Aaron

2021-04-05 20:08:09

Today I watched Seaspiracy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaspiracy) and it's an interesting documentary. Quite shocking how blatantly the commercial fishing industry is driving animals to extinction, contributing to plastic pollution, and destroying entire ecosystems, but like Cowspiracy (which is about commercial agriculture), there's no discussion about our trade-based society that creates these problems in the first place. Of course people will hunt dolphins, whales, salmon, tuna and sharks (basically overfish the oceans) because there's a profit to made in doing that - and people do so even if it is illegal.
The documentary also shows how organizations who give those licenses of "sustainable fishing" are corrupt, because they too make money by giving their licenses to fisheries. The more licenses they give, the more money they make.

Telling people to stop eating fish is a well-intended approach which is advocated in that documentary, but I wouldn't rely on that. We have to look deeper at the core problem which is the incentive (profit above anything else) that makes people do those "bad behaviors". How can we change that incentive? Education and infrastructure. If people are well educated and have access to what they want and need (as trade-free), they wouldn't be pushed to exploit the oceans and its marine life. Instead, there would be an incentive to take care of the oceans and protect its marine life, as we would understand that we (all people on this planet) depend on it. #tromlive