Up until the end of the twentieth century most people thought that the oceans were a limitless resource but sometime during the 1960s we began to realise that this was not the case. Many of the world’s most important fisheries were in crisis. A situation that has only become more acute.
In Conflict Beneath the Waves we explore the intensifying global struggle for this shrinking “resource”. The documentary describes the situation in the world’s oceans (specifically in Norway, South Africa, Ireland, USA and Sweden) and visits traditional, coastal fishermen who are forced to give up when industrial trawlers empty their waters.
The ocean is central to life on earth, peoples’ livelihoods and the economy but will we be able to find a sustainable and holistic balance in our management of the ocean before it’s too late?