The Film
The world’s first major documentary about the devastating effect of overfishing premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Tickets for preview screenings at UK cinemas on World Oceans Day – Monday 8 June, now available from www.endoftheline.com/things_to_do/screenings
Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.
The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. Sundance took place in Park City, Utah, January 15-25, 2009.
In the film we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food.
It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.
Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows the investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs, who exhibit little regard for the damage they are doing to the oceans.
One of his allies is the former tuna farmer turned whistleblower Roberto Mielgo – on the trail of those destroying the world's magnificent bluefin tuna population.
Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.
The end of seafood by 2048
Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048.
The End of the Line chronicles how demand for cod off the coast of Newfoundland in the early 1990s led to the decimation of the most abundant cod population in the world, how hi-tech fishing vessels leave no escape routes for fish populations and how farmed fish as a solution is a myth.
The film lays the responsibility squarely on consumers who innocently buy endangered fish, politicians who ignore the advice and pleas of scientists, fishermen who break quotas and fish illegally, and the global fishing industry that is slow to react to an impending disaster.
The End of the Line points to solutions that are simple and doable, but political will and activism are crucial to solve this international problem.
We need to control fishing by reducing the number of fishing boats across the world, protect large areas of the ocean through a network of marine reserves off limits to fishing, and educate consumers that they have a choice by purchasing fish from independently certified sustainable fisheries.
The Science
Overfishing in 2009, by Charles Clover
Overfishing was recognised as one of the world's greatest and most immediate environmental problems in 2002, when it was first demonstrated that global catches of wild fish had peaked around 1989 and have since been in decline.
Globally, some 75 per cent of wild marine fish are now said to be either fully-exploited or overfished, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO). That means these species require conservation and management in order to survive in their present numbers - which they rarely receive.
The number of fish stocks recorded as fully or overfished worldwide is expected to increase significantly this year when the latest figures are published by the UN FAO.
The fish species in the worst shape are highly migratory oceanic sharks; fish that are exploited fully or partially on the high seas, such as the larger tunas; and shared stocks, such as the Patagonian toothfish or Chilean sea bass.
Aquaculture, or fish farming, now provides almost half of all the fish consumed by humans. In the West – but not in Asia - it is mostly carnivorous fish that are farmed. The growth of aquaculture has slowed as stocks of small fish used to feed larger fish are themselves overfished.
The North East Atlantic, which includes EU waters, is one of the worst areas in the world for overfishing – along with the western Indian Ocean and the North West Pacific, according to the UN FAO.
In European waters, some 80 per cent of stocks are recorded as overfished, according to the European Commission.
In UK waters, stocks of palatable fish, such as cod, have been reduced to less than 10 per cent of what they were 100 years ago. This compares with a global average of 25 per cent of stocks actively overfished.
The nation with the least overfishing problem is New Zealand, where only 15 percent of stocks are recorded as overfished. The problem is that in Europe some 50 per cent of the quotas set by politicians are higher than scientists say are sustainable.
The EU was instrumental in arguing for a quota of 22,000 tons of valuable bluefin tuna for next year at a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in Marrakech in November, even though scientists recommended a quota of only 15,000 tons to avert stock collapse.
The United States had called for a total ban on catching bluefin in the Mediterranean to allow stocks to recover from rampant overfishing, both illegal and legal.
The bleak future predicted for the sea by some scientists already exists in British waters, where in places overfishing has resulted in a simplified ecosystem vulnerable to total collapse.
In the Firth of Clyde, near Glasgow, the cod, haddock, saithe, brill and whiting have all been overfished. All there remains for fishermen to catch is Norway lobster, also known as
langoustine or scampi.
In the absence of cod, which eat diseased Norway lobsters, some 70 per cent of Norway lobsters are now afflicted by the parasite-borne ailment known as smoking crab disease.
Prospects for the Clyde fishermen are not good.
The Campaign
The End of the Line is not against fishing. It is not against eating fish. But it is for a responsible attitude towards the oceans.
The film has three messages for consumers, citizens and companies:
Ask before you buy:
only eat sustainable seafood.
Tell politicians:
respect the science, cut the fishing fleet
Join the campaign
for marine protected areas and responsible fishing
We hope that when people buy fish in a shop or in restaurant, they will ask where it comes from; whether it is from a sustainable source, whether it is an endangered or over-exploited species.
There are useful guides to what fish you can buy with a (fairly) clear conscience. In the UK one is produced by the Marine Conservation Society. You can find the guide on their website.
And the Marine Stewardship Council runs a certification scheme for fish produced according to principles of sustainability, which you can find out about on the MSC website
But we also want people to put pressure on politicians to listen to the scientists and act upon their recommendations. Write to your representative. Sign up to the Pledges.
And, finally, join the campaign to make more of the oceans protected areas, where industrial
fishing is not allowed and where fish stocks can replenish themselves.
At the moment only 3 per cent of the world's oceans are marine protected areas.
You can learn more about why they should be increased and those who are campaigning for them, on the websites on the Organizations page.
World Leaders and Organizations Speak Out on Overfishing
"Once considered inexhaustible, our oceans are now in a state of global crisis as more and more people compete for fewer and fewer fish. Overfishing threatens coastal communities and the food security of the millions who rely on marine fish as an important source of protein. Yet the solutions are in our hands, because what we buy for dinner tonight can determine whether tomorrow's generations will continue to enjoy the oceans' riches. Or not." WWF, the global conservation organization
"The vibrant beauty of the oceans is a blessing to our country. And it’s a blessing to the world. The oceans contain countless treasures. They carry much of our trade; they provide food and recreation for billions of people. We have a responsibility, a solemn responsibility, to be good stewards of the oceans and the creatures who inhabit them." President George W. Bush
"We know that when we protect our oceans, we’re protecting our future." President Bill Clinton
Prince Charles, who is president of the MCS, said it was a "wake-up call" that British seas were in need of urgent help. "There is simply nowhere in Britain's seas where marine life is effectively protected from human impacts," he said. "Never has it been so important to take immediate action to protect marine life." HRH Prince Charles, President, Marine Conservation Society
"The need for nations to agree on urgent action has never been more acute. Measures introduced over the next few years will determine what the future will hold in terms of food security, species survival and the ocean’s ability to withstand climate change, and those measures have to include a robust network of marine protected areas, in national and international waters." Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head of the IUCN Global Marine Programme, United Nations General Assembly, World Conservation Union
"After climate change, commercial fishing represents the greatest threat to life in our oceans. As well as ruthlessly fishing out stock after stock, the way we fish has disastrous consequences for other species and entire ecosystems – but the damage being done is out at sea, out of sight, and out of mind for most people. We need to take drastic action to repair the damage we’ve done to our oceans before it’s too late." Willie Mackenzie, Oceans Campaign, Greenpeace United Kingdom
"Overfishing cannot continue." Nitin Desai, Secretary General of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development
''We've acted as if the supply of fish was limitless and it's not." Steve Trent, Executive Director, Environmental Justice Foundation
''As Europe has sought to manage its fisheries and to limit its fishing, what we've done is to export the overfishing problem elsewhere, particularly to Africa." Steve Trent, Executive Director, Evironmental Justice Foundation
''The sea is being emptied." Moctar Ba, Scientific Consultant, Mauritania and West Africa
"Can the sea really let us eat sushi in these numbers?" Caroline Bennett, Founder, Moshi Moshi sushi chain
"This project allows us to finally start to see the big picture of how humans are affecting the oceans. Our results show that when these and other individual impacts are summed up, the big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected. It was certainly a surprise to me." Ben Halpern, U.S. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
"It is true that fishermen feel an almost desperate need to catch as many fish as they can when they're allowed to. That sense of desperation ... can't be an excuse for the policymakers of the world and this country to allow that to cause the universal collapse of fisheries." James Greenwood, former U.S. Congressman
"Never before have Mediterranean countries had more reason or opportunity to safeguard the region's beleaguered sharks and rays. Officials should heed the dire warnings of this report and act to protect threatened sharks and rays through regional fisheries agreements, international wildlife conventions, and national legislation. Such action is necessary to change the current course toward extinction of these remarkable animals." Sonja Fordham, deputy chairman of the SSG and policy director for the Shark Alliance
"An estimated 40 percent of cod caught in the Baltic Sea are illegal." Mireille Thom, spokeswoman for Joe Borg, European Union Commissioner of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs
Fish Facts
One billion people rely on fish as an important source of protein. - WWF
An international group of ecologists and economists warned that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 - Washington Post
The looming collapse of fisheries threatens the most important source of food for 250 million people. - The Earth's Carrying Capacity - Bruce Sundquist
According to the UNFAO, about 70 per cent of our global fisheries are now being fished close to, already at, or beyond their capacity. - The Earth's Carrying Capacity - Bruce Sundquist
As many as 90 per cent of all the ocean's large fish have been fished out. - WWF
one per cent of the world's Industrial fishing fleets account for 50 per cent of the world's catches. - CNN
Government subsidies of over $15 billion a year play a major role in creating the worlds fishing fleets.- WWF
The global fishing fleets are 250 per cent larger than the oceans can sustainably support.- WWF
Only 0.6 per cent of the world’s oceans are designated as protected.- WWF
A Greenpeace report states that 40 per cent of the world’s oceans should be placed in nature reserves. - MSNBC
In 2004, 13,000 new marine species were discovered, according to the Census of Marine Life. - Census of Marine Life
Japan has caught $6 billion worth of illegal Southern Bluefin tuna over the past 20 years. - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Over the past 50 years World consumption of tuna has increased tenfold, from 0.4 million to over 4 million tonnes. - Environmental Justice Foundation
In 2000 tuna long liners set 1.2 billion hooks catching untold number of turtles, seabirds and sharks. - WWF
Fifteen species of sharks have seen their numbers drop by 50 per cent in the last 20 years. - National Geographic
Illegal fishing is worth up to $9 billion a year. - Illegal Fishing.info
Fifty two per cent of fish stocks are fully exploited. - Marine Stewardship Council
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