Educational Media Reviews Online

Fish Meat explores the sustainability and ethics of various methods of fish farming as they are currently practiced. The decline of wild fish populations is a complex worldwide issue, but Fish Meat effectively scales it down to individual decision-making and concrete differences in farming techniques.

Two hosts (an ecologist and an engineer) visit a tuna ranch, a sea bass nursery, a trout farm made up of terraced ponds, and a carp farm using centuries-old practices. Although these farms are in Turkey, viewers can understand them as examples of aquaculture techniques used in other regions. Viewers may even encounter some of the fish they produce: the larger operations ship fish all over the world, and require food and other inputs from as far away as South America. The hosts don't avoid voicing opinions on each farm, considering all aspects of each operation including the types of work performed by humans and treatment of the fish. Fish Meat concludes that the oldest methods practiced on a small scale are preferable to input-dependent industrial methods, and suggests how viewers can change their habits to support sustainable fish farming.

Fish Meat would be an excellent addition to both public and academic collections because the topic is of interest to community groups as well as students and researchers. Multiple versions of the documentary are included on the disc: a short titled Two Fish (8 minutes), a half-hour version which could prompt discussion in any venue, and a one-hour version appropriate for a full class period. Though the long version is labeled “academic” and does provide additional detail, it would not be inaccessible to even high-school audiences. All versions include some graphic images.