Should we stop eating seafood?

The title of my first article came to my mind after I watched a documentary film entitled "Seaspiracy" which in the end resulted in a question in my mind "Should we stop eating seafood?"

The documentary film Seaspiracy is a film that shows how life in the sea really is. That the film shows how cruel humans are in exploiting the marine ecosystem.

At the end of this film, I come to a conclusion that is very simple but impactful. Stop eating seafood.

I am one of those people who think seafood is a healthy and nutritious food. Yes, that was me before watching this documentary.

Ali Tabrizi –Seaspiracy Director, has shown me and others that the fish we have been eating are fish which being catched with not guaranteed legality.

Dolphins, whales, sharks, turtles, and other sea creatures were captured massively for various reasons.

They catch dolphins on the grounds because the fisherman claimed these dolphins as the competitors. According to them, dolphins are predators of the fish that will be caught by fishermen. So that fishermen feel the need to get rid of and slaughter the innocent dolphins in order to get more catches.

In addition, sharks are caught and killed only for their fins, which will be used as food processing in the form of shark fin soup which, according to the informant in the film, has little nutrition and is not very tasty but is served at an exorbitant price.

There is a fact that is no less devastating, that it turns out that 50% of the garbage in the ocean is fishing nets from commercial fishing. Small debris in the oceans only contributes 0.3% of marine pollution.

One thing that is most surprising is that global labels related to seafood such as Certified Sustainable Food MSC are still questionable about its sustainability. Also, upon investigation, the Dolphin-Safe logo did not hold any definite guarantees about the so-called dolphin-safe.

There are really many events that are featured in this film that have opened my mind about ocean lives. The sad facts showed in the film really moved me to write this article.

Should we stop eating food? According to Seaspiracy, definitely yes. If you can't stop, then cut back. The question is, why? Ain't fish, and any other seafood are healthy and have so much nutritions? Hell yes. Fish and other seafood are indeed rich in nutrients, but unfortunately, in their bodies, these nutrients have been mixed with chemicals resulting from industrial fumes, or even contaminated by their own feces caused by humans who breed fish and let the fish swim together with their own feces.

According to the expert who is the resource person in the film, fish and other seafood are the things most quickly exposed to marine pollution which is their own place. In addition, fishing on a large scale will also disrupt the marine ecosystem, where fish's feces act as food for the corals in the sea. But when the fish are caught, the corals do not get food, and die. This, of course, will damage the marine ecosystem. It is even predicted that in 2048, the sea will experience emptiness. When the sea dead, so do we.

At the end of the film, I get one simple thing that we can start from today, which is to stop or eat less seafood.

We can replace the nutrients in seafood with nutrients in plants or vegetables. There are even seafood that are not sea animals, but sea plants, such as algae, which also have many advantages.

In the end of the day, we can't really focus too much on one ecosystem, while leaving the others alone. However, respecting and protecting the environment is our responsibility. It started with one single person. “One person can't do everything. But every single person can do SOMETHING ”- Seaspiracy

July 26, 2021

Annisa Ayundi
P.s. This content also being uploaded in annisaayundi.wixsite.com/annisaayundi