End of Line for Fest

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The screening of the documentary The End of Line, presented by Pick 'n Pay, is essential viewing for any ocean user. After the film at the Labia, which starts at 6.15pm, a panel discussion will take place, including John Duncan from the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative, and Martin Purves, SA programme manager for the Marine Stewardship Council.

The panel will discuss the premise of the film, and counter the argument that fish depletion statistics were over-exaggerated.

A source of fierce debate between scientists from the fishing industry and conservation lobbies, the film is neverthelss a scary indictment of humankind's insatiable hunger to eat its way through all marine life. As Professor Daniel Pauly says in the film, "We are fighting a war against fish. And we are winning."

The seventh annual Wavescape Surf Film Festival kickstarted the 2010 summer season in Cape Town with a bumper crop of adrenaline charged surf movies.

Presented by the Save Our Seas Foundation, the festival focuses on the critical plight of the world’s oceans, and surfing development in South Africa.

The festival, supported by Quiksilver, Pick ‘n Pay, Men’s Health, Cape Times, and 2oceansvibe Radio, begins with the Wavescape Surfboard Art Exhibition in early December. Twelve surfboards decorated by artists and surfers raised R120,000 to aid ocean charities, including the NSRI and Shark Spotters, with a special board decorated by township kids raising R6,100 for the Ticket to Ride Foundation’s surfing development programme.

A mini-surfboard reshaped from a broken board, part of the My First Surfboard Project, raised R11,000. Every year, thousands of broken surfboards end up in dumps and landfills, and are environmentally toxic. The project turns broken boards into new boards for beginner surfers who can’t afford them, transforming junk into transforming a kid’s life.

The films launched with an open-air free screening of Scratching the Surface on Clifton Fourth Beach that drew 2,500 people to the picturesque beach, which as sheltered from a strong southeast wind that pummelled the rest of hte Cape Peninsula.

Indoor films were screened at the Brass Bell in Kalk Bay from December 12 to 15 and at the Labia Theatre on Orange from December 16 to 19.