Patagonia Artifishal Screening Zurich

posted in: Europe, Fishing, General, Reviews, Switzerland, Travel | 0

“The road to extinction is paved with good intentions.”


On Thursday, 16th May, the Impact Hub (co-working space) screened the recent movie Artifishal in Zurich. I mentioned this screening on a recent post about salmon farming. The movie is about the effects of salmon farming on our environment and at the same time on us. Although, I was aware of the basic issues at stake with aquacultures, this movie opened my eyes in many ways.

Artifishal by Patagonia
Artifishal by Patagonia

Artifishal documentary by Patagonia

The documentary has been lauded and was well received by the media. The movie impressively shows, how humans believe they can control nature. Yet, this thought is fraud . Countless times it had been showed that stocked fish have detrimental influence on the wild populations. Moreover, open net pens for farming salmon destroy the habitat of their wild counterpart. Apart from the fact that salmon farming is consuming hundred thousand of dollars of taxes, the revenue is slim to none. Incredibly, the damage done to the environment is not even calculated. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia asks the rhetorical question, how much is the ecosystem worth, to highlight what the thought processes are behind acquaculture.

One of Norway’s finest salmon rivers, the Alta, feeds into Altafjord, where numerous net pens now threaten the wild run. BEN MOON
One of Norway’s finest salmon rivers, the Alta, feeds into Altafjord, where numerous net pens now threaten the wild run. BEN MOON

Among the most poignant footage, is the one where frozen farmed salmon is dropped by a forklift. In this way, the block of dead fish is broken up. What follows is beyond my wildest imagination: School kids go to the river and disperse the dead bodies in the river and in the forest to lead nutritions back into the life cycle. With a proper wild population, all this non-sense would be obsolete. Moreover, the natural life cycle is even for free. So, why do we bother playing nature? This is beyond me.

Summary Artifishal

All in all, Artifishal is an incredibly moving film, which left me speechless several times. Mostly because of how reckless humanity takes advantage of nature and believes to do something good. Although it has been proven many times that we do not have the slightes clue about it.

However, I would have wished that more older fishing folks had attended this screening. It might have led them to a different opinion on stocking trout in Switzerland.

There is another chance to watch Artifishal for free in Langenthal, Switzerland.

Artifishal by Patagonia screening in Zurich
Artifishal by Patagonia screening in Zurich

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