A couple of days ago when I was looking for something to see on Netflix, a recommended documentary appeared that caught my attention and motivated me to watch it. From a very young age I have felt a deep admiration and curiosity for the sea, a place that under the waves inhabits a whole life full of colors, millions of species and 80% of life on earth, no matter how impossible it is to believe. So without hesitation I played that video without imagining everything I would learn this time about the reality behind marine life.
The sea is the home of beautiful animals such as dolphins, whales, octopuses, turtles, among the other 230 thousand species that they have and humans are unaware of the important role they play in our ecosystem. Many of these animals help protect our planet and fight human-caused problems such as climate change. Did you know that whales and dolphins, when they come to the surface to breathe, fertilize a small marine plant known as phytoplankton, this plant not only fulfills the function of absorbing a large amount of carbon dioxide but also generates almost 80% of the oxygen that are on this planet, and if you knew this how would you feel about it when you read news headlines where they talk abouthe the deaths of millions of whales and dolphins due to the plastic that seeps into them. It is worrying to note the impact caused by our actions, currently 150 million tons of plastic are floating in the sea. Among these we can find fishing nets, bottles, plastic bags, straws and in the face of this new need to wear face masks due to the expansion of the coronavirus around the world, the presence of a new marine residue has been caused that according to the marine conservation organization OceansAsia reaches 560 million masks at sea.
Source: El Tiempo
Plastic and garbage are invading every corner of our ocean, but one of the data that they explained in this documentary and I was quite surprised was that most of the marine plastic were not straws as we all believed thanks to the viral videos where it was seen when they took straws from the turtles' noses, these barely represent 0.03% of the plastic in the seas. The reality is that a large part of this waste is fishing nets and equipment, nobody ever imagined that commercial fishing is the biggest problem facing by the seas, not only because of all the pollution left by the boats, the waste of nets, but also by species that are accidentally fished. This problem even outweighs plastic pollution or oil spill. In fact today many species such as turtles or dolphins are hurt by fishing boats when they are in search of fish like tuna for commercialization as is shown in the following graphic shared in the documentary.
Source: Seaspiracy documentary
At the end of this video, great reflections remained in me, it is very important that from our realities we take actions to face the mistakes that millions of human beings make every day who dont know the value of the sea and its species for our own lives. As minimal as it may seem, it is already a significant change. In the case of my family, we have already been collecting plastic caps for more than 3 years to later be delivered to organizations that use them to help a social cause, we always carry bottels for water, for restaurants we do not ask for plastic straws, rather we use metal ones and when we forget them we prefer to drink the liquid directly from the glass, we also dont use any type of plastic bags.
You can also help the world in different ways, you can be inspired by the actions that I just mentioned but there are also many others like taking advantage of your trips to the beach to take cleaning walks in them, you can also avoid the use of single use plastics like toothbrushes and be very careful where you dispose the masks that you constantly use. Another way to help the sea is to reduce your consumption of fish to go against this industry that causes so much damage, they are much more drastic measures that personally cost me a lot since my favorite food is the sea food but as human beings we must improve and have a more conscious consumption, or at least make sure that the products you buy go against this accidental fishing.
Hope all the information has helped you to reflect and here I leave you the trailer of the Netflix documentary so you can also see it and know a little better about everything that is happening under the sea.
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Hello Ana! I really liked reading your blog. I want to tell you that in this week you are the 3rd person I have heard talking about this Netflix documentary, so I promise to see it tonight since I do not think it is a coincidence with so many signals for me about this topic.
ResponderEliminarWhat I know is that those who have seen this documentary have been left with the idea of changing their eating habits and leaving aside not only meat but also fish for all the consequences that you mentioned above. However, I have also read that the documentary has received a lot of controversy in some organizations due to the fact that the directors used data out of context and misinterpreted some statements BUT despite this, all the organizations continue to agree that the excessive fishing of our times destroys in a big degree all the marine life that exists.
Maybe not everyone stops consuming fish after watching Seaspiracy (I think I would include myself there), after all, not everyone can and it would not be sustainable for the millions of families in the world who depend on fishing. But it can help us all to look for more information about it, thanks to your post I wanted to find out more about the subject and this makes us better understand how, where and what we eat comes from and encourage governments to take measures to act as fishing a more sustainable activity than it is already compared to past decades.
Thank you again for bringing up your opinion and this recommendation for a documentary that of course I will watch today!
Hi Ana,
ResponderEliminarI want to tell you that I thank you very much for sharing this valuable information with us. Also, for your reflection since although I have knowledge regarding the impact of commercial fishing and its relationship with plastic in the oceans, I have not made a definitive change in my diet but I have tried to reduce consumption, not only of fish, but also of other things. As for the documentary, several people close to me have also recommended it to me and I feel that it was time the world knew what really happens with our oceans, because apart from fishing, all the mismanagement of waste that reaches the seas and oceans has led us to create islands of plastic, that is just, it is really shocking how far we have come!!! And it's important and vital that we realize that even if it is with little actions, we can contribute to the solution. Thank you very much again for this entry!