No Fish in My Dish!
Jason Kelly's fish-friendly book espousing responsible fishing.
I wrote a piece last fall about Sustainable Fish Choices that caught the attention of some folks - one of whom was an IT professional turned children's book author and marine wildlife champion, Jason Kelly. This man is what you'd call dedicated to put it mildly.
He learned about the devastating effects modern fishing technology coupled with one of our ugliest traits, greed, has had and continues to have on our fish and other marine life. If you think there will be enough fish to last centuries, you're sadly mistaken. Many in the scientific community are saying that as soon as 2048, we could have vast bodies of water with nothing more than sea weed and other microscopic organisms living in them. So much for taking the kids fishing or having them try wild salmon!
I recently had a chance to ask Jason a few key questions about his mission to educate and inform himself, which led to the writing of his book, No Fish in My Dish. I hope you find the conversation as enlightening as I did!
Food Trends: How did you come up with the idea to write this book?
Jason Kelly: I worked at the IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory from 1993 to
1997, and used to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium often.
It taught me about the ocean, and then I went diving and
saw what I'd learned about. Years later, while living in
Japan, I visited the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. It's the
largest in the world, and when I saw the thousands of fish
processed there each day I wondered how many fish there
could be in the ocean. I researched it and discovered that
there aren't enough to withstand the intensity of modern
day fishing efforts. I was drawn into the crisis and researched
further. What I discovered is that a number of excellent
books had been written by marine biologists. I loved the
books and they made all the pertinent points about
over-fishing, but they hadn't made a difference. I decided
that a simpler book with a cute image was needed to make
an impact in today's low-attention-span culture, and that
the book needed to target the consumer side of the problem,
not the supply side (the fishing companies). I wrote the text
in rhyme to be cuter still, and then set out looking for an
illustrator. I couldn't find one that made drawings as cute
as I'd wanted, so I spent a year teaching myself how to
draw and paint, and did the illustrations myself.
FT: Why is conservancy in our oceans, lakes, and water
systems so important to you?
JK: I suppose because the underwater world is so magical.
Every time I go diving or snorkelling, I marvel at the amazing
diversity of life. It's scary at times when you look into deep,
dark water, and then it's a comedy when you watch little fish
come up to your mask and peck at it as if to ask what you're
doing down here! The thought that in just forty years, all
fisheries could be depleted is mortifying to me.
The ocean is basic to life on earth. Everything started there.
It has sustained our species and enhanced our
cultures since the beginning of time. Think of stories from the
bible, where fishermen were central, to tales from Africa
where fishing was central. Could we live in a world without
fish and, therefore, fishing? I don't think so. In many ways,
the end of the ocean's fish will be our end. As the father says
in my book, "A sea without fish is no sea at all.
It's just water and darkness and small things that crawl.
It's like a tree with no leaves or the sky with no sun,
like a man with no family, like a dog that can't run."
FT: What's the #1 fish "myth" that people should know about
that they currently misunderstand?
JK: Probably that "there are plenty of fish in the sea." That saying
is used to describe lots of available mates in the world,
but it has created this feeling that the ocean holds an endless
supply of fish. It doesn't. It's finite, and it's dropping rapidly.
FT: How dire is the situation today?
JK: Extremely. Fishing companies send spotter planes into the air
to find tuna spawning at the ocean surface. At that moment
of greatest vulnerability, the fishing company's boats
surround the entire school of fish in a net and pluck them out
of existence. Against such technology and such ruthless
determination, the fish don't stand a chance. The latest study
from Dalhousie University says that if commercial fishing
continues at today's pace, there will be no sustainable ocean
fisheries in just 40 years. In our lifetimes, we could find a
sea without fish.
FT: What do you tell kids who worry they may never get to
learn about, see, or even taste fish in the future?
JK: I tell them that the future is still theirs, for a little longer. If
we all reduce the amount of fish we consume, we will preserve
fish for today's youngest generation and for future generations
as well. Fishing companies are the very picture of selfishness.
For their own short-term economic gain, they are destroying
some of Earth's greatest living creatures and an important
source of protein for billions of human beings.Owners will not
even leave a viable industry for their own children, so do you
think they care a moment about the future of other children?
No way. So, children need to take control of their own
futures right now by eating fewer fish, telling others about the
problem, and enjoying the result of fewer fish bought leading
to fewer fish caught, and an ocean of fish left intact for all time.
FT: What can we all do on a practical level (apart from no fish
in my dish) to help this situation get better?
JK: The beauty of this problem is that it's so solvable. First of all,
by refraining from eating fish for just five days a week, we will
keep the consumption of fish reasonable and allow them time
to reproduce to sustainable levels. Second, when we do eat
fish, we should eat ones that are already at safe levels. To help
with that, we have arranged to distribute with each copy of my
book a set of cards to help guide people's purchase of fish. They
include Seafood Watch cards from the Monterey Bay
Aquarium, "Eco" label cards from the Marine Sustainability
Council which labels packages in grocery stores as well, South
African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) cards
from the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and SeaChoice cards
from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society focusing on
Canadian fisheries.
FT: What would you like to let our leaders know regarding the
endangered nature of fish?
JK: Simply that laws are not being enforced, and have therefore
been nearly worthless so far. There's no point in a law if it
is not enforced.We have limits set on how many tons of
fish can be extracted from various fisheries, yet fishing
companies routinely violate the limits because there are no
consequences to doing so. Fishing companies are making a
fortune killing endangered species in flagrant violation of
international laws, and nobody cares. I'm hoping to create
an awareness, a level of caring, before the fish have been
depleted to levels from which they can never recover.
FT: As an aside, have you seen the movie Sharkwater by
Rob Stewart? In it, he discusses how the Taiwanese mafia
has bought out whole segments of the fishing industry off
of Costa Rica, and paid officials to turn a blind eye to
shark fin poaching. What do you think of the film and what
would you tell people who eat shark fin?
JK: I'm afraid I haven't seen the film. However, I can confirm
that organized crime is involved in over-fishing around the
globe. In Japan, the notorious yakuza make enormous sums
of money selling dolphin meat as whale. They don't do it
directly, of course, but they have interests in companies that
do it. They have depleted nearly all of Japan's popular fish
to dangerous levels, and then have the audacity to tell
Japanese people that too many whales are eating all the
fish, so they need to catch more whales to save the poor
dying fish! Their only goal appears to be to scoop every last
living creature with a price out of the ocean and sell it.
As for shark finning, it's atrocious, akin to killing an elephant
for its tusks and leaving the rest to rot. Often, the struggling
and finless sharks are dumped overboard to sink to the
bottom of the sea, their fins en route to soup bowls across
China and elsewhere. Before I knew of this problem, I ate
shark fin soup in Tokyo and it was delicious. However, it
was not delicious enough to justify the price, and there are
plenty of ways to make a delicious soup without being so
cruel to a living creature. To people who eat shark fin, I
would suggest choosing a sustainable ingredient instead,
so you can enjoy both the taste and a guilt-free conscience.
To those who say they feel no guilt, I suggest watching a
squirming body of a shark sink slowly into the dark of the
ocean, and point out that finning is the culprit.
FT: Some say technology has led to this problem. Would you
say that's the case, or would you point to greed as another
factor?
JK: I would point to greed first. True, improved technology has
given mankind the ability to pull far more fish from the ocean
than ever before, but the desire to do so is the real problem.
A wise CEO of a fishing company could stop his company
from depleting an entire stock of fish. If every CEO acted in
the same way, brilliant new technology would pose no
threat because it wouldn't be abused. On the other hand, a
greedy fisherman could do little damage 200 years ago because
he had just a rod and a net. Maybe he could figure out how to
cast dozens of lines, but even that would be tiny compared to
modern factory fishing methods.
Ultimately, I'd say it's the combination of greed and technology
that has brought us to this point. Of the two, I'd flag greed as
the more devastating, because it's inherently dangerous whereas
technology is only dangerous when abused.
FT: If you could be a fish, which would it be and why?
JK: A fun question! I would be a marlin. Blue and black marlins
can grow to longer than sixteen feet and weigh more than
1,800 pounds. They are fast swimmers, very majestic with
crest shaped dorsal fins, and better to watch than eat. I would
hope to live long and free.
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