In a column first published in Commercial Fisheries News, the executive director of the East Coast Tuna Association and the Blue Water Fishermen’s association criticizes the assumptions in Charles Clover’s The End of the Line, and urges the use of programs like NOAA’s Fish Watch, which he says has "scientific competency and objectivity to verify the facts on the status of a fishery stock."
"The media has been flooded with doom and gloom stories of fish stock wipeouts since last fall when Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival previewed the controversial “End of the Line” movie. The negative coverage has intensified tremendously with the premier of the film in England coinciding with World Oceans Day on June 8.
The movie is based on a book by Charles Clover, who largely based his book on a paper prepared in 2003 by Ransom Myers and Boris Worm. The paper, which was published by Nature magazine, claimed there had been a 90% reduction in the biomass of large pelagic fishes in the oceans of the world. Following publication, Nature was hit by a wave of criticism for allowing such poor science and environmental advocacy disguised as science to see the light of day."