Justifying a Bad Campaign

It’s amazing to see what lengths Greenpeace will now go in order to grab attention. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of viewing Greenpeace’s new environmental campaign on anti bottom trawling (which is an important issue I’m about to get into) I sincerely urge you to visit their website and watch their attempt at using a South Park parody for support. It is an embarrassing new low as campaign stunts go. However, if the only way to grab the youth’s attention is through pseudo-pop-culture cartoon figures with high school dialogue structure, then so be it.

If you are unaware as to what bottom trawling implies, allow me to enlighten you. Bottom trawling (a.k.a. benthic trawling) is a fishing method which involves towing trawl nets along the sea floor. These nets are towed by various kinds of boats (ranging from motor boats to large ocean trawlers) depending on the size of the business. What most people are unaware of is how destructive these fishing methods are to deep sea ecosystems; these huge nets literally scrape sea beds clean.

According to a recent article published in the journal Science, species are being depleted so quickly that, if we don’t change our current fishing methods, all wild fisheries could collapse by 2048. According to Greenpeace, scientists across the globe supported a recently failed UN suspension on high seas bottom trawling in order to conduct research on alternative ways for sustainable fishing. It wouldn’t be a campaign, though, without a target. The two sore loseWeight Exercisers this time are none other than Spain and our very own country, Canada.

As much as I detest Greenpeace’s campaign ploys, I consider its reasons for creating this a worthy concern, at least for any person who depends on food for survival.