Fishing Impossible: Metalhead takes you on a fishing journey

Blowfish in Fishing Impossible

Marine biologist Blowfish's (Tom Hird) story is one that's instantly reminiscent of films like Dil Chahta Hai (2005) or Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011). In fact, parallels with the first can be drawn so seamlessly that he even created a rehashed version of the song - that also bagged original composer Shankar Mahadevan's thumbs up - to promote his BBC show, Fishing Impossible.

Hosted by Hird, along with his friends, ex-royal marine Jay Lewis, and airline pilot Charlie Butcher, the show, which will air on BBC Earth from later this month, will chronicle their fishing endeavours across the globe. Comical though they may appear at first, the trio has an important issue to highlight. "I remember, once while swimming in Australia, the water quality was so poor, that I presumed that a huge white form before me was the mouth of a shark. I was convinced that I was about to be eaten. But then, the fog cleared, and I was able to see that it was a sea turtle. There has been a monumental hammering of the sea. It's becoming urgent to make people aware of the impact that their actions have," Hird tells mid-day, asserting that though the world's disintegrated ecology hasn't reached a point of "no return", it requires immediate attention.

"If we make small, simple and easy changes now, we won't have to make harder life-changing decisions five years later. We have the ability to reverse things in one year. In India, I've seen interesting conservation movements like beach-cleaning campaigns. They can have an enormous environmental impact."

Hird's comments are reminiscent of a celebrated wild life photographer mid-day had previously interviewed, when he tells us that the only way to stay safe in the wild is by respecting animals. Apart from people's apathy towards the ecology, he is angered by their willingness to cause destruction owing to unwarranted superstition. "I was shocked to learn that people look at rhinos' horns as something that will give them sexual prowess. Promoting a culture of medications derived from rhinos' horns, shark fin and tiger should be challenged."

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