Today is world ocean day, a fitting occasion for a short discussion over the fuss against Seaspiracy – a recently premiered documentary film which puts most of the blame for the destruction of Earth’s oceans on the commercial fishing industry.

The film made many people, not just from the fishing industry but from ocean conservation groups as well as the general public, very angry, supposedly because it displays, according to its opposers, many perceived “inaccuracies”. Most of this kind of criticism is directed at the ‘empty oceans by 2048’ statement which they claim is wrong (we have referred to the ‘empty oceans by 2048’ statement here), the claim that most of the plastic pollution in the ocean comes from fishing gear such as abandoned fishing nets (known as “ghost nets”) and not from household plastic (for more about plastic pollution in the ocean please read our post ‘deep impact’), and that allegedly sustainable fishing practices such as dolphin safe nets practically means nothing (we have referred to this issue in the article The Anthropocentric View Of The Environmentalists). Continue reading →