Why Seaspiracy Is a Must-Watch Netflix Documentary

There are documentaries that inform, and then there are those that interrupt your way of thinking. Seaspiracy belongs to the second kind. Directed by Ali Tabrizi, this 2021 Netflix documentary is a film about the ocean and the many layers of how humans have played a role in its large-scale destruction. It’s a film that has had a deep impact on viewers around the world. The film presents a critical view of the fishing industry, exposing issues such as overfishing and the destruction of marine ecosystems. The two-minute trailer has almost five million views, and it is widely considered an educational film.

We often talk about saving the trees, and rightly so. But here’s something most of us forget, oceans produce more oxygen than forests. Around 50 to 70 percent of the air we breathe comes from phytoplankton, the microscopic marine organisms floating in the sea. Without them, the planet cannot survive.

The Plastic Straw Distraction

Seaspiracy shatters the illusion that quitting plastic straws will save the seas. Discarded fishing nets, traps, and other commercial waste make up the majority of large plastic debris in the ocean. Yet all we’re told is to swap to metal straws and feel better about ourselves. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a swirling mass of destruction. It is filled with remnants of fishing gear and everyday plastic that we use and throw away. Turtles suffocate inside these nets. Seabirds mistake microplastics for food and die with stomachs full of plastic.

The Heartbreaking Reality of Overfishing

There’s something painful about how Seaspiracy documents overfishing. It mirrors the way the Slay documentary exposed the animal cruelty behind fashion. Slay exposes tanneries and the illegal farming of animals, breaking the idea of speciesism, Seaspiracy breaks the injustice and slaughter of whales and dolphins.

It shows how these animals are being killed to prevent them from eating other fish. Overfishing is a practice that is highly unsustainable and deeply damaging to marine ecosystems. It risks the extinction of many fish species and threatens the balance of life under the sea.

The Human Rights Abuse at Sea

The fishing industry hides something sinister- human slavery.

One of the most haunting sections of the film is when it moves beyond marine life and focuses on human life. It sheds light on modern slavery at sea, something very few speak about. Many workers are trafficked or forced into labour. In Thailand, for example, 76 percent of workers in the fishing industry have been subjected to slavery conditions, and 37 percent were trafficked. There is almost no conversation around this.

A Film That Changes Something in You

One last thing, if we continue like this, the oceans could be empty by 2048. The plastic pollution, overconsumption, overfishing, bycatch, and the threats from commercial fishing all add up.

Seaspiracy has sparked reactions worldwide. Some viewers became vegetarian. Some started questioning their choices. Others simply began to see the sea differently.

Everyone has their own perspective, but just as the planet belongs to us, it also belongs to every plant, tree, animal, and living being in every shape and form.

The ocean is not separate from us. What we do to it, we eventually do to ourselves.