marine debris,
ghost net and overfishing around the world. It argues the commercial fisheries are the
main driver of marine ecosystem destructions. It rejects the concept of sustainable
fishing and criticizes several marine conservation organisations, including the Earth
Island Institute and its dolphin safe label and the sustainable seafood certifications of
the Marine Stewardship Council. It also criticizes efforts by organisations to reduce
household plastic, given the impact of ghost nets. It accuses the initiatives of being
cover-up for the environmental impact of fishing and corruption in the fishing industry.
The film advocates for marine reserves and the elimination of fish consumption. The
documentary film also covers whaling in the Faroe Islands, the Taiji dolphin drive hunt,
and modern slavery within the fishing industry, in particular its prevalence in Thailand.
In Seaspiracy, narrator Tabrizi criticizes a public focus on plastic straws, stating
that they only account for 0.03% of ocean plastic. He contrasts this with fishing nets,
saying they make up 46% of the Great Pacific garbage patch. The fishing net statement
derives from a 2018 study, which examines floating marine debris by weight. The study
found that at least 46% of floating plastic in the Great Pacific garbage patch came from
fishing nets. A BBC News fact check article stated that the plastic straws number seems
to be a calculation based on two studies, one on plastic straws on coastlines, one on
floating marine plastic in the Great Pacific garbage patch. The fact check also cited
Jenna Jambeck, the author of the coastline study, saying “no one really knows how
much of it is straws, but experts agree that it is certainly a lot less than dumped fishing
gear.” The author of the latter study on the Great Pacific garbage was quoted as saying
“(fishing gear) fragments much more slowly and is also very buoyant; prime candidates
to hang around in the GPGP”, as opposed to thinner plastics like straws and bags,
which disintegrate and sink. An article in Forbes concluded that the film focus on the
Great Pacific garbage patch was “misleading”, as this region of the ocean accumulates
buoyant plastics and therefore “does not provide a particularly accurate depiction of the
marine plastic in the entire ocean overall. The films says that a leading fisheries expert
found “that if current fishing trends continue, we will see virtually empty oceans by the
year 2048. It also criticizes dolphin safe labels on tuna and says that “the internationally
recognized seafood label was a complete fabrication since it guaranteed nothing”. This
is in response to Mark Palmer, associate director of the International Marine Mammal
Project of the Earth Island Institute, who says that “dolphin safe” tuna cannot be
guaranteed, and that observers can be bribed. Palmer has accused the documentary of
taking him out of context. Senior fisheries scientist Sara McDonald of Monterey Bay
Aquarium is quoted by Newsweek in a Seaspiracy fact check article: “The U.S. dolphin-
safe program has been very effective. Dolphin mortality in the 1980s was 130,000. In
2018, there were 819 documented deaths.” A representative of the Natural Resources
Defense Council however stated that although “the U.S. laws are good if everyone is
being honest, that doesn’t mean nothing ever gets in.” Newsweek’s fact-check article
concluded that dolphin safe labels cannot guarantee that no dolphins are harmed during
fishing.
As an overview and analysis of the documentary film of Seaspiracy, it can hits a
big impact to many people which have different reactions, comments and overviews of
the said film. The film is an eye opener, shocker and definitely one of the best
documentaries of 2021. It exposes the corruption, pollution and emotion in the global
fishing industry. But many people in the field are taking this personal but I want to
highlight that in 1h29m is very difficult to be specific on every single aspect. Seaspiracy
aim is to be thought-provoking and plant seeds in people minds and hearts. But
somehow the audience must do the research to find out what’s the reality about
everything. The film does a great job of exposing corruption and conflict of interests in
marine conservation groups and hollow political efforts toward conservation. Something
not mentioned in the film is that this corruption and conflict of interest is even seeps into
the scientific sphere, because research requires funding that often comes from oil and
fisheries. I know something dramatized in it but there is a lot of things clearly going on
that need to be fixed. For one I used to trust in the ‘dolphin safe’ label, I’m sure many of
us have been misled with that one, although there may be no dolphin in the can we are
eating they don’t mention the thousands that have been killed and discarded for no
reason other than that they get in the way. We people must protect and love our nature
and especially marine environment because it is where our daily needs came from. I
want to thank everyone who made this film because they share and capture the reality
to everyone who is blind on what is happening in the fish industry.

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LADY MAE T.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Seaspiracy

Seaspiracy is a 2021 documentary film about the environmental impact of fishing

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