University of Washington Sustainable Fisheries response to Seaspiracy

Hello all

In case you are not aware, a new Netflix Original titled, Seaspiracy, is premiering today. The film is from the same team behind Cowspiracy and What the Health, two vegan propaganda films masquerading as informational documentaries.

The trailer is full of doom and gloom narratives and features interviews with several anti-fishing advocates. The official social media account for the film is full of common fisheries myths. It is sure to be a doozy.

This is a reminder that if you or your organization needs scientific resources to combat misinformation, sustainablefisheries-uw.org can help.

Below is a brief library of some of our writing that can be used to combat the kind of lies that are sure to come out of this documentary. We have also turned the below library into its own reference page that you can find here.

We have hundreds of articles addressing several topics—if you are looking for more resources beyond what is listed below, get in touch with Max who can put you on to more.

We are also happy to gently correct and work with journalists—if you see any poor coverage of the documentary, feel free to send them our way.

Best,

Ray

Overfishing

How many fisheries are overfished?

·       Basic article informs readers of the scientific definitions that categorize fishery status.

Overfished, overfishing, and rebuilding fisheries

·       More in-depth explanations of fishing definitions and science.

Will all fish be gone by 2048?

·       Myth-busting the most common and infuriating seafood myth out there.

Environmental impact of fishing

The environmental impact of food

·       Basic overview of environmental considerations in food production. Comparison of seafood to land-based protein.

A closer look at the environmental costs of food

·       Explainer of Hilborn et al. 2018, an important paper that quantified impacts of different animal proteins.

Eating plants and seafood

·       Further explainer of Hilborn et al. 2018 and discussion of vegan/vegetarianism.

What is the global footprint of fishing?

·       Explainer of and the controversy about how much of the ocean is actually fished.

Fishery management works

Fish populations around the world are improving

·       Explainer of Hilborn et al. 2020, a paper updating the status of stocks around the world.

Rebuilding Marine Life

·       Explainer of Duarte et al. 2020, a paper showing a path forward for biodiversity recovery in the ocean.

Having our fish and eating it too: Maximizing food production and biodiversity using good management

·       Explainer of Hilborn et al. 2020 a paper looking at fishing/biodiversity tradeoffs

Fishery management is composed of small, concrete actions—which ones are best?

·       Explainer of Melnychuk et al. 2021, a paper showing the effectiveness of fishery management.

Vegan/vegetarianism & plant-based “seafood”

Ethics, impact, and nutrition: A critical review of plant-based meat

·       Critiques of the plant-based seafood industry with health, carbon impact, and ethical justification for a seafood diet.

Fact-checking George Monbiot’s ‘Stop eating fish’ opinion in The Guardian

·       A line-by-line rebuttal of George Monbiot, who is featured in the Seaspiracy documentary.

Seafood Fraud

The Irony of Oceana’s seafood fraud campaign

·       An explainer of seafood fraud and a critique of Oceana’s seafood fraud campaign.

8% of seafood is mislabeled

·       An explainer of Luque & Donlan 2019—the first empirical meta analysis of seafood fraud studies.

The sustainability implications of mislabeled fish in the U.S.

·       Explainer of Kroetz et al. 2020, an empirical study that looked specifically at seafood fraud in the U.S. 

Seafood Consumption

Future of food from the sea

·       An explainer of Costello et al. 2020, one of the most important papers of the past several years.

Pregnant mothers and children should eat seafood

·       Explainer of two major studies, Hibbeln et al. 2019 & Spiller et al. 2019.

How much U.S. seafood is imported?

·       Explainer of Gephart et al. 2019—dispels common misinformation of how much U.S. seafood is imported (62-65%)

Seafood consumption statistics in the U.S. (pre-pandemic)

• Explainer of Love et al. 2020 that conglomerated a ton of different seafood consumption data.

Large-scale views of seafood

Sustainable Seafood 101

·       A series of 15 posts that explain every aspect of harvesting wild seafood.

From fisheries to fake news: how ocean misinformation evolves

·       A meta look at how fishery misinformation spreads

Sustainable Fisheries UW by SustainableFisheriesUW

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