Netflix Documentary Seaspiracy and instantly became one of the most talked about Netflix documentaries to date. Two weeks after its release, it still sits firmly on the top 10. It has caused debate about the impact seafood has on the fishing industry and the oceans.
After watching the documentary, viewers took to social media to express their disgust and declare they were never eating fish again. Others claimed the documentary took a too simple approach to a complex issue. Large scale fisheries not only supply food, but provide jobs and livelihoods to a lot of communities.
A report on BBC news has fact checked Seaspiracy’s most powerful claims.
How many of the Seaspiracy facts are true?
Seaspiracy Claim 1: Current fishing trends will empty oceans by 2048
These claims, made by Ali Tabrizi (author and director), are based on an article in the New York Times in 2006. There is more awareness surround depleting species in modern times.
Expert Micheal Melnychuck counters that countless efforts are being made and, in places where fisheries are managed on scientific evidence and enforced, the fish stocks are doing well.
Melnychuck does not deny that issues need to be addressed, but added there “was an unrealistic extrapolation well beyond that of available data”
Seaspiracy Claim 2: 50% of sea pollution is plastic fishing nets
The documentary focuses heavily on the fishing industries impact to the ocean. Visiting the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the documentary shows a large collection of floating debris. The majority of the rubbish is fishing nets.
George Monboit, an environmentalist featured on the documentary, says 46% is fishing nets. Whilst this statement is true, it needs context.
Fishing gear is mostly ‘thick’ – look at buoys, crates and nets. This trash fragmennts much more slowly and is also very buoyant; prime candidates to hang around in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch”
Boyan Slat, study author
Claim: Plastic straw account for 0.03% of ocean plastic
For years, campaigns have alerted us that plastic straws are killing sea life. Seaspiracy claims this is not enough, comparing it to “trying to stop logging by boycotting toothpicks”. Professor Jambeck, a sourced author of two studies, reveals this is very much an estimate. No one knows exactly how much of the seas pollution is straws, but it is agreed that it is substantially less than dumped fishing gear.
Seaspiracy Claim 3: Micro Organisms are helping the fight against climate control
This claim is the most important the documentary waits. Seaspiracy tells us micro organisms absorb four times more CO2 than the Amazon.
Experts say that this is not only true, but it could actually be an under estimate. Dr BB Cael, a scientist at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, says carbon can stay in the ocean for a long time.
A portion of the carbon absorbed by phytoplankton sinks into the deep, and stays there for hundreds to thousands of years until the ocean slowly brings it back up to the surface.
A much smaller amount of carbon taken up by trees is sequestered from the atmosphere for that long.
Another study, conducted in 2020, further explained the “biological pump”. When plankton die, they fall to the bottom of the ocean and take the Carbon Dioxide with them. Study author Ken Buesseler added “if the deep oceans didn’t store so much carbon, the Earth would be warmer than it is today. “
Thank you for reading Fact checking Netflix Seaspiracy.!
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