Solutions in Rupert Murray's The End of the Line documentary

 

The End of the Line offers a variety of solutions to this catastrophic future of our seas, all of which are based in organismic approaches of ecology that embrace sustainable development and biotic community. Alaska’s conservation methods are held up as one example of a better way, with a strictly enforced 200-mile fishing limit. Alaska also controls the number of fishing boats and enforces quotas on fishing levels, so that exploitation here is only ten percent, compared to 50% in the North Sea. In Alaska, fishermen are willing to take a cut in the harvest, so they can continue to catch fish. The film also suggests that consumers demand where their fish came from and how it was caught to support a sustainable fishing industry like that described by the Marine Stewardship Council. According to The End of the Line, some corporations are leading this drive toward sustainability. By 2011, Wal-Mart will only sell Marine Stewardship Council sustainable fish, for example. Two thirds of the fish Birdseye sells come from sustainable sources, and 99% of McDonalds fish come from sustainable sources.

The End of the Line argues against fish farming, however, suggesting the opening of more marine preserves where commercial fishing is off limits. According to the film’s narrator, a global network of 20-30% of the world’s oceans would help the seas regenerate themselves, an enormous change from oceans protected by marine preserves today—less than one percent. By implementing and enforcing fishing limits, changing our eating habits, abiding by rules and decreasing capacity, the film asserts, we can manage the sea for its recovery, and, as the narrator explains, we can act now. With this generalized focus on the biotic community of Earth’s oceans, The End of the Line moves beyond individualized animal rights arguments and embraces a sophisticated theory of organismic ecology.

Whether or not the film’s rhetoric will result in activist responses from viewers, however, is yet to be seen because the film is available primarily by accessing a website rather than through wide release. Despite multiple positive reviews and awards, including one from Sundance, the film has not found a mainstream distributor in the United States. Dogwoof Pictures, a UK company, is distributing the DVD, available on the film’s Website: endoftheline.com. The Website provides multiple resources for reclaiming the oceans and offers educational screenings of the film, but one screening at a Salt Lake City high school that was documented in a YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQJWPvRbqHM) resulted in laughter rather than outrage. Both Darwin’s Nightmare and The End of the Line, then, demonstrate that arguments against overfishing that are based in organismic ecology may or may not change behaviors.