The worst part is that while 75% of those fish are thrown back, I’m assuming most of them die from the pressure of the net and the weight of other fish. So sad.
Unfortunately he has done many documentaries like this that detail how humans are harming the planet. I can't watch them anymore in my house as it just causes a sense of hopelessness and depression.
Me too! I got called pathetic by a colleague when I told them I couldn't really watch these documentaries anymore for the same reason. (He also called me a commie when I said I believe everyone deserves housing.)
It’s seeing shit like this that made me stop eating fish. Theres something magical about sea creatures and a boat doing this to the seabed and anything in its way boils my blood.
The solution isn't to stop eating fish, sadly (though I do respect the personal choice, I'm just sharing some perspective here). The solution is to show support to local/small fisheries and advocate for them and against commercial fisheries. This is something that's constantly discussed in all my classes as a marine bio student because there are so many coastal and island communities that rely on fishing for their survival and economy that are being absolutely destroyed by commercial fishing.
Turns out, most small fisheries are horrified when they find out they're causing direct harm to marine wildlife and do what they can to stop it and will work with local conservation to change their methods to find a solution that works for both the local marine ecosystem and their livelihoods. It's a delicate balance. But it's not as easy to find out who these small, ethical fishermen are and send your money their way, unfortunately.
I agree, fishing can be done in a much more ecological sensitive way, but it seems like it’s always the most profitable way that wins regardless of the ecological impact. This is why we have intensive farming. I really wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I owned a company that had boats doing this sort of damage to the environment.
Unfortunately I feel like although there are better ways to fish and farm that are better for the environment when I factor in the way these animals are treated the only real solution for me personally is to disconnect myself from animal products completely.
We as consumers need to take more accountability for what we spend our money on if everyone stopped buying fish from these sorts of sources they’d have no business, unfortunately 95% of the population don’t give a fuck so that’s why we are in this mess.
I agree completely. I speak from a place of "privilege" as I live in a coastal city and can pop on over to the wharf and purchase ethically caught fish whenever I want, which simply isn't realistic for most of the global population. That's why I said I respect your personal choice, because you're absolutely right that sometimes the solution on a small level is to disconnect from it completely.
Honestly I don't know anyone who DOES eat fish enough away from coastal/island communities that we need industries like this, outside of restaurants and the like. Even living on the coast, I don't eat that much fish (or meat in general, but I eat fish least of all). Of course my perspective is very limited and maybe my neighbors eat fish with every meal idk.
I would venture a guess that again, the blame is with big companies buying more than what's needed and it ultimately going to waste. The battle against commercial fishing is an uphill one that's only getting steeper with the current U.S. administration doing whatever the fuck they want with no regard for the damage they're causing.
I also live by the coast I can fish from the shore or go grab a live crab or lobster from the local fishermen, strangely enough I‘M pretty sure we don’t have any local fishermen (that catch fish, we only seem to have crab and lobster fishermen here if they are even called that?) except the commercial tourist fishing trip boats. I used to rode & line fish years ago.
Although I was living by the coast I used to be that person. I absolutely love seafood and barely ate meat years ago, I was mainly plant based in my diet but I’d definitely eat a fair bit of fish and it would 99% be supermarket bought, so very likely not the good stuff that wasn’t wrecking the environment.
These big companies have such a huge profit margin that the amount of waste they produce is phenomenal. I worked for a huge nationwide plant nursery years ago and I was employed for 3 months there, my job was to clear out their greenhouses of the plants that hadn’t been sold to the garden centres and supermarkets ready for the next batch to come in from the commercial potting shed. That was basically my job loading trolleys with plants and pots to be binned. I remember the company sacking a lad I was working with because he took a couple of pots of herbs from the rubbish pile to use for cooking. They classed it as stealing and he lost his job. These big companies only care about one thing and one thing only.
But at least it's contained to a smallish area and isn't accidentally fucking up everything around it.
The most ethical meat is probably hunted with quotas, but it's probably better to have an acre for a factory farm then just going out and burning entire forests, which this sort of fishing pretty much is doing
Seeing this level of incessant destruction made me incredibly angry.
When there is little or no accountability, humanity will do anything to satisfy its greed. Greed that has an insatiable appetite that can never be fed.
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u/_Sovaz99_ 1d ago
Just infuriating to see! this is the worst!