DONAL MAGUIRE: Seaspiracy’ or just plain old Seaspoofery?

Seaspiracy’ or just plain old Seaspoofery?

Donal Maguire, Avonbeg Consulting

Just when the Irish seafood industry was beginning to learn to live with the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the disruptions caused by Brexit, along comes a new crisis in the form of expertly packaged militant Veganism propaganda called ‘Seaspiracy’. I recommend it highly as viewing for anyone who has an axe to grind, has scant regard for the truth, and who likes to add two and two together and get 120 as the answer! At face value, it’s a touching story of the coming of age of a sensitive young man who purports to ‘love the ocean’ and everything in it and how he stumbles naively around the world, having his eyes opened to the wickedness of the seafood industry. Everywhere he goes, shocking things seem to be happening. Dolphins are being deliberately killed; whales are being slaughtered by latter-day deranged Vikings with daggers. He (our compassionate narrator) is in constant danger of arrest by dark forces because he seeks the truth.

compulSive viewiNg

It’s compulsive viewing, and some of the images portrayed are shocking and very impactful. Worse still, the industry spokespersons are all truly awful at their jobs; they stutter, look shifty, give mealy-mouthed answers and come across like apologists for genocide. By contrast, those pushing the line of the documentary makers are shown in attractive settings looking calm, authoritative and seem like reasonably concerned citizens worried about the planet’s future. All in all, it’s a very well-made piece, complete with spooky music and heart-rending sound effects at critical moments.

Even as a seafood professional, I admit that I was caught up in it until I started to listen more closely and ask myself the fundamental question: is this true, is he right? Then the cracks started to appear, and I realised that far from comparing apples with apples, the film was comparing artichokes with golden eagles and drawing outlandish conclusions from apparently plausible, but in fact, utterly bogus comparisons. ‘Just stop eating fish, and the oceans will be fine’ was the message being relentlessly plugged. But what are the 3.3 billion human beings who depend on seafood going to eat instead? How are we going to feed the growing world population when we have already exhausted the supply of arable land and freshwater for irrigation? Such problematic issues were airbrushed out and ignored in the filmmakers’ thinly disguised rush to push a militant vegan agenda. In truth, the more one looked at ‘Seaspiracy’, the more its inherent malignancy and bias became apparent. There is no denying that the seafood industry has its problems, and there have been some bad practices. Nevertheless, the way to address that is not to run around the world misrepresenting one’s true purpose, tricking people into misleading situations, and stitching them up like so many kippers, using ‘Gotcha’ journalism.

riddled with lieS

A simple fact-check on ‘Seaspiracy’ shows that it is riddled with lies, halftruths, woeful inaccuracies and generalisations. It is propaganda, pure and simple and needs to be called out.

I felt moved to write about it because several worried people came to me, having watched it and wanted to know should they give up eating fish? Of course, the answer I gave was a resounding ‘No!’ But it did make me realise that decent folk were being taken in by this skilful farrago of lies, and there was a need to push back.

So, let’s all of us, with the knowledge and the experience, stand up and call out this piece of malignant scaremongering and, using the facts, defend our industry and the vital and sustainable livelihoods it gives to our coastal communities.