The Rhetoric of The End of the LIne

 

For us, The End of the Line effectively illustrates the consequences of industrialized fishing and consumerism. Despite its flaws, then, the film demonstrates the catastrophic consequences of over-using marine resources by contrasting views of oceans with and without the human impact of “fair use” fishing strategies that exploit the sea’s resources without regard for the future of sea life. The film documents evidence that validates this key argument. Our exploitation is killing the sea, making what was a renewable resource into a death pool.

The Newfoundland, Canada cod shortage is first held up as evidence. In 1992, what had once been the most abundant cod fishing area in the world had been fished out, so that 40,000 people lost their jobs, and cod became an endangered species in Canada, so much so that its population has not regenerated despite a moratorium. The levels of cod became so low that the fish were unable to recover. Near extinction of the blue fin tuna serves as a second compelling case supporting the film’s horrific assertion.

According to the narrator, once caught in the thousands, now catches of blue fin tuna have declined by 80%, probably in the last twenty-two years. Although The End of the Line does focus on specific species of tuna, it explains that these examples merely particularize a more general trend: species after species of fish have collapsed in the world’s oceans because developed nations crave seafood. Even fish in developing nations such as Senegal are sold to developed Europeans, forcing West Africans into poverty and starvation. The collapse of marine species also disrupts the oceans’ biotic community, destroying a balance of predator and prey found in the ocean food chain. Reasons for these major declines are explored, all related to a move toward large-scale industrial fishing in the 1950s, but the film primarily demonstrates that, at the current rate of fishing, the number of fish available in the world’s oceans will hit zero by 2048. Marine life is fragile, a finite resource that will disappear if we do not change the way we harvest fish.