Today at the Tribeca Film Festival, Patagonia will be premiering its newest film. Artifishal is a documentary directed by Josh Murphy about the financial, environmental, and cultural costs of fish hatcheries and farms, and the fight for wild salmon.
It was first announced earlier this month, and has since had limited screenings at select Patagonia retail stores around the U.S. At the time, producer and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard said in a statement, “If we value wild salmon, we need to do something now. A life without wild nature and a life without these great, iconic species is an impoverished life. If we lose all wild species, we’re going to lose ourselves.”
However, San Francisco-based company CleanFish has launched a social campaign to counter the film’s narrative. Founded in 2004, the company says it partners with non-industrial “artisan” fisheries committed to sustainable practices.
Sustainably managed fish farms are #benefishal as low-impact source of food and economic development. And just because a farm isn’t right for a particular location doesn’t mean aquaculture is wrong for the world. The details matter when pick food.
— CleanFish (@CleanFish_2004) April 23, 2019
This new film isn’t Patagonia’s first on the subject of salmon and wild fish. The 2014 film DamNation helped outline the case to remove dams around the U.S. to restore wild river salmon populations and natural habitats. That was followed up a year later with the short doc Free The Snake.
Considering Patagonia’s new mission is to save the planet, expect this to be just one part of the company’s fight on this issue.
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