By Ashley Bouman

Documentary Film - The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat

Produced by George Duffield

This is a documentary by Charles Clover, based on his book by the same name. Clover is the environmental editor for the Daily Telegraph, which is a daily printed newspaper, based in London and is distributed throughout the UK and internationally. The documentary was directed by Rupert Murray , produced by George Duffield and narrated by Ted Danson, and took about two years to film in places such as, England, Alaska, Senegal, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Malta, the Bahamas and Nova Scotia. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentaries competition in Utah, January 15-25, 2009. And in December 2009, it was shown on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's new network program The Passionate Eye.

While the film opens with a scene not unlike those in Jaws, having the viewers suspect that the biggest predator in the ocean is not sharks, but man, which is blatantly obvious if one knows the subject-matter. Some scenes in the film maybe be overdramatized like mega-Hollywood adventure films, however, it is very informative. Human populations have been hunting fish since our existence. The fishing boom on the 1950s has put a major strain on the marine ecosystems. Many fish populations are declining rapidly. Overfishing, due to the high demand of sushi, has practically wiped out the blue fish tuna. It has also left many costal populations with starvation and hunger. Not to mention brought down the livelihood of fisherman in Newfoundland, a place once so full of cod, fisherman travelled from around the world to fish there, now barely has any.

This is a serious problem that can no longer be ignored. Many scientists and experts in the film conclude and agree that if things continue the way they are the bluefish tuna will soon be extinct and that the disappearance of sea food could be eminent in the next 50 years.

The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat

By Charles Clover

This book, which also has a documentary based on it, has a very interesting opening. Imagine hunters speeding across the Africans plains looking for their next target, carcasses of their previous ones in the back of their vehicle, killing anything that came across their path. Thoughts and images such as these simply outrage people; protests are held rather frequently to stop the killing of lions, tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses and the like. The same thing is being done in our oceans. Different methods of capturing marine life are used (such as massive nets that literally sweep the ocean clean) and yet no one seems to mind, as long as their sushi is fresh with a side of wasabi. Fish are not cuddly like a tiger cub; they are scaly and cold, flopping around out of water. We usually see fish as part of our high-protein diets and are not particularly concerned about fishing practices.

Clover is trying to educate the masses on what exactly is going on in our oceans. Sometimes we seem to forget that nothing lasts forever, and that especially includes the marine population. The catching of wild fish has peaked and now it is in decline. There is little regulation and overfishing is beginning to be a major problem. It is destroying the livelihood of costal populations and disrupting the balance of the marine ecosystems. An area of major concern is the rapid declining numbers of the bluefish tuna. There was a sushi-boom in the mid-1990s that launched a high demand of tuna all over the world, as sushi became readily available in many countries, not just Japan. If something is not done to save the bluefish tuna, tekkamaki might be taken off the menu for good, although perhaps doing so now, would help save the populations now.

Clover has been the environmental editor at the Daily Telegraph since 1987 and has won the British Environment and Media's National Journalist of the Year award in 1989, 1994 and 1996. Before his years as an editor at the Telegraph, he was a features contributor as well as the editor for The Spectator, which is a weekly published British magazine. He went to Westminster School and York University where he studied English and Philosophy. On top of his editorial duties he frequently contributes to BBC TV, BBC Radio News, Sky and Newsnight, the leading long-form news television program in Britain. Other publications include the co-writing of Highgrove: Portrait of an Estate with the Prince of Wales and contributing to Interpreting the Precautionary Principle and The Environmental Impacts of World War Two.

Cod: A Biography of Fish That Changed the World

Mark Kurlansky

Cod, off the shores of Newfoundland, so thick you could almost walk across the water. Not only a biography but a very well-research, in-depth look at the history of Atlantic Cod, and how over the course of 1000 years it came to be one of the most significant international food commodities. Cod played an important role in the exploration of the Atlantic and the settlements of the North American coast. Salted Cod became a staple in the European diet and the supply was so plentiful that it seemed endless. The industry changed when fishing became commercialized and factory fishing ships took over. A way of life that had been around for generations eventually had to stop abruptly due to lack of regulations and overfishing. Catches decreased and so did the livelihood of many fishermen. Not only does this book give a comprehensive account of Cod, it also describes overfishing and the importance of international cooperation for managing existing food resources.

Mark Kurlansky is a highly-acclaimed American journalist and writer of non-fiction. He attended Butler University studying theatre and graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. However, at the same time, he was interested in journalism and started writing as a journalist the same year he graduated. He worked as a correspondent in Western Europe for the Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and eventually the International Herald Tribune (Paris based paper). He moved to Mexico in 1982 and published his first book The Continent of Island in 1992. He has written many books since then but Cod was an international best seller and was translated into more than 15 languages.