The world’s first major documentary about the devastating effect of overfishing premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

“Overfishing is the great environmental disaster that people haven’t heard about”
– producer George Duffield.

In the film we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with seafood – from right here on Shem Creek, all the way to the world’s biggest consumers of seafood: Asians, Japan specifically.

The documentary examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048.

“The End of the Line” lays the responsibility squarely on consumers who innocently buy endangered fish, politicians who ignore the advice and pleas of scientists, fishermen who break quotas and fish illegally, and the global fishing industry that is slow to react to an impending disaster.

“Reading the book changed my life and what I eat. I hope the film will do the same for others,” producer Claire Lewis.

In today’s 2008 Status of U.S. Fisheries report to Congress, NOAA gave notice of four different fish being cleared from overfishing:

1. Atlantic bluefish,
2. Gulf of Mexico king mackerel, and
3. two different stocks of monkfish in the Atlantic

While that of course is good news for long-range fishing and our marine habitat, four others appear to be overfished at the same time:

1. thorny skate,
2. Atlantic blacknose shark, and
3. Atlantic shortfin mako shark

These were added to the list of those being fished unsustainably just this year, and a fourth stock, Gulf of Mexico pink shrimp, was also listed as subject to overfishing but it’s still being reviewed.

With these fish being replenished, it proves NOAA officials are doing the best they can for all of us – the fish, the fisherman, and all my fellow seafood lovers out there.