Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows the investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs, who exhibit little regard for the damage they are doing to the oceans. The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world on the issue of sustainable fishing.
The End of the Line with support from Greenpeace, Brit Doc and Waitrose premiered on World Oceans Day – Monday 8th June 2010, simultaneously on 46 screens across the UK and had a huge impact. After seeing the film household names changed their practices and switched to msustainable sources of fish
In the same week that the film was released, Marks and Spencer announced it was switching all of its canned tuna to pole-and-line caught skipjack, the most plentiful tuna species, while its fresh tuna will be line-caught yellowfin.
Prêt A Manger announced a total change in its fish buying policy after founder Julian Metcalfe saw the film at a preview screening and then arranged a private screening for senior management. The company press released the news on the day the film opened.
In March 2010, Whiskas & Sheba became the first cat foods to source fish from Marine Stewardship Council certified products, again directly crediting the power of the film.
The End of the Line and the issues within it secured significant support from celebrity advocates including Prince Charles, Greta Scacchi, Emilia Fox, Terry Gilliam, Richard E Grant, Stephen Fry and Sarah Brown among others.
Gordon Ramsay, Angela Hartnett, Joel Robuchon, Giorgio Locatelli and Tom Aikens banned bluefin from their restaurants.
Jamie Oliver who was shown in the film recommending bluefin tuna on his TV show, not only stopped serving the fish in his restaurants and removed it from his recipe books, he was part of a Channel 4 season in January 2011 called The Big Fish Fight which directly assessed sustainability alongside Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay. Carluccio’s announced they would no longer serve net-caught fish.
For more information on the changes that The End of the Line caused read the links below
