Adam Creason - "Seaspiracy" Film

    I have recently watched the controversial film on unsustainable fishing and its impact on the world’s oceans, known as “Seaspiracy”. The film aims to uncover the truths behind the causes for the rapid deterioration of the world’s oceans. Coral reefs have been dying, small fish populations have plummeted, many large fish such as whales and dolphins have been made to be endangered, and the oceans are full of trash and microplastics that directly harm marine life and the health of our oceans.

                The film attributes the most major detriment to ocean health to be commercial fishing. In many Asian countries as well as some Nordic, whales, dolphins, and sharks are hunted for local delicacy and the like. These places go against efforts by environmental groups and UN resolutions urging these actions to stop. However, what is most impactful is the commercial fishing industry. As the fishing industry has become truly industrial, incredibly large nets are used to capture millions of fish for profit. These nets effectively scrape the ocean clean of fish in the process. Fish populations, such as Blue Fin Tuna and Halibut, have decline 99% in population from just decades ago. Unfortunately, this just means a greater margin of profit for these companies. In this process, entire colonies of fish are completely destroyed in a very wasteful manner.

                With this commercial fishing comes perhaps the most negative consequence, which is known as bycatch. Bycatch is when non-targeted fish are caught in these nets. By the time the fish are seen, it is often too late either because of time or because the companies simply do not care to save their lives. Dolphins and sharks are particularly known to be killed in great numbers because they are the predators of these fish and are thus in the area where these fish colonies swim. They are caught in the nets, and they are thus killed, and their bodies thrown back into the ocean to serve no purpose.

                There was one moment in the film when a whaler argued he would rather kill one whale than 400 chickens, which according to him, produces an equal amount of meat. He believed that taking one life was better than 400. I had trouble with this argument at first, understanding and agreeing that taking one life is better than 400, because all living beings have inherent quality and importance. But then I realized, there is more to this situation than just the current lives we see. In other words, there is a thousand times more chickens in the world than whales. Chicken also reproduces at an incredible rate, compared to the 13-year period of gestation to adulthood for whales to produce one adult whale. If we demolish the whale population because we want to only take 1 life rather than 400, we destroy an innumerable number in the future. The dwindling and/or eventually extinct whale population would cause their predators to die off as well. Their prey would boom as a result, demolishing all those they prey upon. Eventually, when their prey dies off from over feeding, the whale’s prey will too die off. This is because the shalom of the equilibrium of life was destroyed by the argument of 1 life versus 400, without taking into account the purpose of each species.

                When watching this movie, I thought of this class the entire time. I have realized how deep the class has effective my perspective on the relationship between humans and nature. I had previously been aware and passionate about these things, but with this class I have truly seen the nature of the relationship between man and wilderness, and how we exist in harmony. I have realized that the industrialization of humanity through technology has had an incredibly negative impact on the environment around us. We have completely disconnected ourselves from our habitat, lacking a true habitus. We have destroyed the harmony, or shalom, that is the true order of nature. This has driven me to live more sustainably, and to exist with a different worldview. Every life has its own worth, and every species has its own purpose in the balance of nature.