Whether you are a fisherman, a seafood connoisseur, or a global citizen concerned with the plight of the oceans and social justice, you will find this new movie: The End of the Line compelling and informative.  We invite you to attend this special screening put on by Noosa Integrated Catchment Authority (NICA)

Invitation: 'River to Sea' Film Evening showcasing The End of the Line

Wed 24th November 2010
6–8 pm at the Good Shepherd Lutheran College Theatrette
(TH building near Admin & Library; 119 Eumundi Road, Noosaville)

All are welcome!

Entry with gold coin donation.

RSVP by 22nd November via email: cpscheung@generalmail.com or Tel: 0488 967 056.

A panel of representatives from QLD Primary Industries & Fisheries, University of Queensland, QLD Conservation Council, SEQ Catchments, QLD Seafood Industry Assoc., Sunfish, and Phippsy (well-known fisherman and chef Andy Phipps), will take questions and facilitate discussions after the movie.

* BACKGROUND INFORMATION provided by NICA below*

Most of us love to eat fish, and we all know how nutritious they are. Now...“Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.” www.endoftheline.com

Sounds alarming?  Wait till you hear this: The world’s longline industries put out 1.4 billion hooks each year, set on lines long enough to encircle the globe 550 times! The mouth of the largest trawling net in the world can swallow thirteen 747 jumbo jets!

When was the last time you ate an Orange roughy (Deep-sea perch)? Did you know that this fish lives longer and takes longer to reach sexual maturity than humans? Yet its spawning and feeding aggregations around seamounts have been heavily targeted by bottom trawlers wherever they were discovered – from Tasmania to SW Australia, New Zealand to Namibia, NE Atlantic to S Indian Ocean. It is no wonder that its fishery across the globe has declined dramatically and its Australian population is now so low that it is listed on the Federal Government’s EPBC Act as conservation dependent.

Take another example, the Southern bluefin tuna, prized for the sushimi markets of Japan, has been fished down to less than 10% of the 1960 level, according to the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna.  It is listed as an endangered species by the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Closer to home, the Snapper (Squire) is declared overfished by Fisheries Queensland in the 2009 stock assessment.

World renowned ocean explorer Sylvia Earle once said, “We have this idea, we humans, that the Earth – all of it: the oceans, the skies – are so vast and so resilient it doesn’t matter what we do to it. That may have been true 10,000 years ago, and maybe even true 1,000 years ago but in the last 100, especially in the last 50, we’ve drawn down the assets, the air, the water, the wildlife that make our lives possible.” She asked us to “consider why it matters that in 50 years we’ve lost – actually, we’ve taken, we’ve eaten – more than 90 percent of the big fish in the sea...”

In the documentary The End of the Line, investigative reporter Charles Clover travelled from the Straits of Gibraltar to Senegal, and Alaska to Tokyo, to find the answers. He interviewed politicians, celebrity restaurateurs, top scientists and fishermen, including a former tuna farmer turned whistleblower.

The film “tells the almost unbelievable story of how our oceans all over the world have been systematically emptied of fish, a process that can be complete by the middle of this century. This is not just an environmental issue, this is a people issue” said Director Rupert Murray.

And what happens next? “The end point is when the prawns and the scallops too have gone. We really will be down to highly simplified ecosystems of mud and worms” said Dr. Callum Roberts, York University. Already, we have seen jellyfish infestations around the world, in the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Sea of Japan. European Union researchers suggest this ‘jellyfish joyride’ is associated with overfishing, nutrient runoff, ship ballast, warming climate and destruction of marine habitats.

“But, there is good news. 10 percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There are still some krill in Antarctica. ... There’s still time, but not a lot, to turn things around” Sylvia Earle emphasized.

“The wrong decisions have seen fish wiped off the face of the planet. The right decisions can put them back there” Rupert Murray reassured us.

We and all fellow consumers and voters together can make a real difference in the way our marine resources are managed. Next time you read a seafood menu, ask what species are being served? Where were they caught? And how? 

To find out more about the state of our oceans and the fish we eat, come to Noosa Integrated Catchment Association’s screening of The End of the Line on Wed 24th November (6-8pm) at Good Shepherd Lutheran College Theatrette. Whether you are a fisherman, a seafood connoisseur, or a global citizen concerned with the plight of the oceans and social justice, you will find this movie compelling and informative.

A panel of representatives from QLD Primary Industries & Fisheries, University of Queensland, QLD Conservation Council, SEQ Catchments, QLD Seafood Industry Assoc., Sunfish, and Phippsy (well-known fisherman and chef Andy Phipps) will take questions and facilitate discussions after the movie. All are welcome! Entry with gold coin donation. Seating limited. RSVP  cpscheung@generalmail.com or 0488 967 056 by 22nd Nov