Do We Need to Stop Eating Fish?

Garbage is seen floating freely, swept by small waves to the coast. Various types of garbage pile up and mix there. Plastic waste dominates the collection of garbage that is piling up day by day. This picture looks real, like what I have seen on the coast of Neira Island, Banda District, Central Maluku Regency, Maluku Province. But this article will not review what or how waste management is on the island.

It is common knowledge that the above conditions are also common on various coastlines. Not only in Indonesia, but also in several other countries. In Indonesia itself, as conveyed by Dr. Nani Hendiarti, an official at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, the results of temporary calculations from the Coordinating Team for the National Secretariat for Handling Marine Debris recorded that 521,540 tons of waste entered the sea in 2020. Furthermore, Dr. Nani said that 12,785 tons of waste in the sea came from activities at sea itself (VOA Indonesia, 28/01/21).

The above phenomenon is a global challenge. We have also heard massively about the ocean care movement, communities that actively clean up trash in the ocean, but in fact, these efforts have not been able to stem the flow of trash in the waters. At the global level, attention has now stopped at the phenomenon of trash in the ocean, but also at the more complex issue of marine life. From here, I was then led to a film that has relevance to the above problem. The film I mean is entitled Seaspiracy. This work directed by Ali Tabrizi is a manifestation of his admiration for everything related to the sea, which suddenly changed his perception after learning that the facts he saw actually showed human actions that contributed to the destruction of the sea.

Visualization Seaspiracy begins with several comments that show how dangerous this documentary project is. There are also those who tell stories when conducting investigations on the ship, there is a fear that later the process of revealing the facts will make him someone who must be thrown out to sea because what he is trying to investigate is a very sensitive issue. Then Ali visualizes his childhood, which shows his happy feelings when he saw whales and dolphins as a child. His interest in the sea is not only based on whales and dolphins, but also the more often Ali watches documentary films with a sea theme and seems to deliver his imagination about a beautiful new life in the ocean.

The ocean as a home for 80 percent of life on earth that Ali imagined was beautiful turned out to be not as he thought. The irony when he later found that there was a dead whale stranded with more than 30 plastic bags in its stomach. Followed by pictures that also showed how sad the marine life was that at least he found from the dead whale stranded in the area along the southeast coast of England, where Ali lives.

His research on plastic waste in the sea also shows that the plastic waste through a long process will turn into microplastics that are even more numerous than the stars in the Milky Way galaxy, or to be exact, 500 times more. The microplastics will then seep into every sea creature, one of which is the fish we consume.

However, after seeing the facts about plastic in the sea several times, Ali then found another fact about whaling, which he said the impact of the hunt even exceeded the impact of plastic in the sea. From here he said to change the flow of his research project. It should be noted that when whales and dolphins breathe to the surface of the water, at that time they also help fertilize phytoplankton which function as carbon dioxide absorbers, even its absorption capacity is four times greater than the Amazon forest.

One case that tells about the investigation of whale slaughter apparently occurred in Taiji, Japan. Not only whales, but dolphins were also victims of the slaughter. More concisely, Japan has an industry to catch whales and dolphins, and as many as approximately 700 whales and dolphins per year, the whales and dolphins are slaughtered. The reason is very tragic, from one dolphin that is caught, 12 others are killed, the aim of which is to maintain the ecosystem. In this case, it is not to maintain the marine ecosystem, but so that fishermen can still get fish in large quantities considering that dolphins are one of the predators that eat the fish caught by fishermen. One of the fish caught by fishermen is bluefin tuna which is the most expensive fish, even in the Tokyo market the price of one bluefin tuna is 3 million dollars, and now its population is only around 3 percent on earth. Not only tuna, Ali's research results show that the fishing industry also catches sharks that are only taken for their fins, the rest of the shark's body is simply thrown away. Although sharks are protected animals, in fact shark finning still occurs, even supported by the local government. This research then led Ali to Hong Kong as one of the shark fin cities, because shark fin consumption in this region is considered the highest.

The search that started from Japan then led Ali to explore further other facts about the fishing industry. In France, for example, Ali found a fish slaughter that was more terrible when compared to Taiji, Japan. Or the oil spill into the sea in Mexico actually benefits sea creatures because they can rest from hunting. In addition, the irony he mentioned is also seen from the packaged fish sold on the market that are labeled Certified Sustainable Food, which even after being traced to the label giver, the concept of sustainable food in question is also increasingly unclear. Even the label giver does not know how the fish they label are actually caught by slaughtering methods. They can be said to obscure the facts that occur in the sea. Facts such as to get 8 tuna, these fishermen slaughter 45 dolphins, and ironically the tuna company works with a company that provides the Dolphin Safe label.

Another interesting finding in this film is the fact that actually 46 percent of the trash in the sea comes from the fishing industry itself, especially fishing nets. So it is no wonder that in a number of cases of dead fish that are stranded, fishing nets are often seen in the bodies of the fish. It is also important to note that fishing nets are actually more dangerous than other plastics, because they are designed to kill fish. Once trapped, these sea creatures find it difficult to escape. It is no wonder when we see a turtle grow up with a fishing net wrapped around its neck, or other similar phenomena.

Although it was found that fishing nets are more numerous when compared to other plastics, campaigns by organizations concerned with marine pollution actually seem to ignore this condition. In fact, often the most massive campaign in the public is a campaign to reduce the use of straws, which in fact only contributes 0.03 plastic in the ocean. From this investigation, Ali also showed how actors from organizations concerned with plastic pollution, those who label dolphin safe, actually contribute greatly to the destruction of the marine ecosystem. Often, campaigns by those concerned with plastic waste in the ocean do not mention fishing practices in the ocean, because basically this attention also aims to maintain the sustainability and marine ecosystem.

From a series of cases, Ali tried to conclude that the problems that occur in the sea, both garbage and the sustainability of the marine ecosystem, occur because of the fishing industry itself. One thing that arises from the existence of this industry is uncontrolled overfishing. So it is understandable when many foreign ships entering and leaving Indonesia to look for fish sources are increasingly found.

In the case of Indonesia, for example, in recent years there has been a policy of sinking foreign ships that illegally enter Indonesian waters to catch fish. This policy is very good if associated with Ali's idea in his film to avoid overfishing. However, another problem also arises, if the Indonesian people themselves cannot control their own fishing. Investing in the fishing industry will actually increase illegal fishing practices. So what is the solution to this? One alternative that is then shown in this film might be consuming farmed fish, but this idea is also refuted in Ali's documentary. The reason is that fish farming in cages in the sea will also result in large-scale fishing, such as salmon farming in Scotland. These farmed salmon need additional food which actually comes from other fish, which will automatically result in increased fishing.

Why the issue of the fishing industry is important in Ali's observation is because the movements of fish in the sea apparently contribute to reducing global warming, while their existence also helps maintain the sustainability of the sea. Sharks that are also hunted for their fins apparently contribute to maintaining the ecosystem and at the same time maintaining the sustainability of coral reefs. As the results of the research presented in the film, 93 percent of carbon dioxide is stored in the sea thanks to the help of vegetation in the waters. Losing just one percent is equivalent to increasing gas emissions from 97 million cars. This means that what is being emphasized from these cases is the importance of maintaining the sustainability of the sea by not doing commercial fishing.

One quite extreme conclusion mentioned in the film is to stop eating fish. Although the reasons presented in the film are logical, the issue of not eating fish seems difficult to implement. The most important thing right now is probably what Ali said, namely stopping the fishing industry from growing, because the consequences are once again overfishing.

This quite inspiring film is a must-see for stakeholders in my opinion. The goal is to provide perspective on the fishing industry. Overfishing, as one of the impacts of the activity even has an impact on other problems such as slavery that occurred in Thailand, as the results of Ali's investigation in his film. My great appreciation in this film lies in how the process of tracing the facts is quite long and the courage to express it as a film that is quite neatly made. At the same time, this film introduces how political ecology works in the realm of the fishing industry. This film tells the story of how political aspects play an important role in its influence on ecology. It also shows how some of the stakeholders shown were formed to facilitate efforts to control ecological resources. Of course, the main thesis in ecological politics is the influence of politics on ecological conditions, and this film shows that.

Bibliography

Sucahyo, Nurhadi. Indonesia Burdened with Half a Million Tons of Garbage in the Sea Per Year.
(VOAIndoneisa, 01/28/21). (accessed March 31, 2021)