@KAELYNMAEHARA Kaelyn Maehara is a California-born filmmaker and photographer, who is currently working in natural history television in Bristol, United Kingdom. She is most passionate about our oceans and telling the untold stories of the creatures and people directly connected to the sea. She believes in the power of visual media to change hearts and minds around environmental and social issues and is an advocate for increasing diversity in the wildlife filmmaking space. You’ll most likely find Kaelyn diving, climbing, surfing or drinking matcha tea in her garden. I love the oceans. I’ve built my entire life around ocean advocacy and working to protect marine life. I’ve even spent time crewing for Sea Shepherd campaigns in Antarctica and Mexico fighting against illegal fishing and have worked on nature documentaries to show the oceans’ wonders to the world. I also don’t eat meat or fish, and I do not encourage many people to do so. So when Seaspiracy came out on Netflix, I was excited to see a film aimed at tackling the oceans problems, one that included hard-hitting facts about overfishing and reached a wide audience with its strong environmental messaging. I was excited to watch it, but as I watched, I found myself more upset than anything else. I was appalled at the ignorance, the racist portrayal (and complete absence) of communities of color, the white savior narrative, and
the oversimplification of an immense and complex issue that just hands the burden onto consumers. First of all, I’d like to say that I support the message that privileged people from rich nations who get their food at grocery stores should think twice about buying seafood because, indeed, industrial fishing is linked to a whole host of environmental and social issues. However, while this message applies to some, it does not equally apply to everyone worldwide. It is not so simple. The solutions to fixing our seas are more complicated and nuanced. We must consider the economic, environmental, and social factors, which mean giving up fish is not a viable solution for everyone. We must remember, not all people have the same exploitative relationship with the oceans. Millions of small-scale indigenous fish-
ers are an integral part of their ecosystems. They have been natural custodians for the oceans for millennia, and they too are struggling under the weight of industrial fishing. We cannot make blanket statements that all people must stop eating fish without understanding the reality of that statement and the vulnerable communities it affects the most. For a wealthy and privileged audience, the films’ message resonates, but how that point is made could not have been more harmful. The film centers itself around a very limited middle-class western perspective, which is something we see in conservation time and time again. Frankly, I am tired of listening to mostly white middle-class people touting solutions to save the oceans that do not include or consider colonial/imperialist history, geopolitical, or cultural context and portray people of
