I don't know if this belongs in the movie section, but i figured here was also appropriate.

 

Check out the trailer. What I wrote I guess could be a spoiler to some of the info so if you want to see the movie and don't want to know the stats justt warning you.

 

Sharkwater trailer.

 

 

I saw this documentary called Sharkwater by Rob Stewart, and it tells a story about the trillion dollar industry that is shark finning. Asian countries have long believed that shark fins posses magical/medicinal powers because it was previously thought that sharks din't get cancer. So fisherman started catching sharks on long lines of baited hooks, then they bring the sharks onto the boat cut off their fins and throw them back into the water to drown. 90% of the sharks in the world have been killed either by finning or other man created causes ie. pollution. Rob Stewart says that by taking away the top of the food chain in the oceans, other populations of animals that are normally kept in check will flourish (which I have my doubts about too because we are overfishing our oceans as well. I think he said all of the oceans fisheries will e gone by 2048). Anyways, he said that these unchecked populations will start to eat up all the plankton which converts 70% of the world's carbon dioxide gases (for all you global warming people) into oxygen so even if you don't believe in global warming, you still need oxygen. Plankton is the greatest producer of this cycle. Imagine plankton gone with all the deforestation on top of that.

 

This movie really opened up my eyes to a problem that I had no idea was happeneing. Go out watch it and spread th word. Its not a boring documentary either, he gets chased off by Taiwnese mafia wielding guns. He got banned from a couple places and went back anyway. Got charged with 7 counts of murder even though he did nothing. So much corruption and drama.

Something wants me to believe the plankton thing, but another thing is holding that back: the issue of dissolved O2. If the fish are eating the phytoplankton up, that does mean less production of O2. However, the first place to feel that effect might be the seas themselves. Low O2 would lead to a fish kill, perhaps restoring the balance (although the time scale might be left up to debate). But then again, I don't know how hypoxic zones are managed in order to restore O2.