26′, directed by Jean-Pierre Carlon.
Broadcasts: Seasons, Odyssée.
Traditional fishing is still a widespread activity among coastal populations, especially in tropical countries where it seems that it now provides only ten percent of the food.
Is this fishing, which has always fed the populations living near the coasts, destined to disappear in favor of a more modern fishing?
This documentary is the result of an investigation carried out on the one hand in different fishing ports of the island, where tuna boats equipped with drift nets several kilometers long unload their cargoes of fish and offer the spectacle of hundreds of dolphins lined up, next to tuna, sharks, manta rays…, and on the other hand with political leaders, such as the Director of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the Director of the Ministry of Wildlife and Environment of Sri Lanka…
This document highlights, beyond the massacre of approximately 30,000 to 60,000 dolphins per year, the problem of the use of driftnets without any real control or limit of use. The massacre of cetaceans is in fact only the revealing element that allows us to sound the alarm and certain species such as the shark are in real danger. The boats that use this method of fishing in these regions of the Indian Ocean do not give the fish any chance to reproduce.
Countries like Sri Lanka would be well advised not to follow the example of industrialized countries and should give back its place to traditional artisanal fishing so that the abundance of our oceans does not quickly become another legend… Long blindly exploited, fish resources are dwindling. The sea is not inexhaustible and for many third world countries, fish is as essential as wheat, oil or computer chips for others… And the industrialization of fishing in developing countries contributes to sign the death warrant of the oceans… This problem highlights serious issues for these countries, but also for all humanity, at a time when international agreements on the preservation of certain species are being challenged by some countries like Norway and Japan…