Grinding Nemo,
0:10-0:39
Narrator: This trawler is fishing illegally within the waters of a national park on Thailands Andaman Coast. It has just caught over 50 species of fish, including Giant Star Fish, Puffer Fish, Seahorses and juvenile Sea Snakes. Most of this catch is not destined for human consumption though, but will instead be used to feed factory farm animals. It will also be used to feed farmed prawns, which are sold to supermarkets and restaurants around the world.
0:40-0:49
Link T.V and The Ecologist visited Thailand to investigate the links between our growing love affair with tropical prawns, and south east Asia's dying oceans.
TEXT: “Grinding Nemo, Using Tropical fish to feed our prawns”
1:04-1:22
Industrial Aquaculture promotes itself as a sustainable solution to the problems of over fishing, but farmed carnivorous species such as prawns, still need fish in their diet, and many of these so called “trash fish” are sourced from the oceans around south east asia, with devastating effect.
1:25-1:46
Caught in indiscriminate fishing nets, these small young or inedible fish are left to rot in the holds of vessels for days or weeks on end, before being landed. Fleets of trucks transport tonnes of rotting fish from each vessel, onto processing plants, where they are ground down, washed and cooked into powdered fish flour for feed.
1:50-2:02
Along side the species filmed on fishing vessels, researchers also documented buckets of juvenile shark species, including Reef, and threatened Bamboo Sharks waiting to be sold onto the fish meal plants.
2:05-2:17
These tropical fish are used as a cheap and protein rich feed for Thailand's booming shrimp industry, the largest exporter of prawns in the world, but at what cost to the ocean.
2:18-2:20
TEXT: Jaruni Chiawwareesaja
Department of Marine Biology, Songkla University
2:21-3:04
SUBTITLES: (1) Basically if we’re talking about trawling, it is always bad. (2) If they use trawls on the bottom of the sea then they get everything which is living there. (3) Like the sponges and starfish that live on the ocean floor. (4) So if you use trawls, everything is swept away. (5) especially if we’re talking about bottom trawling. (6) About half of the trash fish is edible (6) but the sizes are too small. (7) If we let them grow larger (8) they would become suitable for human consumption. (8) The Thai nation has lost a lot from this problem.
3:05-3:07
TEXT: Anucha Mani, Fisherman, Songkla
3:07-3:19
SUBTITLES:
(1)This one could become much bigger. Up to 1kg. (2) The horse crab here could grow up to half a kilo. (3) The squid here could also grow bigger. (4) This one can also grow bigger.
3:23-3:30
NARRATOR:
Faced with ever decreasing quantities of edible fish, local fishing communities are also losing out.
3:30-3:33
TEXT:
Nirut Nide
SMALL SCALE FISHERMAN
PRESIDENT OF LOCAL CONSERVATION GROUP
3:35-4:39
SUBTITLES:
(1)Right now the small-scale fishermen are having a lot of trouble, (2) because fish of all sizes are being caught (3) in fishing nets with small holes (4) When the younger ones are caught, (5) the bigger ones do not have enough food to eat. (6) The balance will be destroyed. (7) Actually, industrial fishery is forbidden within 3000 metres of the coast. (8) But this law has never really been enforced.(9) We quite often find trawlers entering this area and this is directly affecting the local fisherman. (10) They don’t really care how the local people will survive.
4:40-4:52
NARRATOR:
Proponents of the trade in fishmeal argue that by-catch is accidental, but experts in Thailand suggest otherwise, that the sale of trash fish provides the income to pay for fuel and crew costs.
4:54-5:14
SUBTITLES:
(1)Fishermen are aware that they are catching young fish, which is not so good. (2) Butwhen I asked for the reason why they still refuse to fish with larger nets (3) they told me that for them the trash fish cover costs and the good fish are profits.
5:17-5:34
NARRATOR:
It’s not just the nets and fishing techniques that are controversial however. Working undercover, researchers met with the manager of this fishmeal plant in Ranong. She told us that many of the trawlers who unload at the plant operate in Burmese waters, often under licensing agreements from the military junta.
5:35-5:42
SUBTITLES:
(1) Because Burma has many fish (2) Because in Thailand....(3) there is less fish.
5:42-5:53
NARRATOR:
She claims that her company supplies a prominent feed company in Thailand, which in turn produces much of the feed for prawns that are eventually fed to consumers in North America and Europe.
5:56-6:33
NARRATOR:
Faced with decreasing fish stocks close to home, we also uncovered evidence that Thai fishing fleets are venturing further afield, frequently operating illegally in foreign waters. Our research found that these modern day pirates use destructive fishing technology in waters all across Asia, from Indonesia to Bangladesh, hoovering up trash fish in the process of searching for more valuable fish species. They also exploit the Burmese work force on board the vessels. We spoke to Burmese fishermen about life on board Thai trawlers. They asked that we do not reveal their identity.
6:40-7:53
BURMESE FISHERMAN
SUBTITLES:
(1)When working, we invest our whole life in it. (2) When we’re in their hands, there is nothing we can do about it. (3) When given orders, we have to follow them. (4) It’s quite dangerous. (5) We have to eat when they say, we sleep when they say. (6) When they wake us up by ringing the bell, we have to wake up right away! (7) There’s absolutely no excuse. (8) If I make any mistakes (9) they hit me with a metal stick. (10) They even tried to shoot at me (11) but because of the waves, they missed. (12) Three, four times. (13) I didn’t dare escape (14) but there were people who tried to escape (15) by jumping off the boat.
8:00-8:39
NARRATOR:
Touted as a solution to overfishing, this investigation has found that the feed used in industrial shrimp aquaculture in Thailand is indirectly driving illegal fishing, ecological destruction, and chronic human rights abuses in coastal Thai waters and across south east asia The global shrimp industry continues to rebrand itself as sustainable, but this film raises important questions about the unreported cost of prawn aquaculture, and the feed ingredients used to grow them. Until the feed issue is addresses, the fate of south east asias precious marine biodiversity continues to hang in the balance.
0:10-0:39
Narrator: This trawler is fishing illegally within the waters of a national park on Thailands Andaman Coast. It has just caught over 50 species of fish, including Giant Star Fish, Puffer Fish, Seahorses and juvenile Sea Snakes. Most of this catch is not destined for human consumption though, but will instead be used to feed factory farm animals. It will also be used to feed farmed prawns, which are sold to supermarkets and restaurants around the world.
0:40-0:49
Link T.V and The Ecologist visited Thailand to investigate the links between our growing love affair with tropical prawns, and south east Asia's dying oceans.
TEXT: “Grinding Nemo, Using Tropical fish to feed our prawns”
1:04-1:22
Industrial Aquaculture promotes itself as a sustainable solution to the problems of over fishing, but farmed carnivorous species such as prawns, still need fish in their diet, and many of these so called “trash fish” are sourced from the oceans around south east asia, with devastating effect.
1:25-1:46
Caught in indiscriminate fishing nets, these small young or inedible fish are left to rot in the holds of vessels for days or weeks on end, before being landed. Fleets of trucks transport tonnes of rotting fish from each vessel, onto processing plants, where they are ground down, washed and cooked into powdered fish flour for feed.
1:50-2:02
Along side the species filmed on fishing vessels, researchers also documented buckets of juvenile shark species, including Reef, and threatened Bamboo Sharks waiting to be sold onto the fish meal plants.
2:05-2:17
These tropical fish are used as a cheap and protein rich feed for Thailand's booming shrimp industry, the largest exporter of prawns in the world, but at what cost to the ocean.
2:18-2:20
TEXT: Jaruni Chiawwareesaja
Department of Marine Biology, Songkla University
2:21-3:04
SUBTITLES: (1) Basically if we’re talking about trawling, it is always bad. (2) If they use trawls on the bottom of the sea then they get everything which is living there. (3) Like the sponges and starfish that live on the ocean floor. (4) So if you use trawls, everything is swept away. (5) especially if we’re talking about bottom trawling. (6) About half of the trash fish is edible (6) but the sizes are too small. (7) If we let them grow larger (8) they would become suitable for human consumption. (8) The Thai nation has lost a lot from this problem.
3:05-3:07
TEXT: Anucha Mani, Fisherman, Songkla
3:07-3:19
SUBTITLES:
(1)This one could become much bigger. Up to 1kg. (2) The horse crab here could grow up to half a kilo. (3) The squid here could also grow bigger. (4) This one can also grow bigger.
3:23-3:30
NARRATOR:
Faced with ever decreasing quantities of edible fish, local fishing communities are also losing out.
3:30-3:33
TEXT:
Nirut Nide
SMALL SCALE FISHERMAN
PRESIDENT OF LOCAL CONSERVATION GROUP
3:35-4:39
SUBTITLES:
(1)Right now the small-scale fishermen are having a lot of trouble, (2) because fish of all sizes are being caught (3) in fishing nets with small holes (4) When the younger ones are caught, (5) the bigger ones do not have enough food to eat. (6) The balance will be destroyed. (7) Actually, industrial fishery is forbidden within 3000 metres of the coast. (8) But this law has never really been enforced.(9) We quite often find trawlers entering this area and this is directly affecting the local fisherman. (10) They don’t really care how the local people will survive.
4:40-4:52
NARRATOR:
Proponents of the trade in fishmeal argue that by-catch is accidental, but experts in Thailand suggest otherwise, that the sale of trash fish provides the income to pay for fuel and crew costs.
4:54-5:14
SUBTITLES:
(1)Fishermen are aware that they are catching young fish, which is not so good. (2) Butwhen I asked for the reason why they still refuse to fish with larger nets (3) they told me that for them the trash fish cover costs and the good fish are profits.
5:17-5:34
NARRATOR:
It’s not just the nets and fishing techniques that are controversial however. Working undercover, researchers met with the manager of this fishmeal plant in Ranong. She told us that many of the trawlers who unload at the plant operate in Burmese waters, often under licensing agreements from the military junta.
5:35-5:42
SUBTITLES:
(1) Because Burma has many fish (2) Because in Thailand....(3) there is less fish.
5:42-5:53
NARRATOR:
She claims that her company supplies a prominent feed company in Thailand, which in turn produces much of the feed for prawns that are eventually fed to consumers in North America and Europe.
5:56-6:33
NARRATOR:
Faced with decreasing fish stocks close to home, we also uncovered evidence that Thai fishing fleets are venturing further afield, frequently operating illegally in foreign waters. Our research found that these modern day pirates use destructive fishing technology in waters all across Asia, from Indonesia to Bangladesh, hoovering up trash fish in the process of searching for more valuable fish species. They also exploit the Burmese work force on board the vessels. We spoke to Burmese fishermen about life on board Thai trawlers. They asked that we do not reveal their identity.
6:40-7:53
BURMESE FISHERMAN
SUBTITLES:
(1)When working, we invest our whole life in it. (2) When we’re in their hands, there is nothing we can do about it. (3) When given orders, we have to follow them. (4) It’s quite dangerous. (5) We have to eat when they say, we sleep when they say. (6) When they wake us up by ringing the bell, we have to wake up right away! (7) There’s absolutely no excuse. (8) If I make any mistakes (9) they hit me with a metal stick. (10) They even tried to shoot at me (11) but because of the waves, they missed. (12) Three, four times. (13) I didn’t dare escape (14) but there were people who tried to escape (15) by jumping off the boat.
8:00-8:39
NARRATOR:
Touted as a solution to overfishing, this investigation has found that the feed used in industrial shrimp aquaculture in Thailand is indirectly driving illegal fishing, ecological destruction, and chronic human rights abuses in coastal Thai waters and across south east asia The global shrimp industry continues to rebrand itself as sustainable, but this film raises important questions about the unreported cost of prawn aquaculture, and the feed ingredients used to grow them. Until the feed issue is addresses, the fate of south east asias precious marine biodiversity continues to hang in the balance.