An Inconvenient Tuna
Here in the UK, bluefin tuna has suddenly become the posterboy for overfishing, largely thanks to the new film The End of the Line. I was at the premiere screening of the film (a documentary based on the book by journalist Charles Clover) here in London, and boy, it took me back. It was like Defending Our Oceans: The Movie. After seeing it, Pret-A-Manger, a sandwich chain, announced they were removing bluefin tuna from their menus and reassessing their fish policy, and Marks & Spencer has announced their fish will now only come from pole-and-line fishing. And then naked pictures of celebrities holding fish started appearing in even the tabloid newspapers. Celebs are also protesting against posh sushi restaurant Nobu refusing to remove bluefin from its menu even in the face of Sienna Miller's boycott. (The nerve, eh?)
For those of you who are avid readers of Greenpeace news, most of what the doco describes probably won't shock you - although it will give you a lively overview (and you'll finally get to see the guys whose names are written at the bottom of all our oft-quoted reports, like Boris Worm and Daniel Pauly and Callum Roberts). For others, it will be like An Inconvenient Truth for fishermen, politicians and sushi restaurants everywhere.
As for Nobu - Greenpeace proved, using DNA, that the fish they serve comes from endangered stock. Now, bizarrely, the restaurant adds an asterisk on their menu, and a note informing diners that this fish is "environmentally threatened". In the film, journalist Clover asks "why on earth don't you just remove it from the menu?" "You're backing me into a corner here!" exclaims the restaurant's PR guy. Maybe he'll change his mind now that the film seems to be making such an impact. And now that celebs are posing naked with fish in the newspaper - make it stop Nobu, make it stop!
Interestingly, the film also makes the link between climate change and overfishing through the unlikely topic of fish poo. For the first time there's a definitive link between the two issues, with the recent revelation from the University of Exeter that fish excretions (as they politely put it) seem to play a key role in buffering the carbon dioxide that acidifies seawater.
While on the subject of poo, Clover makes the valid point that if the kind of destruction happening at sea was happening on land, there'd be outrage, and people "putting turds in other people's mailboxes". Well yes, to be honest I spent the first half of the film wondering if humans are so short-sighted and apathetic that we deserve our fate, but by the end of the film you get the feeling that, unlike climate change, this problem isn't so difficult to solve - but it will require a hell of a lot of political will. Probably the naked celebrities will help on this point.
The film is already making an impact - but is this going to be enough? And, in the face of Mitsubishi corporation stockpiling tuna and the ever-increasing European tuna quotas and illegal fishing fleets, is individual action really going to solve the problem?
The answer, according to the film, is a bit of a combination. Individual action as consumers is important, but also lobbying our governments to take strong action on marine reserves. That's the ultimate solution.
Do go and see the film if you get the chance, but if it's not screening near you it will hopefully be on DVD soon. It will also be screened on Channel 4 in the UK in the autumn. Loads more clips, news and goodies at the official website: http://endoftheline.com/ .
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Comments
Prompted by a discussion in the forum, and no, I don’t think the film is going to be enough:
I would like to see a Greenpeace cookbook featuring recipes that use jellyfish and kelp. Entries would be judged on the percentage of jellyfish they use, and of course they have to be edible.
Perhaps that $%#@ British chef Gordon Ramsay would be interested in sitting on a panel of judges. Each Gp office should hold their own regional competition.
Seems that "All edible jellyfish [may] belong to the order Rhizostomae in the Schyphomedusae."
http://www.mba.ac.uk/jmba/pdf/5729.pdf
Posted by: listenin | June 10, 2009 4:46 PM
SOO I went to The Dorchester Hotel in Londonlast night. At the China Tang restaruant and was offered fresh SHARK FIN SOUP.......what can we do about this.....do you have a PR machine that can go into action..........please help
Hi Antony - thanks for this. I have passed this on to an Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace UK to get some recommendations for you. Meanwhile, the Shark Trust works exclusively on this issue and here's what they have to say:
http://www.sharktrust.org/content.asp?did=26411#sharkmeat
Hope that helps a bit, I'll keep you posted - Adele
Posted by: Antony Ruifus Isaacs | July 14, 2009 8:39 AM