Les Calderwood is an engineer, blogger, and one of our favourite Twitter followers. He is also a member of the Aquarium, and on 14 September he attended the special preview of seafood documentary, The End of the Line. The preview was accompanied by a Q&A with Charles Clover, the journalist behind the film. Here’s what Les had to say about the experience. You can follow Two Oceans Aquarium on Twitter here.
I attended a preview of a documentary by Charles Clover at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town recently, and afterward listened to the question and answer session. The End of the Line tells a story of the overfishing of our oceans, an eye-opening one too, I can assure you. Why? Even in my 46 years on the planet, I have noticed a major depletion of the fish from inshore areas, solely caused by trawlers and huge factory ships.
I think it would be easy to watch this movie and come out with great feelings of negativity. Instead I walked out of this film with faith in the human race and especially in South Africa, which has a good record when it comes to the preservation of wildlife and the diverse countryside in which we live.
Man’s production of farmed seafood might become something positive if there is more research done into less destructive methods, if we put an end to fish farms that destroy irreplaceable salt marshes and inshore coastal regions.
Furthermore, governments today must adopt a much more sustainable seafood policy. And we need to both push and support them. How? We can start by abiding by the SASSI regulations.
What are those, you ask? Take a look at the logo below.
SASSI stands for the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative. As for the significance of the “traffic light” symbol, each fish represents a category of sustainability within SASSI’s Consumer Seafood Guide. Green means “best choice”, orange means “think twice” and red means “don’t buy”.
Before you feast on your next plate of fish, ask questions. How was the seafood caught? Is it sustainable seafood? And then consult your SASSI pocket guide. The golden rule of SASSI seafood consumption is: if in doubt, don’t buy it!
My son Callum adores everything at the Two Oceans Aquarium, yet he is truly in his element when he walks the beaches of the Cape and the Overberg, observing the little rock pools, the whales and even the penguins of Boulders Beach. I want him to grow up and still be able to marvel at the diversity of the oceans.
To see why your commitment to sustainability now is so critical, watch the trailer for The End of the Line.
