The Ethics of "My Octopus Teacher" [Possible Spoilers]

Great Debates
41

Simon’s Town is a part of Cape Town.

Oh, all the interactions we’ve had in the past around South Africa and where I’m from?

No, wait, don’t tell me, let me guess - “I don’t remember everyone I interact with on the Board”, right? Because we South Africans are a dime-a-dozen here…

But anyway - does it matter?

It is a sanctuary, even by your own standards. By which you seem to mean the kind of no-take area that is called a “marine reserve” in the profession. Which the My Octopus Garden filming location very much is.

Specifically, it’s the Paulsberg Reserve part of the TMNP MPA. There are two ways to tell this -
1 - you can very clearly see Paulsberg behind him when he’s going into the water and there’s only one stretch of the coast where you get that view; and
2 - You simply don’t get a lot of alikreukels of the size that octopus munches on, outside the no-take zones of the MPA.

42

Sure. If I point out that when looking at an ethical problem, we should take into account proportionality, and look at harm caused by a filmmaker letting one animal touch him, versus a fishery for that animal, then therefore, I must be calling for the wholesale slaughter of the species.

Right. Your logic is unassailable.

Jesus Christ On A Pogo Stick, talk about missing the point.

43

No I get it. I think what he did was fine because he didn’t cause any harm. You think it’s fine because it’s nothing compared to the annual octopus harvest.

44

No, you don’t get it.