Not So Happy Feet
In the past few weeks I’ve been sitting with disappointment over a movie I saw over Thanksgiving weekend. Normally, I wouldn’t use this space to post movie reviews, however, after seeing Happy Feet, I feel like I have to say something, as it sends out the wrong message about how the environment works. Spoilers ahead!
Happy Feet is about a penguin who is born different and his struggle with that, along with the penguin colony’s struggle with lack of fish. He is ultimately kicked out of the penguin colony for his differences. He then decides that he’ll take it upon himself to go find out who’s taking all the fish and let them know what it’s doing to the penguins. In his mission he discovers humans are overfishing the Antarctic. Yes, it is true, we are everywhere. He manages to spread his plea to humans through dancing.
The erroneous message that was made clear in the movie, though, is that eating fish, no matter what kind it is or origin, is killing the penguins. The movie wraps up with scenes of kids across the globe watching news reports about the plight of the penguins and eventually shows all of humanity vowing never to take another bite of any seafood.
I would like to end this review with a list that I came upon yesterday, which is a list of good fish to eat and a list of bad fish to eat. The list places fish that are low in mercury and PCBs and those that preserve oceanic diversity high in priority. While it is good to know our place in the food web, the better action is to make more educated choices.
Regional pocket seafood guides - choose fish that are eco-friendly!
December 14th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Thanks for the education and guides. I’ll pass it along.