The End of The Line has won the Environment Award at the 2010 One World Media Awards against stiff opposition from Channel 4 News and ITN.

The film about the over-fishing of our seas was announced as the winner before a packed audience in London at a ceremony that celebrated the best in journalism, film and TV.

Rupert Murray, the film’s director, accepted the award and reminded the audience that the long-term repercussions of over-fishing are not just environmental but social and economic as millions of people across the planet need fish as their protein to stay alive.

The judges, led by BBC environment correspondent Richard Black, commended the film not only for tackling the extremely important issue of protecting the worlds’ oceans but also on its stunning photography.

In their citation the judges said: “Our unanimous choice is The End of the Line - the story of humanity’s over-exploitation of the world’s fisheries, and what it implies for the future. This is the rarest of beasts - a film about environmental destruction that entertains, with a positive and engaging finale.”

Greta Scacchi, the actress and a leading light in the campaign against over-fishing who at the ceremony to present the Drama Award, said “I am delighted that the achievement of the End of The Line has been recognised- it is a very important film.”

Greta played a leading role in the campaign for the film by posing naked with a large sustainable cod in an iconic photograph by leading photographer Rankin.

The film was based on the eponymous book by Charles Clover, a leading environmental writer and co-founder of fish2fork.

He said: “I’m really grateful to the One World awards for choosing recognising that this was an important film about one of the major environmental problems of our century and about our future food security. As an author and journalist, I could only contribute so much, the quality of the film was down to Rupert Murray, the director and cameraman, Claire Ferguson, the film editor, and the producers, for making sure it happened at all.”

The One World Media Awards are traditionally given to every area of the media from newspaper and magazine journalism to on-line offerings. Social justice, environmental issues and issues from the developing world are at the heart of what One World stands for.

Claire Lewis