Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret Page #4

targeting gazelle...

...but in the process scooping up

every single lion...

...giraffe, ostrich and elephant...

...nobody would stand for it.

Yet this is what is happening

in our oceans every single day.

Between 40 and 50 million sharks

each year are killed...

...in fishing lines

and fishing nets as bi-kill.

Then their fins might be cut off,

or not cut off...

...but they're caught initially as bi-kill,

and it's from fishing.

It's from fishing in a sustainable manner,

in many cases...

...for fish that are labeled "sustainable"

by, for instance, Oceana...

...and the sustainable-certified

organizations.

So my thought is, why would we want

to stop at banning shark-fin soup...

...if you're concerned about sharks?

Which all these organizations are,

and most of the public at large is now.

If we really are concerned about sharks,

we would ban fishing.

I went on the world's largest

ocean-conservation group's website...

...Oceana, to see what they're

doing about this.

On their site, along with a TED Talk

by CEO Andy Sharpless...

...I was astounded to read

they actually recommend...

...that one of the best ways to help fish

is to eat fish.

With the world's fish population

in near-collapse...

...this seems like saying the best way

to help endangered pandas...

...is to eat pandas.

I couldn't understand

how Oceana could say...

...we could remove close to

100 million tons offish per year...

...and that could somehow be sustainable

and good for our oceans.

Many of the species that are

nearing extinction have done so...

...been ravaged and become

nearly extinct, in a declining fashion...

...and haven't recovered

on the watch of Oceana...

...and on the watch

of Marine Stewardship Council...

...and very much on the watch of Monterey

Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch.

I mention in a lecture, they're aptly named,

because that's what they're doing.

They're sort of watching this happen

instead of aggressively halting it.

According to the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization...

...roughly three-quarters of all fisheries

are either fully exploited or over exploited.

So there's really not a whole lot

offish stocks out there...

...that you might consider at

healthy levels for the ecosystem.

Watching Andy's TED Talk

about feeding the world...

...in 1988, fish catch, as you mention,

peaked at 85 million tons.

How is it possible that we can sustainably

catch 100 million tons by 2050...

...regardless if it's in a farm

or if it's in the ocean?

If for every pound offish

you're taking out...

...you're essentially taking out

5 pounds of wild fish...

...no matter whether it's a pond

or it's in the ocean...

...how can that be sustainable?

The ultimate question, right...

...is that there is a tremendous amount

of natural production...

...that is, you know, basically

coming out of the oceans all the time.

So we have major-A massive amount of

upwelling from our ocean conveyer belt...

...that's bringing up ancient,

thousand-year-old nutrients...

...and our ecosystems

a returning that into fish.

Yes, they're eating each other

and you're losing...

...some of that production

every step up in the food chain...

...but you get more every year.

You can fish and take some out,

and next year there will be more.

And if we do that right, without ultimately

hitting the fundamental driver...

...it's sort of like living off

the interest, right?

As long as you don't

bring your principal down, right...

...if you invest in something, as long as

you don't hit into that principal...

...your principal remains high, you could

potentially live off the interest forever.

That's the basic idea with fish.

With our population right now,

what we're doing...

...if it's 75-percent depleted,

the fish is now depleted...

And, you know, it's a good

analogy with money.

We're not living off our interest,

we're in extreme debt.

And if our population,

who's trying to live as a family...

...on the same amount of money,

and it's increasing 35 percent...

- ...to 9 billion people...

- Right.

...Isn't it just,

"Hey, we gotta stop spending money"?

- Yeah.

- "Stop eating fish."

Well, if you could bring

the principal back.

Fishing of any type is depleting

not only the species...

...but you get into this serial depletion

where one fish species will be minimized...

...and the fishing industry for that fishery

will move onto the next species.

It's called serial depletion.

It's aptly named.

In the process, the fish are being lost.

Not only the species is being lost,

but the next in line is being lost.

And then the mechanism

is still extremely destructive.

So they're losing the fish species,

but it needs to be kept in mind...

...they're also destroying habitat.

They came up with this term

"sustainable fishing"...

...to make us feel good

about eating fish...

...and continuing to take fish

out of the oceans...

...when, in fact,

it's Sea Shepherd's position...

...that there is no such thing

as sustainable fishing.

Fishing is not a sustainable protein source

for the feeding of the planet.

For the people on the planet,

it's just not.

People don't wanna hear it. That makes

them feel like they have to take action...

...stop doing something,

and a lot of people don't want to.

They don't put it out there, because it's

uncomfortable to tell people what to do.

But we're at a point

where we all have to be cognizant.

And we have to realize

and take an action.

Our founder,

Captain Watson, likes to say:

"If the oceans die, we die."

That's not a tagline. That's the truth.

Perhaps the only other ecosystem

that is being destroyed...

...at such a rapid rate

are the world's rainforests.

Our global rainforests are

essentially the planet's lungs.

They breathe in CO2

and exhale oxygen.

An acre of rain forest is cleared

every second.

And the leading cause is to graze animals

and grow their feed crops.

That is essentially an entire football field

cleared every single second.

And it is estimated that every day...

...close to 100 plant, animal,

and insect species are lost...

...due to rainforest destruction.

What is the absolute leading cause

of rain forest destruction?

Human intervention into rainforests

is the leading cause.

And so it's either for logging

or it's for agribusiness.

That's when you're looking at

the top global drivers...

...it will vary a bit by the rainforest

that you're talking about...

...but the way that we're choosing

to use these natural resources...

...on a large industrial scale

is the leading driver.

When I went on R.A.N.'s website...

...I couldn't believe

I didn't see anything about cattle.

But I did see they had a large

campaign against palm oil.

Palm oil plantations cause tremendous

deforestation in the Indonesian rainforest.

It is estimated that palm oil is responsible

for26 million acres being cleared...

...though compared to livestock

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