The Seaspiracy “virtually empty ocean” claim
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2021
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Popular Netflix documentary Seaspiracy has sparked a lot of debate recently, including some controversy over some of the claims the documentary makes and the numbers behind them. One of the most striking is that: “if current fishing trends continue we will see virtually empty oceans by the year 2048.” Although overfishing is a global problem, we take a look and find that this scenario is unlikely.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service, |
| 0:03.9 | with a programme that throws a life raft |
| 0:06.1 | into the sea of numbers all around us, and I'm Tim Haferd. |
| 0:10.1 | This week on the programme, a documentary |
| 0:12.5 | which has been making lots of waves, sea spuracy. |
| 0:16.4 | We hear a lot about blood diamonds. |
| 0:18.4 | This is blood shrimp. |
| 0:24.0 | We are at war with the oceans, |
| 0:25.9 | and if we win this war, we're going to lose it all |
| 0:28.7 | because mankind is not able to live on this planet with the Dead Sea. |
| 0:34.0 | It is described on Netflix as documenting the harm |
| 0:37.4 | that humans do to marine life. |
| 0:39.4 | It's the kind of consciousness-raising programme |
| 0:41.8 | that will have you swearing off fish-finger sandwiches |
| 0:44.4 | for the rest of your life. |
| 0:46.1 | But don't take my word for it. |
| 0:47.6 | I haven't seen it. |
| 0:48.5 | I'm a radio man myself. |
| 0:50.0 | Our intrepid reporter, Matt Murphy, has watched it |
| 0:53.0 | so that the rest of us don't have to. |
| 0:55.2 | And Matt, what's the story? |
| 0:57.0 | Hi, Tim, so yes, sea spuracy has sparked a lot of debate recently. |
... |
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