SEASPIRACY HAS A POINT, BUT WHAT?

The documentary starred and directed by Ali Tabrizi has with no doubt gotten so many people's attention. Whereas the rights to the most accurate interpretation of the film are fully reserved for Mr. Ali and his crew, the audience thinks it is pretty obvious. I am in this hypothetical theatre room and the following are the happenings in the audience area;

I. The long term ocean-life conservationists and related groups are up in arms crying foul: "You can't see our efforts? It is not as simple as you put it!"

II. The innocent bystander only hears: "STOP EATING SEAFOOD!" and is wondering, "WHAT AM I GONNA EAT?"

III. Aquaculture enthusiasts are angry too. "The story was beautiful until you sneaked up on the salmon cages with your psycho friend." "you know the fish-in fish-out ratio keeps us up at night" goes another one and lastly,

IV. The vegan crew is (as you may have thought) in the front row but looking back at the rest of the audience shouting, "Shame on you murderers, metal consumers!" To lighten up the mood, one of the bystanders shouts back saying, "Shut up you devourers of Adam and Eve's dirty laundry." As expected, a big laugh follows this, but the general mood is somber.

MY TWO CENTS

I think we might be missing the point. I agree that there is a subjective air to Ali's sentiments, but so is everything we watch on our screens. Seaspiracy points to the extreme end of the problem, those offended are convincing us that there is no problem but I think there is a huge chunk in the middle that needs to be addressed.

I love the first quarter of the documentary as it points out to an obvious problem: - the strain on our oceans. It also appreciates the need for healthy oceans: - talk of carbon sequestration and all the numerous ecological benefits. I LOVE THE OCEANS! These are easy to agree with and should be the starting point for this conversation, the rest is up to every individual's subjective take.

A common proverb where I come from says: you will never eat chicken if you were to investigate its diet. However, should we be the proverbial ostrich? Say we don't care about what the fish eat, where they live, who catches them, how do they catch them, at what cost, for how long are they gonna be here? Should we? Of course, we all know the fate of the rest of the ostrich's body as it hides its head in a "safe haven".

WHY THE FUSS?

I believe Seaspiracy is not a first of a kind. That is a notion that would be an insult to David Attenborough's long career. In just one year, we have seen both Australia's fires and floods happen (topic for another day). I live in Nairobi but did I just hear you say that winter is becoming noticeably shorter over there? Who am I to judge when our simple tropical rain season patterns are now scrambled and umbrella vendors can't even tell when to increase their prices anymore?

I know we are going to talk about this for quite sometime but always remember, our oceans need protecting. For all the carbon they take in there, protecting is the least they deserve!