Lobster War
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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LOBSTER WAR is an award-winning feature documentary about a conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War. The disputed 277 square miles of sea, known as the Gray Zone, were traditionally fished by US lobstermen. But as the Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than nearly any other body of water on the planet, the Gray Zone's previously modest lobster population has surged. As a result, Canadians have begun to assert their sovereignty in the area, fighting with the Americans to claim the bounty.
Citation
Main credits
Abel, David (film director)
Abel, David (screenwriter)
Abel, David (director of photography)
Laub, Andy (editor of moving image work)
Laub, Andy (screenwriter)
Laub, Andy (director of photography)
Laub, Andy (composer)
White, E. B. (narrator)
Other credits
Editing by Andy Laub; cinematography by Andy Laub & David Abel; soundtrack by Andy Laub.
Distributor subjects
American Studies; Anthropology; Biodiversity; Canadian Studies; Climate Change/Global Warming; Conservation; Economics; Environment; Fisheries; Geography; Government; Habitat; History; Local Economies; Marine Biology; Oceans and Coasts; Political Science; Sociology; SustainabilityKeywords
WEBVTT
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[gentle ambient music]
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E.B. White: A fisherman is born, not made.
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This is a different world.
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For the fisherman who visits it regularly,
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it\'s a morning world,
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a familiar book with chapters still to come.
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His traps, his hopes, his investment,
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all lie 20 fathoms deep on rocky bottom,
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off the coast of Maine.
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[gentle ambient music]
[vocalized singing]
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There\'s a good living to be made in the Atlantic Ocean
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if anybody will go and get it.
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There\'s a patch of water around Machias Seal Island
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that\'s in contention between Canada and the United States.
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The Northern Gulf of Maine
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has suddenly become optimal for lobster.
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Our population here has exploded.
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One of the most valuable fisheries that\'s ever existed.
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Suddenly, you had Maine and Canadian fishermen
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in these waters at the same time,
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jousting for position.
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And tensions are high.
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Violence is bound to happen.
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This is the last land-border dispute
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between Canada and the United States.
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It could be magnified to the point where
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there could be costs that would be significant
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to both countries.
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Border disputes don\'t go away.
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They just fester.
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Something\'s going to happen.
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E.B. White: In some ways, lobstering is immensely complex.
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In another sense, it is simple and direct.
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The sea and the boat remain the ruling force
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in a saltwater man\'s life,
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and the quest to fish,
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the thing that brings not only the rewards of toil,
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but a sense of freedom.
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[vocalized singing]
[fading music]
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[wind howling]
[suspenseful ambient music]
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[birds chirping]
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Brian C.>All right, here we are.
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[motor rumbling]
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We just left the port of Seal Cove on Grand Manan Island.
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We\'re here right now, where that little ship is.
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We\'re headed towards Machias Seal Island
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to go haul lobster traps in the Gray Zone.
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My name\'s Brian Guptill.
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I\'m president of the Grand Manan\'s Fishermen\'s Association.
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I started fishing before I got out of high school,
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and been at this ever since.
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[delayed guitar notes]
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Brian C.>So what\'s happenin\'?
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[faint radio chatter]
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Good enough.
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This is my 53rd year of lobster fishin\'.
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I started fishin\' when I was still just a kid in school.
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I fish 800 traps and everyone of \'em are in the Gray Zone.
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This area of water here is closed,
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and when you come to the line
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you\'ll see the gear stacked right up on it.
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That\'s the most lucrative spot,
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and that\'s where most the guys are gonna go.
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That\'s where most of the snarls will happen.
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The way it\'s got to go, I guess.
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In the last four or five years,
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it\'s been getting more and more crowded every year.
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I think it\'s part of the Canadian government\'s efforts
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to get control of some of the Gray Zone
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that they never really had full control of before.
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I think the Canadian government\'s plan is to
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cause enough conflict
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and issues between the fishermen out here that,
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I think what they would like to see happen is
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they\'d like to see the fishermen
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have almost like a trap war.
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There\'s been people fishing in the Gray Zone
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long before it was ever a Gray Zone.
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But the Canadian government cut back on
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their patrols of the line,
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so the Americans were fishing in undisputed Canadian waters.
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And actually one of my own trawls,
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they claimed that it was over the line,
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over the US-Canadian line,
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that is was out on the Canadian side, which it was not.
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So I came out and confronted them and told them that,
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if they didn\'t give the gear back,
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I was going to sink \'em and take the gear off the deck,
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and they was goin\' to the bottom.
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They gave it back.
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I guess they didn\'t want to walk home.
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After four years of arguin\' about it,
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one of the Americans said,
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\"If you want any economic benefit out of that,
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in the summertime when you\'re not fishin\',
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you better come fish it with us.\"
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So the guy from the government of Canada said,
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\"Just a swipe of a pen, buddy,
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just a swipe of a pen.\"
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And within two weeks we were fishin\'.
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We have a line on our charts that says
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the United States is on one side
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and Canada is on the other.
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And I think our government should step in
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and enforce that line.
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Claim the zone as it really is,
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that it\'s all American, not Canadian at all.
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There\'s only so much you can lose
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before you feel like you have to start defendin\' yourself
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and defendin\' your property.
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Twenty years ago,
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there wouldn\'t have been hardly any boats
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from either side fishin\'.
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Over time, the abundance of lobster
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has increased and made it more lucrative
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and people have figured out,
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\"If we want to get a crack at those lobsters,
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we got to fish it the same time they do.\"
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We\'re not backin\' down.
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They\'re Canadian waters.
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We\'re gonna fish it.
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[delayed guitar notes]
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[bell ringing]
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E.B. White: Here on this granite ledge,
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above this sheltered cove, begins his day.
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One day in the life of one man.
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[motor rumbling]
[birds squawking]
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The sea, with its islands,
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is the place of business for a whole breed of men
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who don\'t mind wet feet.
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[dramatic music]
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Canada and the U.S.
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share a 5,525-mile-long border,
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and this is the last piece of land
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that we\'re still contesting after
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more than 200 years of border-making.
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So Machias Seal Island and North Rock,
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actually, depending on whether they\'re American or Canadian,
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that determines whether the waters around them
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are American or Canadian.
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So this Gray Zone, it contains a fairly rich
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harvest of lobsters.
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E.B. White: But it\'s no job for the lazy or the fearful.
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At the right moment, the man eases his motor,
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rolls his wheel, pulls his clutch.
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With his gaff, he brings the wharf aboard.
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He enters it in the snatch block,
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takes a couple of turns around the winch head,
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and the hoister takes over the work.
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The trap breaks water and is hauled on deck.
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[water splashing]
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A bushel basket makes a satisfactory catchall
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on a lobster boat.
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This is one of those days when you get ahead.
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[dramatic music]
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This is where the border now ends;
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that is, the agreed upon border
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between Grand Manan Island and the coast of Maine.
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And the reason there\'s this divot here
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is that if Machias Seal Island,
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which is here, is Canadian,
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the Canadians say this is the border that would exist.
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The United States actually bases its claim on a channel,
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called the Northwest Channel,
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that runs along the ocean floor here.
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That creates this Gray Zone.
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It\'s all based on whether Machias Seal Island
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is American or Canadian.
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[motor rumbling]
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When the Revolutionary War was over,
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the peace treaty was signed in Paris.
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The treaty said that all islands within 20 leagues
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of the coast of the newly independent
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13 colonies would be American,
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except any island that had ever been part of Nova Scotia.
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[motor rumbling]
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The official U.S. position is that Machias Seal Island
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is not now and never has been part of Nova Scotia.
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And this is the beginning of the conflict.
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E.B. White: Alongside the long-legged wharf,
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Norwester comes to rest for the first time since daybreak,
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and unloads his catch and weighs it in
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to await shipment to the markets.
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For most of recorded history,
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those waters were basically just exploited by
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Maine fishermen.
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In 2002, the Canadians changed their fishing seasons
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to allow Canadian lobstermen
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to fish in the Gray Zone during the summer.
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The real tensions began then
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because there were just so many more people
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fishing in those waters.
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My concern is that there\'s no country in the world
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that\'s more important to the United States than Canada,
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and to allow an issue like this to sit there
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with the potential of causing an ugly dispute,
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it could be magnified to the point
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where there could be costs that would be
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significant to both countries.
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[dramatic string music]
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[intense percussive music]
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We\'ve been in the business
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for a little more than 10 years.
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There has been a huge increase in the landings.
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Not too long ago, it was 20 million pounds,
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30, 50, 60 million pounds,
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and then it got to be maybe a hundred million pounds.
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When it got to that point,
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people really started to take notice.
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And lately it\'s been about 130 million pounds,
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so there\'s been a huge increase in supply.
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[conveyor belt whirring and squeaking]
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It could be because waters continue to warm
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in the state of Maine,
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and it\'s pushing the catch north,
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and the catch seems to be going down more
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to mid-coast and beyond,
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which is what we call Downeast Maine,
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and which is often called-- way Downeast
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is called the Gray Zone, right along with Canada.
00:12:17.920 --> 00:12:20.760
There\'s definitely more landings in that area
00:12:20.760 --> 00:12:22.160
than they were 10 years ago.
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There\'s no question about it.
00:12:23.610 --> 00:12:25.920
But I think that people, for the majority of people,
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feel that we\'re at our peak in landings right now.
00:12:28.430 --> 00:12:30.640
I think that\'s on the front of everybody\'s minds
00:12:30.640 --> 00:12:31.473
at this point.
00:12:40.888 --> 00:12:42.210
The issues in the Gray Zone
00:12:42.210 --> 00:12:44.610
can impact the market for Maine lobster
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because that\'s really Maine product,
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and once it goes to Canada
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and it comes back as product of Canada,
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then people don\'t associate it with Maine.
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The Maine brand is really what Maine sells.
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And it\'s not just the lobster industry,
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it\'s the tourism industry.
00:13:01.860 --> 00:13:04.290
If we lose market share because of that,
00:13:04.290 --> 00:13:05.990
that can really hurt the industry.
00:13:07.835 --> 00:13:10.585
[conveyor belt whirring and squeaking]
00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:33.600
[water splashing]
[delayed banjo notes]
00:13:37.750 --> 00:13:39.550
Andy Pershing>Lobster is incredibly important
00:13:39.550 --> 00:13:41.310
here on the coast of Maine.
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It was worth more than $500 million dollars
00:13:44.230 --> 00:13:45.730
just to the boats last year.
00:13:45.730 --> 00:13:46.740
It\'s not just the captain,
00:13:46.740 --> 00:13:49.520
it\'s also the crews that are doing very well.
00:13:49.520 --> 00:13:51.350
Andy Pershing>It becomes a huge, huge driver
00:13:51.350 --> 00:13:52.960
of the economy on the coast.
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Kathleen>For trap builders, for boat builders,
00:13:55.160 --> 00:13:56.950
for all the infrastructure that goes into
00:13:56.950 --> 00:13:57.800
distributing lobster.
00:13:57.800 --> 00:14:00.070
It\'s one of the most valuable fisheries
00:14:00.070 --> 00:14:01.283
that\'s ever existed.
00:14:02.210 --> 00:14:04.440
Interestingly, it\'s not actually the price
00:14:04.440 --> 00:14:05.570
that has changed that much,
00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:07.970
but the volume has changed a huge amount.
00:14:07.970 --> 00:14:10.020
Up to the early 1990s,
00:14:10.020 --> 00:14:13.290
they were only landing about 20 million pounds.
00:14:13.290 --> 00:14:17.970
In 2016, we landed 131 million pounds.
00:14:17.970 --> 00:14:20.450
But even with all of that year-to-year change,
00:14:20.450 --> 00:14:24.700
the landings haven\'t been uniform across the state.
00:14:25.280 --> 00:14:26.580
Kathleen>Water temperature drives
00:14:26.580 --> 00:14:29.260
biological processes for lobster.
00:14:29.260 --> 00:14:32.214
And as water warms, it is possible that those
00:14:32.214 --> 00:14:35.133
biological processes could break down.
00:14:36.560 --> 00:14:38.760
Over the last 10 to 15 years,
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Gulf of Maine has warmed faster
00:14:40.160 --> 00:14:42.383
than 99% of the global ocean area.
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If you look south of the Gulf of Maine,
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places like Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts,
00:14:49.570 --> 00:14:52.240
the lobster fishery there has basically collapsed.
00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:53.660
Beginning around that timeframe,
00:14:53.660 --> 00:14:57.040
lobster catches in the state of Maine
00:14:57.040 --> 00:14:59.960
started to increase at an exponential rate.
00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:01.350
Even when the water temperature is warming,
00:15:01.350 --> 00:15:04.820
it\'s still cooler than the areas that they were leaving.
00:15:04.820 --> 00:15:06.950
We can see that species are steadily
00:15:06.950 --> 00:15:08.700
starting to move towards the poles.
00:15:12.550 --> 00:15:13.500
There\'re, of course, other changes
00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:14.900
that are going on in the ecosystem,
00:15:14.900 --> 00:15:16.280
and one of the really big ones has been
00:15:16.280 --> 00:15:18.340
the decline of the groundfish.
00:15:18.340 --> 00:15:19.940
Like cod, haddock.
00:15:19.940 --> 00:15:22.263
We\'re big predators on tiny lobsters.
00:15:23.540 --> 00:15:25.750
That\'s opened up a lot of habitat
00:15:25.750 --> 00:15:27.480
for lobster to move into.
00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:30.080
The lobster population has taken advantage of
00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:32.503
those environmental conditions and had a boom.
00:15:34.260 --> 00:15:36.160
Andy Pershing>What we\'re seeing is that the lobster
00:15:36.160 --> 00:15:37.960
is becoming a bigger fishery
00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:40.580
right along the border between the U.S. and Canada.
00:15:40.580 --> 00:15:43.050
And it\'s not a good scenario.
00:15:43.050 --> 00:15:44.980
Kathleen>They are competing for the same resources,
00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:47.140
and yet they\'re living by different rules.
00:15:47.140 --> 00:15:49.230
Brian B.>Large lobsters are able to be caught
00:15:49.230 --> 00:15:51.790
by Canadians, but not by Americans.
00:15:51.790 --> 00:15:53.630
Kathleen>They\'re fishing with different types of gear,
00:15:53.630 --> 00:15:54.900
sometimes heavier gear.
00:15:54.900 --> 00:15:56.010
Brian B.>Seasons are different.
00:15:56.010 --> 00:15:58.040
Kathleen>And that\'s creating more controversy.
00:15:58.040 --> 00:15:59.030
Andy Pershing>Especially now that it\'s an increase
00:15:59.030 --> 00:16:01.453
and it\'s so lucrative right now.
00:16:02.780 --> 00:16:03.950
Brian B.>It\'s a worry
00:16:03.950 --> 00:16:06.200
about what\'s gonna happen to those fishermen.
00:16:16.692 --> 00:16:19.442
[pot puller whirring]
00:16:27.101 --> 00:16:31.460
Before the advent of hydraulic hoisters and plastic rope,
00:16:31.460 --> 00:16:33.030
nobody fished here.
00:16:33.030 --> 00:16:35.030
All that stuff made it capable
00:16:35.030 --> 00:16:36.780
of starting to fish in these areas.
00:16:40.280 --> 00:16:42.310
Oh, yeah, I eat lobster.
00:16:42.310 --> 00:16:45.268
Anytime I want it, I take some home and eat it.
00:16:45.268 --> 00:16:47.150
In the old days, you used to eat aboard the boats,
00:16:47.150 --> 00:16:48.833
but it\'s illegal now.
00:16:54.700 --> 00:16:58.363
Because of the length, 13 or 14-pounder I would say.
00:16:59.930 --> 00:17:02.410
Inshore Maine can\'t keep those.
00:17:02.410 --> 00:17:04.973
That\'s part of their management strategy.
00:17:07.540 --> 00:17:11.279
There are guys that fish in congested areas in a Gray Zone,
00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:12.379
some of the hot spots.
00:17:24.060 --> 00:17:27.150
I know if I cross the line over there
00:17:27.150 --> 00:17:30.170
into sovereign U.S. waters undisputed,
00:17:30.170 --> 00:17:32.267
there\'s a big boat with a big gun on it.
00:17:32.267 --> 00:17:33.580
But if you didn\'t stop,
00:17:33.580 --> 00:17:35.723
they\'d tell you they were gonna fire into the hull,
00:17:36.560 --> 00:17:37.680
and if you don\'t stop,
00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:40.033
they\'ll shoot and stop the engine.
00:17:42.729 --> 00:17:43.562
[muffled radio chatter]
00:17:43.562 --> 00:17:46.090
But that\'s the general practice of the U.S. Coast Guard.
00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:51.869
[metal clanging]
00:17:54.830 --> 00:17:57.830
The tide runs in different directions at different times.
00:17:57.830 --> 00:18:01.083
It\'s a hard job to tell where other people are sometimes.
00:18:02.410 --> 00:18:04.320
There\'s a blue one down below us I know is Canadian,
00:18:04.320 --> 00:18:05.470
just by the look of it.
00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:08.560
That might be an American down below us there, too.
00:18:08.560 --> 00:18:10.563
There\'s a lotta little boats.
00:18:12.590 --> 00:18:14.340
Like right now the tide\'s slack,
00:18:14.340 --> 00:18:15.320
somebody can come along
00:18:15.320 --> 00:18:16.650
and think they got all kinds of room,
00:18:16.650 --> 00:18:20.200
but your actual trawl\'s a lot different
00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:21.650
than where your balloons are.
00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:25.490
If you make a mistake and get on top,
00:18:25.490 --> 00:18:27.800
somebody else will cut you off.
00:18:27.800 --> 00:18:30.720
There\'s all kinds of people that have had conflicts.
00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:32.960
Sometimes you lose some traps.
00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:34.083
It\'s all part of it.
00:18:35.840 --> 00:18:38.640
We might have some fun on this one \'fore it\'s over with.
00:18:44.811 --> 00:18:47.712
[birds squawking]
00:18:50.430 --> 00:18:52.570
My brothers lobster fish.
00:18:52.570 --> 00:18:54.380
My nephews lobster fish.
00:18:54.380 --> 00:18:56.073
My grandchildren lobster fish.
00:18:56.073 --> 00:18:57.881
It\'s in the blood.
00:18:57.881 --> 00:19:00.298
[blues rock music]
00:19:03.430 --> 00:19:08.430
This community\'s main source of revenue is our fishermen.
00:19:14.660 --> 00:19:16.300
They keep the street lights going.
00:19:16.300 --> 00:19:18.310
They keep our town roads paved.
00:19:18.310 --> 00:19:20.640
They keep school going.
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:22.540
If they were to lose that area out there,
00:19:22.540 --> 00:19:26.297
it would be a huge impact on the town of Cutler.
00:19:28.493 --> 00:19:31.950
Before 1984, there was no Canadians in this area.
00:19:31.950 --> 00:19:33.350
There was no Gray Zone.
00:19:33.350 --> 00:19:34.740
Each year that goes by,
00:19:34.740 --> 00:19:36.830
they bring more and more fishermen over.
00:19:36.830 --> 00:19:37.980
We\'re talking two countries,
00:19:37.980 --> 00:19:40.667
so it\'s a lot harder to resolve differences.
00:19:40.667 --> 00:19:41.750
People get angry
00:19:41.750 --> 00:19:44.450
and it\'s gettin\' more dangerous every day.
00:19:44.450 --> 00:19:46.920
Cynthia>Every lobster that\'s caught by a Canadian
00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:50.250
is one lobster that\'s not caught by an American.
00:19:50.250 --> 00:19:53.540
And that\'s dollars not in the local economy,
00:19:53.540 --> 00:19:55.707
which we need drastically.
00:19:58.540 --> 00:20:00.200
Patrick>We don\'t have any territory.
00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:02.050
Can\'t go any further east.
00:20:02.050 --> 00:20:04.530
We can\'t go any further to the southern because,
00:20:04.530 --> 00:20:07.331
if you get into Bucks Harbor and Jonesport territory,
00:20:07.331 --> 00:20:08.750
[laughing] you\'re gonna lose gear.
00:20:08.750 --> 00:20:10.550
So what fishermen we have
00:20:10.550 --> 00:20:13.150
is crowded into the area already as it is.
00:20:13.150 --> 00:20:14.020
This is our territory.
00:20:14.020 --> 00:20:15.580
Well, the Canadians have got
00:20:15.580 --> 00:20:17.923
a 110-square-mile slice out of it.
00:20:19.472 --> 00:20:20.772
That\'s a pretty big chunk.
00:20:21.810 --> 00:20:23.080
That\'s what the biggest fear is,
00:20:23.080 --> 00:20:24.680
not having a place to fish.
00:20:24.680 --> 00:20:26.900
This community would severely suffer
00:20:26.900 --> 00:20:28.350
if you took that bottom away.
00:20:32.530 --> 00:20:34.070
I think it\'s time somethin\' needs to be done,
00:20:34.070 --> 00:20:35.210
that\'s for sure.
00:20:35.210 --> 00:20:37.660
We could have stopped this before it even started,
00:20:37.660 --> 00:20:39.360
if we\'d of had any political help.
00:20:41.120 --> 00:20:42.490
Our government does not come out
00:20:42.490 --> 00:20:44.392
and back us up as much as their government does
00:20:44.392 --> 00:20:45.903
and we need more backing from our government
00:20:45.903 --> 00:20:47.600
is what we need.
00:20:47.600 --> 00:20:50.310
If I go over onto the Canadian side
00:20:50.310 --> 00:20:51.890
of the U.S. boundary line,
00:20:51.890 --> 00:20:53.890
they\'d take me, my boat, my gear,
00:20:53.890 --> 00:20:55.890
my crew, put us in jail.
00:20:59.080 --> 00:21:00.680
But they can come within four miles
00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:03.060
of the Cutler shore and fish.
00:21:03.060 --> 00:21:04.823
So what are you gonna do?
00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:07.580
Grin and bear it, huh?
00:21:09.310 --> 00:21:10.150
Somebody\'s gonna get killed,
00:21:10.150 --> 00:21:12.000
whether if it\'s on this side or that side.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.500
That\'s my opinion, and it\'s just a matter of time.
00:21:18.014 --> 00:21:23.014
[suspenseful synth music]
00:21:33.626 --> 00:21:36.190
When I started down here,
00:21:36.190 --> 00:21:37.633
this was a one-man patrol,
00:21:38.500 --> 00:21:40.270
and now we\'ve got four guys,
00:21:40.270 --> 00:21:42.233
plus myself down here in this area.
00:21:43.670 --> 00:21:45.330
We enforce all laws of the state of Maine,
00:21:45.330 --> 00:21:47.413
but our main focus is commercial fishery.
00:21:48.420 --> 00:21:53.420
Before, we may go to the Gray Zone once or twice a month.
00:21:53.780 --> 00:21:55.693
Now, I bet we\'re down there every week.
00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:58.200
It\'s a hard area to patrol
00:21:58.200 --> 00:21:59.950
because it\'s so open to get there.
00:21:59.950 --> 00:22:02.000
I mean, they can see us coming for miles.
00:22:03.310 --> 00:22:06.090
Lobster fishing here has just been astronomical
00:22:06.090 --> 00:22:09.090
in the last few years, and people know that.
00:22:09.090 --> 00:22:10.590
I mean, they can see the statistics.
00:22:10.590 --> 00:22:12.590
And when they do, they\'re gonna fish it.
00:22:14.100 --> 00:22:17.560
We hear that they\'re gettin\' crowded by the Canadians,
00:22:17.560 --> 00:22:18.750
pushin\' \'em further in,
00:22:18.750 --> 00:22:21.800
and settin\' over on top of \'em on purpose.
00:22:21.800 --> 00:22:23.490
We\'ve had a couple complaints where
00:22:23.490 --> 00:22:26.340
they think their gear is getting hauled by the Canadians.
00:22:28.230 --> 00:22:30.090
I know they would like us to enforce the law
00:22:30.090 --> 00:22:30.923
on the Canadian fishermen,
00:22:30.923 --> 00:22:32.843
but we have no jurisdiction doin\' that.
00:22:34.946 --> 00:22:38.527
In the long run, I mean, it\'s just they\'re there to stay.
00:22:39.500 --> 00:22:40.343
You\'re not gonna drive \'em out.
00:22:40.343 --> 00:22:41.670
There\'s more comin\'.
00:22:41.670 --> 00:22:43.270
I mean, back a few years ago,
00:22:43.270 --> 00:22:46.560
there was probably nine to 12 boats down there,
00:22:46.560 --> 00:22:49.380
Canadian vessels fishin\' outta Grand Manan.
00:22:49.380 --> 00:22:51.890
Now, you got boats from Grand Manan, Campobello,
00:22:51.890 --> 00:22:53.540
and Nova Scotia fishin\' in there.
00:22:54.500 --> 00:22:59.500
I\'ve heard of roughly 45 boats in there now.
00:22:59.570 --> 00:23:02.247
A lot of these fishermen are maxed out.
00:23:02.247 --> 00:23:05.370
They\'ve got a lotta investment in here.
00:23:05.370 --> 00:23:07.353
And if they\'re not catchin\' the lobsters,
00:23:08.280 --> 00:23:11.600
things get rough, tempers flare,
00:23:11.600 --> 00:23:14.358
and I think that\'s where your conflict starts.
00:23:14.358 --> 00:23:19.358
[crickets chirping]
[suspenseful music]
00:23:35.169 --> 00:23:38.336
[blues guitar music]
00:23:58.250 --> 00:24:00.640
Everybody calls it the Gray Zone because,
00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:01.950
once the battle started over it,
00:24:01.950 --> 00:24:05.023
it kind of became a bit gray as to who actually owned it.
00:24:09.810 --> 00:24:11.880
So, I was actually the first Canadian fishermen
00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:13.130
to fish in the Gray Zone.
00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:23.510
When the good Lord put the lobsters in the water,
00:24:23.510 --> 00:24:24.910
he didn\'t say these are for Maine
00:24:24.910 --> 00:24:26.100
or these are for Grand Manan,
00:24:26.100 --> 00:24:30.470
so catch \'em if you can and get along.
00:24:30.470 --> 00:24:32.810
Maine lobster fishermen fishing there,
00:24:32.810 --> 00:24:33.930
they\'re bothering our catch.
00:24:33.930 --> 00:24:36.317
Let\'s get down and catch some of \'em before they do.
00:24:36.317 --> 00:24:39.150
The Gray Zone has really contributed
00:24:39.150 --> 00:24:40.520
to the economy on Grand Manan
00:24:40.520 --> 00:24:42.860
and we are contributing more to the provincial
00:24:42.860 --> 00:24:45.480
and federal coffers than any community our size
00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:48.373
because of the lobster industry.
00:24:49.690 --> 00:24:51.260
So nobody fished it from Canada
00:24:51.260 --> 00:24:52.360
for years and years and years
00:24:52.360 --> 00:24:54.240
because it was more lucrative to fish
00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:55.430
sovereign Canadian waters.
00:24:55.430 --> 00:24:58.080
But they were getting no economic benefit
00:24:58.080 --> 00:25:00.540
to Canada out of that stretch of water
00:25:00.540 --> 00:25:01.700
that we consider to be ours,
00:25:01.700 --> 00:25:04.063
so we created a summer fishery.
00:25:05.667 --> 00:25:06.500
It went from one year,
00:25:06.500 --> 00:25:09.560
we\'d catch maybe 50,000 pounds,
00:25:09.560 --> 00:25:12.970
then, in other years, we\'ve caught up to 130,
00:25:12.970 --> 00:25:14.320
so it was a big difference.
00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:17.869
Hopefully, it stays that way for awhile [laughing].
00:25:19.320 --> 00:25:21.640
Most of the tension has been about
00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:24.340
a very high dollar value and everybody wants it.
00:25:24.340 --> 00:25:25.210
They don\'t want the other guy to get it.
00:25:25.210 --> 00:25:26.410
They want it themselves.
00:25:27.340 --> 00:25:30.080
Plus just the outright dispute part of it where it\'s,
00:25:30.080 --> 00:25:31.700
\"You\'re taking our lobsters,\"
00:25:31.700 --> 00:25:34.792
and the other guy saying, \"No, you\'re taking our lobsters.\"
00:25:34.792 --> 00:25:36.322
[phone ringing]
00:25:36.322 --> 00:25:38.213
Afternoon, Fishermen\'s Association.
00:25:40.860 --> 00:25:43.960
Right now we\'re in the neighborhood of 200 to 250 members,
00:25:43.960 --> 00:25:45.300
both captains and crew,
00:25:45.300 --> 00:25:48.480
and that probably at one of our highest points right now.
00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:50.580
It was really more of a sovereignty issue
00:25:50.580 --> 00:25:51.690
when we went down there.
00:25:51.690 --> 00:25:53.277
It\'s a way for the government of Canada,
00:25:53.277 --> 00:25:54.500
and for the people of Canada,
00:25:54.500 --> 00:25:57.120
to continue to claim that piece of bottom
00:25:57.120 --> 00:25:59.520
that both the U.S. and Canada claim.
00:25:59.520 --> 00:26:01.690
And it\'s a way for us to drive an economic benefit
00:26:01.690 --> 00:26:04.440
from that bottom that we weren\'t able to before.
00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:06.700
Over the last, I\'d say five to seven years,
00:26:06.700 --> 00:26:09.110
our landings have almost doubled.
00:26:09.110 --> 00:26:11.240
So it\'s created really a year-round economy
00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:12.430
here on the island.
00:26:12.430 --> 00:26:13.650
It\'s like a domino effect
00:26:13.650 --> 00:26:15.690
because if the fishery does good,
00:26:15.690 --> 00:26:18.495
then the small businesses do well.
00:26:18.495 --> 00:26:19.622
As soon as fishing ended,
00:26:19.622 --> 00:26:21.874
the fishermen go on unemployment
00:26:21.874 --> 00:26:23.560
because there was nothing to do,
00:26:23.560 --> 00:26:26.253
and now people are working year-round.
00:26:28.144 --> 00:26:30.340
The boats are getting larger engines.
00:26:30.340 --> 00:26:33.040
There\'s houses being sold and bought.
00:26:33.040 --> 00:26:35.623
90% of people are driving new vehicles.
00:26:36.890 --> 00:26:37.890
The economy\'s great.
00:26:38.950 --> 00:26:41.270
But the more lucrative it\'s become,
00:26:41.270 --> 00:26:42.920
the more money people are making,
00:26:43.860 --> 00:26:48.130
the more nasty people have become.
00:26:48.130 --> 00:26:49.960
You hear horror stories about havin\'
00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:52.190
one of your trawls towed into a ball or something.
00:26:52.190 --> 00:26:54.360
You go hook onto it and spend four hours
00:26:54.360 --> 00:26:57.030
tryin\' to get your traps all cleared this big pile of rope.
00:26:57.030 --> 00:26:58.860
Keepin\' yourself clear of the other guy, basically.
00:26:58.860 --> 00:27:00.538
That\'s the name of the game.
00:27:01.030 --> 00:27:03.520
And it\'s always a bit contentious to go there.
00:27:03.520 --> 00:27:06.720
I try hard not to be worse than I have to be,
00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:09.650
but there comes a point when you get pushed so far
00:27:09.650 --> 00:27:10.530
where you just have to say,
00:27:10.530 --> 00:27:13.800
\"OK, that\'s enough, we\'re gonna stay here.\"
00:27:13.800 --> 00:27:16.380
Because if I ask you to move somewhere
00:27:17.750 --> 00:27:20.550
and it\'s gonna cost you a few hundred dollars,
00:27:20.550 --> 00:27:22.740
you might go, \"Yeah, well, that\'s not that big a deal.\"
00:27:22.740 --> 00:27:24.989
If it\'s gonna cost you $100,000--
00:27:26.502 --> 00:27:28.045
You ain\'t goin\' anywhere.
00:27:28.545 --> 00:27:30.460
Right? And that\'s what\'s happened.
00:27:30.460 --> 00:27:32.100
There\'s no warm and fuzzies down there.
00:27:32.100 --> 00:27:34.289
I mean, I got some respect for some of their fishermen;
00:27:34.289 --> 00:27:35.839
I think some of them do for us.
00:27:37.260 --> 00:27:39.120
If somebody was sinking, I\'m going to go alongside and help,
00:27:39.120 --> 00:27:41.240
same as I would it was a Canadian boat.
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:44.140
But they\'re not comin\' to my house for tea and coffee,
00:27:44.140 --> 00:27:45.727
and I\'m not invited to theirs.
00:27:47.764 --> 00:27:50.931
[blues guitar music]
00:27:57.086 --> 00:27:59.669
[uptempo fiddle music]
00:28:01.120 --> 00:28:03.853
When I got out of high school, I wanted to fish.
00:28:07.560 --> 00:28:11.110
I had my first license when I was 10 years old.
00:28:11.110 --> 00:28:12.960
My nextdoor neighbor was a lobster fisherman,
00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:14.170
and I just loved it.
00:28:14.170 --> 00:28:16.850
I went with him in the summertime.
00:28:16.850 --> 00:28:19.240
I saved up enough money working with him for
00:28:19.240 --> 00:28:21.700
two or three months that I bought four brand new traps.
00:28:21.700 --> 00:28:23.523
I can remember it cost me $104.
00:28:26.260 --> 00:28:27.340
Growing up through high school,
00:28:27.340 --> 00:28:28.750
OK, I got so much money now,
00:28:28.750 --> 00:28:31.200
do I buy a vehicle or do I buy a boat?
00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:33.033
Well, I bought a boat.
00:28:34.157 --> 00:28:36.390
And I\'ve done it for years and years and years.
00:28:36.390 --> 00:28:38.640
I\'ve done it a long time.
00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:41.910
Right now, we\'re just comin\' out of Cutler Harbor.
00:28:41.910 --> 00:28:44.513
And a lighthouse is right here behind us.
00:28:45.350 --> 00:28:48.450
We\'re actually going to head outside a little ways,
00:28:48.450 --> 00:28:50.000
and see what we get.
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:52.583
[uptempo fiddle music]
00:28:55.510 --> 00:28:57.292
Haul it up, put it on the floor,
00:28:57.292 --> 00:28:58.536
like we always do.
00:28:58.536 --> 00:28:59.990
OK.
We\'ll just just run it out.
00:28:59.990 --> 00:29:01.240
Then I\'ll run it right back overboard.
00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:02.740
OK.
My two sons,
00:29:02.740 --> 00:29:06.907
I know my oldest one, he definitely wants to fish.
00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:11.310
Lyle, you gonna run this trap?
00:29:11.310 --> 00:29:13.120
Gaff the balloon.
00:29:13.120 --> 00:29:15.600
I\'d like to see him go to college or take a trade,
00:29:15.600 --> 00:29:17.560
so he can have somethin\' to fall back on
00:29:17.560 --> 00:29:20.210
because the way this is lookin\',
00:29:20.210 --> 00:29:21.650
I just don\'t know what there\'s gonna be here
00:29:21.650 --> 00:29:22.860
for a future down the road.
00:29:22.860 --> 00:29:24.130
It\'s getting to the point now
00:29:24.130 --> 00:29:25.830
where it\'s becoming way more dangerous
00:29:25.830 --> 00:29:26.930
because of Canadians.
00:29:28.570 --> 00:29:30.930
And their government will come out here,
00:29:30.930 --> 00:29:32.770
and their fisheries will start
00:29:32.770 --> 00:29:34.037
grabbin\' hold of your balloons
00:29:34.037 --> 00:29:35.940
and start yankin\' on the rope
00:29:35.940 --> 00:29:37.630
and start yankin\' on your stuff.
00:29:37.630 --> 00:29:41.000
I mean, I\'ve lost hundreds of traps over the years.
00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:42.110
The wardens will call \'em up
00:29:42.110 --> 00:29:43.510
and their hands are tied.
00:29:43.510 --> 00:29:47.170
\"Well, you gotta be careful what we say.
00:29:47.170 --> 00:29:48.820
You gotta be careful what you do.\"
00:29:48.820 --> 00:29:50.660
No, you don\'t.
00:29:50.660 --> 00:29:53.730
This is America. That\'s American grounds.
00:29:53.730 --> 00:29:55.960
Another story that happened, one of my friends,
00:29:55.960 --> 00:29:58.820
they were haulin\' inside the line a little ways
00:29:58.820 --> 00:30:01.730
and here come the DFO boat, the speed boat,
00:30:01.730 --> 00:30:03.790
come pulled up beside \'em and hauled their guns out
00:30:03.790 --> 00:30:06.930
and said \"Don\'t move, you\'re under arrest.
00:30:06.930 --> 00:30:08.410
You\'re fishin\' in Canadian waters.\"
00:30:08.410 --> 00:30:10.260
They said, \"We\'re not fishin\' in Canadian waters.\"
00:30:10.260 --> 00:30:11.543
These two guys were scared to death.
00:30:11.543 --> 00:30:13.690
I mean, they had their guns out.
00:30:13.690 --> 00:30:16.690
Harassment\'s wicked bad from the Canadian government, awful.
00:30:17.540 --> 00:30:19.517
Yeah, in the Gray Zone where it\'s very congested
00:30:19.517 --> 00:30:21.890
and it\'s much more challenging.
00:30:21.890 --> 00:30:25.590
It\'s a lot more time-consuming, very much;
00:30:25.590 --> 00:30:28.438
a lot slower by the time you have to tow your end line
00:30:28.438 --> 00:30:31.020
and make sure you don\'t get on top of the next person,
00:30:31.020 --> 00:30:33.640
or try your best not to get on top of \'em.
00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:36.497
It\'s every year, there is more and more gear,
00:30:36.497 --> 00:30:40.530
more and more Canadians come over and fish the Gray Zone.
00:30:40.530 --> 00:30:43.630
And, obviously, the more traps you put into
00:30:43.630 --> 00:30:46.380
a small area like we have,
00:30:46.380 --> 00:30:49.620
the more tangles and the more chances
00:30:49.620 --> 00:30:50.870
for somebody to get hurt.
00:30:52.460 --> 00:30:56.123
It was November 6, 2007,
00:30:56.970 --> 00:30:59.920
and I got a call on the radio.
00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:02.070
One of the Canadians was fishin\' beside me
00:31:03.120 --> 00:31:05.350
and said that him and another Canadian,
00:31:05.350 --> 00:31:07.910
they had two trawls that was tangled together.
00:31:07.910 --> 00:31:09.560
Being tangled is not good.
00:31:09.560 --> 00:31:11.740
It\'s very, very dangerous.
00:31:11.740 --> 00:31:13.420
That\'s one of the conflicts that you have
00:31:13.420 --> 00:31:15.920
when you have two different style of fisheries
00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:18.750
fishin\' with each other that don\'t fish the same way.
00:31:18.750 --> 00:31:20.450
You don\'t fish the same direction,
00:31:21.310 --> 00:31:23.500
that kind of stuff\'s gonna happen.
00:31:23.500 --> 00:31:25.110
Then, when I got there, it was slack tide,
00:31:25.110 --> 00:31:28.260
so I grabbed my trawl and started haulin\' it up.
00:31:28.260 --> 00:31:30.280
When my trawl came up, it was wicked heavy.
00:31:30.280 --> 00:31:32.620
There was traps just hangin\' everywhere.
00:31:32.620 --> 00:31:33.710
So as I\'m dealin\' with it,
00:31:33.710 --> 00:31:35.300
I wasn\'t really payin\' much attention to my haul,
00:31:35.300 --> 00:31:38.320
I was more tryin\' to make sure that nobody got hurt,
00:31:38.320 --> 00:31:39.410
tellin\' the guys what to do,
00:31:39.410 --> 00:31:42.327
\"Grab this trap, we\'ll cut it off.\"
00:31:42.768 --> 00:31:44.180
And it keeps getting lighter and lighter and lighter,
00:31:44.180 --> 00:31:45.890
then you can deal with it better.
00:31:45.890 --> 00:31:48.980
So I\'ve got like eight or 10 of my traps off,
00:31:48.980 --> 00:31:51.260
and then all of a sudden it popped out the hauler
00:31:51.260 --> 00:31:52.447
and, when it did, my arms was in it
00:31:52.447 --> 00:31:54.023
and there was no stoppin\' it.
00:31:54.941 --> 00:31:57.080
I mean, that just showed ya how much force
00:31:57.080 --> 00:31:59.640
there is when that decides to go.
00:31:59.640 --> 00:32:03.260
It was gonna either haul me overboard or my arm off.
00:32:03.260 --> 00:32:04.563
So, I mean, I braced off.
00:32:06.463 --> 00:32:07.620
Once the bang went,
00:32:07.620 --> 00:32:10.930
I fell over backwards and set up real quick
00:32:10.930 --> 00:32:14.820
and I looked and it ripped my glove.
00:32:14.820 --> 00:32:17.663
My thumb was gone; there was nothin\' left.
00:32:19.016 --> 00:32:20.100
I said, \"Just cut the rope.
00:32:20.100 --> 00:32:21.350
We gotta go, we gotta go.\"
00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:24.110
So somebody\'s gonna get hurt.
00:32:24.110 --> 00:32:25.930
Somebody\'s gonna get killed.
00:32:25.930 --> 00:32:27.520
But I\'m still alive,
00:32:27.520 --> 00:32:29.610
and I\'m still doin\' what I love to do.
00:32:29.610 --> 00:32:31.240
I\'m not doin\' it as good as I used to,
00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:36.240
but I\'m definitely thankful for still bein\' alive.
00:32:49.973 --> 00:32:54.973
[birds chirping]
[water bubbling]
00:32:55.973 --> 00:32:58.020
Andy Patterson>Folks, thanks for stickin\' around.
00:32:58.020 --> 00:32:59.034
Woman>Sure.
00:32:59.651 --> 00:33:02.010
Like ya had a lotta say in the matter.
00:33:02.010 --> 00:33:03.770
None of us are VIPs, at least.
00:33:03.770 --> 00:33:04.920
Well...
Woman>I am.
00:33:05.780 --> 00:33:08.053
We\'ll say you are, if you paid us.
00:33:10.092 --> 00:33:12.592
We\'re off in a cloud of smoke.
00:33:16.831 --> 00:33:17.664
I\'ve been operating,
00:33:17.664 --> 00:33:20.280
running Bold Coast Charter Company here out of Cutler
00:33:20.280 --> 00:33:21.820
for 30 years.
00:33:21.820 --> 00:33:24.110
Storm petrels here on the right.
00:33:24.110 --> 00:33:27.083
They\'re a true pelagic bird, bird of the open ocean.
00:33:28.470 --> 00:33:30.480
The significance of the island is really
00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:33.320
in its providing a critical home
00:33:33.320 --> 00:33:36.560
for a variety of migratory seabirds.
00:33:36.560 --> 00:33:39.070
Creatures of any sort don\'t have any legal standing,
00:33:39.070 --> 00:33:42.060
it\'s true, but I would still say
00:33:42.060 --> 00:33:45.093
they\'re the true inhabitants, the owners of the island.
00:33:46.810 --> 00:33:48.610
I have to watch this boat here coming up
00:33:48.610 --> 00:33:50.340
on our port side, make sure...
00:33:52.360 --> 00:33:54.993
Oh, he\'s got gear. Jesus Christ!
00:33:57.881 --> 00:34:00.464
[fiddle music]
00:34:04.074 --> 00:34:05.652
Oh, it\'s a Canadian boat.
00:34:06.760 --> 00:34:08.740
There\'s a danger of the traps going overboard
00:34:08.740 --> 00:34:11.623
if the line is near the surface, trap trawlin\'.
00:34:13.234 --> 00:34:16.000
He should\'ve radioed me and let me know.
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:17.850
I wouldn\'t have passed astern of him.
00:34:18.730 --> 00:34:21.420
In 30 years, I\'ve seen quite a change
00:34:21.420 --> 00:34:25.330
in the amount of fishing, in the amount of boats,
00:34:25.330 --> 00:34:27.163
and the activity out here.
00:34:28.170 --> 00:34:29.940
It increases the risk
00:34:29.940 --> 00:34:31.540
we might run into something,
00:34:31.540 --> 00:34:34.600
so it\'s just a bit more of a challenge to navigate.
00:34:34.600 --> 00:34:38.993
We have to keep a fairly sharp watch here at the helm.
00:34:39.900 --> 00:34:41.273
Anyway, crisis averted.
00:34:43.230 --> 00:34:45.180
Folks, we have arrived,
00:34:45.180 --> 00:34:47.470
in case there\'s any doubt in your mind.
00:34:47.470 --> 00:34:50.210
You\'re getting your first initial good looks
00:34:50.210 --> 00:34:51.510
at these puffins.
00:34:51.510 --> 00:34:53.220
Look at the shoreline over there;
00:34:53.220 --> 00:34:55.270
spaces, gaps in the ledges,
00:34:55.270 --> 00:34:57.770
spaces under rocks and boulders piled up there,
00:34:57.770 --> 00:34:59.160
a natural sea wall there caused by
00:34:59.160 --> 00:35:01.660
the wave action over eons of time.
00:35:01.660 --> 00:35:03.300
They take advantage of the protection,
00:35:03.300 --> 00:35:06.430
the confined spaces that those locations provide.
00:35:06.430 --> 00:35:08.100
OK, we can shut down the boat
00:35:08.100 --> 00:35:11.810
and then the plan of action will be to prepare for invasion.
00:35:11.810 --> 00:35:14.360
[uptempo fiddle music]
00:35:14.360 --> 00:35:16.140
Rub-a-dub-dub, hoo-hoo!
00:35:16.140 --> 00:35:17.970
Folks, what goes on on Machias Seal Island
00:35:17.970 --> 00:35:20.962
stays on Machias Seal Island.
[tourists laughing]
00:35:22.974 --> 00:35:24.750
The goal of the trip is really to just
00:35:24.750 --> 00:35:27.620
raise awareness of the importance of
00:35:27.620 --> 00:35:29.680
critical habitat for the abundance and variety
00:35:29.680 --> 00:35:31.930
of seabird species in the Gulf of Maine.
00:35:31.930 --> 00:35:34.620
If they were born here, this island is imprinted on them.
00:35:34.620 --> 00:35:36.060
So the puffin will not just return
00:35:36.060 --> 00:35:38.410
to the same island, the same breeding spots,
00:35:38.410 --> 00:35:40.410
but in many cases the same burrow,
00:35:40.410 --> 00:35:43.790
the same exact couple square feet of landmass
00:35:43.790 --> 00:35:46.580
on this island.
[uptempo fiddle music]
00:35:46.580 --> 00:35:48.560
These are cold-water seabird species,
00:35:48.560 --> 00:35:52.900
and as temperatures, conditions change and warm,
00:35:52.900 --> 00:35:56.100
that\'s likely to cause a diminishment of fish stocks
00:35:56.100 --> 00:35:58.080
that they prefer and rely upon.
00:35:58.080 --> 00:36:00.940
The puffins and some of these other cold-water species,
00:36:00.940 --> 00:36:02.840
in time they will withdraw northward.
00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:07.406
The original lighthouse on Machias Seal Island
00:36:07.406 --> 00:36:09.230
dates back to the 1830s.
00:36:09.230 --> 00:36:12.030
That\'s a long time, but the birds have been here longer.
00:36:16.570 --> 00:36:18.250
It didn\'t feel like another country
00:36:18.250 --> 00:36:20.250
because they didn\'t check our passports.
00:36:21.677 --> 00:36:24.423
It should be shared, looked after by both places.
00:36:25.750 --> 00:36:27.690
Andy Patterson>The disagreement over sovereignty,
00:36:27.690 --> 00:36:28.920
I have to get permits from both
00:36:28.920 --> 00:36:30.530
the Canadian and U.S. authorities
00:36:30.530 --> 00:36:32.950
to continue to do the tours.
00:36:32.950 --> 00:36:35.060
I don\'t have any axe to grind, I guess.
00:36:35.060 --> 00:36:38.260
The fishermen obviously, understandably, do.
00:36:38.260 --> 00:36:39.350
They\'re clear-eyed about this.
00:36:39.350 --> 00:36:41.570
They\'ve already contacted their legislators.
00:36:41.570 --> 00:36:44.940
They\'ve already spoke to federal fisheries people
00:36:44.940 --> 00:36:47.160
and there just hasn\'t been any
00:36:47.160 --> 00:36:49.880
real willingness to go to bat for the fishermen.
00:36:49.880 --> 00:36:53.180
So, really, what other recourse do you have?
00:36:53.180 --> 00:36:54.619
It\'s just the way things are.
00:36:54.619 --> 00:36:59.619
[uptempo fiddle music]
[puffin grunting]
00:37:00.629 --> 00:37:03.129
[ominous music]
00:37:07.850 --> 00:37:09.410
Russell>Like I say, every day is the same.
00:37:09.410 --> 00:37:11.110
Nobody\'s ever made any--
00:37:11.110 --> 00:37:12.629
come off the wharf with guns and stuff,
00:37:12.629 --> 00:37:14.663
[laughing] like they\'re gonna take it over.
00:37:16.766 --> 00:37:19.240
This is the way a war should be fought.
00:37:19.240 --> 00:37:21.368
Man>Drinking coffee and talking it over.
00:37:21.368 --> 00:37:22.600
Over the table, yeah.
00:37:22.600 --> 00:37:24.500
Interviewer>Is this American land
00:37:24.500 --> 00:37:25.750
or is this Canadian land?
00:37:26.740 --> 00:37:28.530
It\'s disputed land.
00:37:28.530 --> 00:37:31.190
We\'re Canadians and like I say,
00:37:31.190 --> 00:37:33.023
we man it and we fly our flag.
00:37:34.510 --> 00:37:36.007
It\'s \'cause we\'re here [laughing].
00:37:37.220 --> 00:37:40.840
It\'s disputed property, so I really would say Canada
00:37:40.840 --> 00:37:41.673
because we\'re here,
00:37:41.673 --> 00:37:43.948
we\'ve been here awhile, quite awhile.
00:37:43.948 --> 00:37:45.767
So I\'d say it\'s probably Canada\'s [laughing].
00:37:46.668 --> 00:37:47.540
Interviewer>Do you remember Barna Norton?
00:37:47.540 --> 00:37:49.170
Oh, I remember, Barna; oh, yes.
00:37:49.170 --> 00:37:50.110
Interviewer>Tell me about Barna.
00:37:50.110 --> 00:37:51.880
Russell>He used to come and bring the flag up
00:37:51.880 --> 00:37:53.440
and fly that 4th of July.
00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:55.720
I think he was a hardcore American,
00:37:55.720 --> 00:37:58.920
so he liked to try to establish his claim.
00:37:58.920 --> 00:38:01.590
Oh, they\'ve pulled a few tricks on it before;
00:38:01.590 --> 00:38:03.570
paint all the flags, Canadian flags,
00:38:03.570 --> 00:38:06.008
on the lawn for the 1st of July.
00:38:06.008 --> 00:38:07.740
And then he\'d got back to us a couple months later
00:38:07.740 --> 00:38:08.920
\'cause all the flags turned white
00:38:08.920 --> 00:38:10.597
and he said they all surrendered [laughing].
00:38:12.984 --> 00:38:15.484
[ominous music]
00:38:23.215 --> 00:38:25.970
This is Barna Beal Norton, lieutenant commander.
00:38:25.970 --> 00:38:28.260
He was the first defender of Machias Seal Island,
00:38:28.260 --> 00:38:30.190
besides Tall Barney Beal.
00:38:30.190 --> 00:38:34.470
My name is Holly Davis and I was John Norton\'s partner.
00:38:34.470 --> 00:38:36.400
That woulda been Barna\'s son.
00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:38.760
They did defend the ownership of that island
00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:41.800
because the Canadians kept tryin\' to steal it.
00:38:41.800 --> 00:38:43.250
That\'s what they\'d say to ya.
00:38:44.660 --> 00:38:48.553
But it\'s their island.
[sleepy guitar music]
00:38:52.760 --> 00:38:55.940
Bein\' the first born son of Tall Barney,
00:38:55.940 --> 00:38:58.693
he was given Machias Seal Island.
00:39:00.200 --> 00:39:05.200
He was very staunch in his claim to Machias Seal Island.
00:39:05.640 --> 00:39:08.480
Barna fought \'til the day he died
00:39:08.480 --> 00:39:10.607
to maintain Machias Seal Island
00:39:10.607 --> 00:39:15.343
and all that fishing ground in American possession.
00:39:16.950 --> 00:39:17.970
And this is the If,
00:39:17.970 --> 00:39:21.290
this was the first boat that Barna ever took out
00:39:21.290 --> 00:39:23.446
to Machias Seal Island.
00:39:23.446 --> 00:39:25.630
See, he\'s got passengers right on there right that day.
00:39:25.630 --> 00:39:27.763
He was an entrepreneur if there ever was one,
00:39:27.763 --> 00:39:29.430
because the puffins were there.
00:39:29.430 --> 00:39:31.180
That\'s a puffin colony.
Right.
00:39:31.180 --> 00:39:34.420
Holly>He charged $50 a person and people started going
00:39:34.420 --> 00:39:37.356
and it became very, very, very, very popular.
00:39:37.356 --> 00:39:39.203
Machias Seal Island.
Machias Seal Island,
00:39:39.203 --> 00:39:40.683
that was his business.
00:39:42.860 --> 00:39:44.720
You see this seaweed.
00:39:44.720 --> 00:39:47.450
This is what we used to have to land on.
00:39:47.450 --> 00:39:49.950
They went out there because they had to plant the flag
00:39:49.950 --> 00:39:52.580
on the 4th of July on American soil.
00:39:52.580 --> 00:39:55.087
That proved right there that who owns the area--
00:39:55.087 --> 00:39:56.670
the United States.
00:39:56.670 --> 00:39:59.700
That way, if the United States claimed it,
00:39:59.700 --> 00:40:01.220
that bottom of the fishing ground
00:40:01.220 --> 00:40:03.260
would be open to the fishermen from Jonesport
00:40:03.260 --> 00:40:05.940
as well as the fishermen from the Cutler area.
00:40:05.940 --> 00:40:09.670
How many individuals would do what Barna Norton did
00:40:09.670 --> 00:40:13.050
by defending over 40 years, going to Augusta,
00:40:13.050 --> 00:40:14.600
going to Washington, DC.
Going to Washington.
00:40:14.600 --> 00:40:15.433
Oh, yeah.
00:40:15.433 --> 00:40:18.189
To maintain not only did he own the island,
00:40:18.189 --> 00:40:21.016
but that the island was...
America.
00:40:21.016 --> 00:40:23.420
...United States soil.
And it is United States soil
00:40:23.420 --> 00:40:27.193
to this day.
[uptempo fiddle music]
00:40:29.087 --> 00:40:30.980
...Machias Seal Island,
00:40:30.980 --> 00:40:35.980
and it was given to me by my great-grandfather
00:40:36.600 --> 00:40:40.786
and my great-grandfather was Tall Barney Beal.
00:40:41.359 --> 00:40:45.380
It was August 5, 1971,
00:40:45.990 --> 00:40:49.367
and I met all the lobster fishermen that fish around there
00:40:49.367 --> 00:40:50.997
coming with their traps.
00:40:50.997 --> 00:40:53.300
He said, you see that s.o.b. out there?
00:40:53.300 --> 00:40:55.520
I looked out there and it looked like a destroyer.
00:40:55.520 --> 00:41:00.391
But they told us that we were fishin\' in Canadian waters,
00:41:00.391 --> 00:41:05.039
and that he\'d give us 24 hours to get \'em out,
00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:06.440
and tomorrow they\'d have to be out
00:41:06.440 --> 00:41:08.061
or they\'d be all cut off.
00:41:08.061 --> 00:41:10.200
So I met the State Department,
00:41:10.200 --> 00:41:14.080
and they said, \"Well, we got to write you a letter.\"
00:41:14.080 --> 00:41:16.159
Camera Man>Just hold it up to the camera.
00:41:16.159 --> 00:41:16.992
Hold it so we can read it.
Just hold it like this.
00:41:16.992 --> 00:41:19.410
Yeah, that\'s good.
We\'d like to get a copy
00:41:19.410 --> 00:41:20.510
of that on thevideo.
00:41:21.510 --> 00:41:22.620
Barna>Canada owns the lighthouse,
00:41:22.620 --> 00:41:24.490
but it don\'t own the island.
00:41:24.490 --> 00:41:27.657
[uptempo fiddle music]
00:41:50.241 --> 00:41:52.991
[pot puller whirring]
00:41:56.923 --> 00:42:00.599
Man Over Radio>Yeah, is that your TT-A trawl?
00:42:01.474 --> 00:42:04.423
That\'s correct, yeah.
Yeah, I tried to
00:42:04.423 --> 00:42:05.680
call ya on that Sunday, Brian,
00:42:05.680 --> 00:42:07.783
to tell ya I got closer to it than I planned.
00:42:07.783 --> 00:42:09.790
We was settin\' it up into the sun.
00:42:10.905 --> 00:42:12.940
And I thought I was runnin\' my own
00:42:12.940 --> 00:42:15.290
and when we got to it, it was yours.
00:42:15.290 --> 00:42:16.770
So, I was closer than I planned to be.
00:42:16.770 --> 00:42:19.940
I\'m gonna drop back to the east the first time and haul it.
00:42:19.940 --> 00:42:22.037
I don\'t know if I cut it or not with my anchor,
00:42:22.037 --> 00:42:24.060
so I\'m just makin\' you aware of it.
00:42:24.060 --> 00:42:25.443
He had my end line sunk.
00:42:26.370 --> 00:42:28.530
It was much strange, so I cut one of his traps off.
00:42:28.530 --> 00:42:31.620
Nothing malicious, but I had to get my gear up
00:42:31.620 --> 00:42:34.264
so I cut his trap off.
00:42:34.264 --> 00:42:37.014
[motor whirring]
00:42:42.715 --> 00:42:45.277
That was my first tangle of the day with a Canadian.
00:42:45.277 --> 00:42:46.500
That was a Canadian trawl.
00:42:46.500 --> 00:42:47.800
That wasn\'t here last time I hauled.
00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:49.777
They just moved it over here.
00:42:49.777 --> 00:42:52.277
It\'s just part of what goes on out here every day.
00:42:56.517 --> 00:42:59.006
I\'ve only had one Canadian foul so far.
00:42:59.006 --> 00:43:00.687
Wanda>Well, I hope that will be it.
00:43:01.554 --> 00:43:03.255
That\'s all right, yeah.
OK.
00:43:03.255 --> 00:43:05.647
I\'ll talk to you a little later, love you.
00:43:07.602 --> 00:43:11.042
Oh, it\'s frustrating.
[metal creaking]
00:43:11.042 --> 00:43:12.853
The fact that he ran over my end line and sunk it,
00:43:12.853 --> 00:43:14.523
there\'s no need of it.
00:43:19.111 --> 00:43:21.750
[indistinct shouting]
00:43:21.750 --> 00:43:23.610
Throw one of the white nylon ones.
00:43:41.200 --> 00:43:44.543
Like Brian said, sometimes your gear drifts away...
00:43:46.200 --> 00:43:47.950
...even though it\'s got anchors on it.
00:43:49.380 --> 00:43:51.930
Brian Cates had too much strain and couldn\'t handle it,
00:43:51.930 --> 00:43:54.430
so he had to cut from underneath it.
00:43:54.430 --> 00:43:56.350
I\'m missing eight traps,
00:43:56.350 --> 00:44:00.660
so it\'s gonna cost $200 a piece to buy all the new ones.
00:44:00.660 --> 00:44:02.610
It\'s just another day in the Gray Zone.
00:44:05.160 --> 00:44:07.450
I\'d be shot for sayin\' it, probably,
00:44:07.450 --> 00:44:10.693
but both countries have a mandate to make marine parks.
00:44:11.750 --> 00:44:14.400
Make it a marine park and nobody can fish it.
00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:16.280
It wouldn\'t be popular,
00:44:16.280 --> 00:44:19.210
but it would address the mandate of both countries
00:44:19.210 --> 00:44:21.160
and you\'d make it so that you didn\'t have to worry about
00:44:21.160 --> 00:44:24.413
whether there\'s any oil and gas under this to fight about
00:44:24.413 --> 00:44:26.410
\'cause nobody\'d doing anything in it.
00:44:26.410 --> 00:44:29.623
It\'s a way to resolve it without any bloodshed,
00:44:30.710 --> 00:44:32.260
if you want a resolution to it.
00:44:33.740 --> 00:44:35.797
If not, we just keep fishin\' it. [laughing]
00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:50.500
[gentle guitar music]
00:44:51.930 --> 00:44:53.070
When I was a kid,
00:44:53.070 --> 00:44:56.710
I liked watching National Geographic specials
00:44:56.710 --> 00:45:00.350
and Jacques Cousteau and Mutual of Omaha\'s Wild Kingdom,
00:45:00.350 --> 00:45:02.715
and I was really into sea life.
00:45:04.720 --> 00:45:07.393
And that\'s how I got interested in lobsters.
00:45:09.990 --> 00:45:11.170
My original field site,
00:45:11.170 --> 00:45:12.930
the property owner across the street
00:45:12.930 --> 00:45:14.480
was filling in the wetland.
00:45:14.480 --> 00:45:16.210
It was draining into my site.
00:45:16.210 --> 00:45:18.770
So I had a fit, and he had a permit,
00:45:18.770 --> 00:45:20.530
and I had to go to the board of appeals
00:45:20.530 --> 00:45:23.600
of the Department of Environmental Protection,
00:45:23.600 --> 00:45:27.853
because that wetland was draining into the lobster nursery.
00:45:28.740 --> 00:45:30.420
But I was just a person.
00:45:30.420 --> 00:45:32.777
I didn\'t belong to any institution at that time.
00:45:32.777 --> 00:45:34.743
I was waiting tables.
00:45:36.090 --> 00:45:38.330
So on that board of environmental protection,
00:45:38.330 --> 00:45:40.230
there was a lobsterman on the board.
00:45:40.230 --> 00:45:43.513
I meant nothing to him \'cause I didn\'t have an institution.
00:45:44.610 --> 00:45:45.733
And so I made one.
00:45:51.510 --> 00:45:52.750
I\'m Diane Cowan.
00:45:52.750 --> 00:45:55.100
I founded The Lobster Conservancy
00:45:55.940 --> 00:45:59.747
to help better understand lobsters.
00:46:00.280 --> 00:46:02.170
Today, here we are in Friendship, Maine,
00:46:02.170 --> 00:46:03.670
on Friendship Long Island,
00:46:03.670 --> 00:46:05.390
where I live with the lobsters
00:46:05.390 --> 00:46:07.283
and study them on a daily basis.
00:46:08.360 --> 00:46:12.040
I moved out here May 8th, 1999,
00:46:12.040 --> 00:46:14.297
and have lived here ever since. [laughing]
00:46:15.837 --> 00:46:17.477
It might look like just a pile of rocks
00:46:17.477 --> 00:46:19.400
with seaweed hanging off it,
00:46:19.400 --> 00:46:22.320
but there\'s dramas going on in the lives
00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:24.260
of all these creatures under the rocks.
00:46:24.260 --> 00:46:25.720
There\'s a lot here,
00:46:25.720 --> 00:46:27.073
there\'s so much going on.
00:46:27.990 --> 00:46:29.640
I have colleagues I work with
00:46:29.640 --> 00:46:32.534
and have much in common with.
00:46:32.534 --> 00:46:37.534
But I spend 365 days a year with the lobster,
00:46:38.190 --> 00:46:40.873
and so I learn things that nobody else knows,
00:46:41.940 --> 00:46:44.133
just because I\'m out there.
00:46:47.470 --> 00:46:51.030
There\'s littorina, Nucella, Dumontia,
00:46:51.030 --> 00:46:53.950
chondrias, Fucus with Spirobis,
00:46:53.950 --> 00:46:58.210
limpets, Crepidula, Beggiatoa,
00:46:58.210 --> 00:47:00.663
anoxic sediments, rock crab.
00:47:01.940 --> 00:47:04.013
Lobby. [laughing] Huge.
00:47:05.024 --> 00:47:08.703
[groans] So that one\'s probably six years old.
00:47:10.450 --> 00:47:14.400
Lobby is a very scientific name for these small lobsters.
00:47:14.400 --> 00:47:15.656
Just kidding.
00:47:15.656 --> 00:47:18.123
It\'s just a term of endearment.
00:47:19.200 --> 00:47:21.440
The fishery can\'t work without the fish.
00:47:21.440 --> 00:47:24.530
So understanding that animal, how it lives,
00:47:24.530 --> 00:47:28.040
what it needs to reproduce, keep going,
00:47:28.040 --> 00:47:29.703
is really important.
00:47:30.984 --> 00:47:35.984
Oh, it\'s low tide right now.
[phone alarm sounding]
00:47:36.700 --> 00:47:38.750
I have to take some pictures.
00:47:38.750 --> 00:47:40.970
The habitat changes over time.
00:47:40.970 --> 00:47:43.930
So how many lobsters here will change, too,
00:47:43.930 --> 00:47:45.970
if these rocks disappear.
00:47:45.970 --> 00:47:49.410
This one is very soft; just shed this morning.
00:47:49.410 --> 00:47:54.410
Right crusher, long antennae, male, intact,
00:47:54.990 --> 00:47:57.970
36.1 carapace length.
00:47:57.970 --> 00:48:02.270
Measuring them now, I can know about how old they are.
00:48:02.270 --> 00:48:05.240
It takes about a decade, give or take,
00:48:05.240 --> 00:48:09.240
to reach sexual maturity and be able to reproduce.
00:48:09.240 --> 00:48:10.953
These guys are nowhere near that.
00:48:13.253 --> 00:48:16.100
Ugh, ugh, Lobby!
00:48:16.100 --> 00:48:20.060
They live in the water column for several weeks
00:48:20.060 --> 00:48:23.903
and then they settle to the bottom as little baby lobsters,
00:48:25.360 --> 00:48:28.970
and that settling means they\'re making the transition
00:48:28.970 --> 00:48:30.910
from the surface waters to the bottom.
00:48:30.910 --> 00:48:33.220
They find these rocks to hide under
00:48:33.220 --> 00:48:35.370
and live there the rest of their lives,
00:48:35.370 --> 00:48:37.110
and that should give you an indication
00:48:37.110 --> 00:48:40.083
of what\'s coming down the line in the fishery.
00:48:41.620 --> 00:48:44.910
Lobsters can live for many, many decades,
00:48:44.910 --> 00:48:47.360
and those big animals do something
00:48:47.360 --> 00:48:49.770
that the little animals don\'t do.
00:48:49.770 --> 00:48:51.030
The big ones move.
00:48:51.030 --> 00:48:52.860
They\'ve been through a lot before.
00:48:52.860 --> 00:48:53.820
They\'d been through storms.
00:48:53.820 --> 00:48:56.190
They\'ve been through warm years and cold years.
00:48:56.190 --> 00:48:58.350
We\'ve had \'em a long time.
00:48:58.350 --> 00:49:01.660
You make sure those survivors are in the population.
00:49:01.660 --> 00:49:06.657
And we have some here still, but I think not enough.
00:49:08.470 --> 00:49:09.990
Woman On Radio>Half sand with gravel
00:49:09.990 --> 00:49:13.338
and shell hash, and sand.
00:49:14.640 --> 00:49:19.403
Certainly, warming is having an impact.
00:49:20.610 --> 00:49:23.550
Lobsters can\'t regulate their own body temperature.
00:49:23.550 --> 00:49:25.220
They\'re a cold-water animal.
00:49:25.220 --> 00:49:27.890
If the water doesn\'t get sufficiently cold
00:49:27.890 --> 00:49:29.870
in the winter months,
00:49:29.870 --> 00:49:32.073
they don\'t produce enough eggs and sperm.
00:49:33.370 --> 00:49:37.043
And no eggs, no sperm, that\'s it.
00:49:38.170 --> 00:49:40.830
For decades, the Maine lobster landings
00:49:40.830 --> 00:49:43.200
were about 20 million pounds.
00:49:43.200 --> 00:49:46.320
Then they went up to 40, 60, 70.
00:49:46.320 --> 00:49:48.120
People asked, \"Are you worried? Are you worried?\"
00:49:48.120 --> 00:49:51.220
I was like, \"No, the little lobsters are going up, too.
00:49:51.220 --> 00:49:53.550
Those babies on the beach, they\'re going...\"
00:49:53.550 --> 00:49:56.350
And so I think this is OK,
00:49:56.350 --> 00:49:59.240
but now they\'re up over a hundred million pounds.
00:49:59.240 --> 00:50:01.020
I don\'t think this is OK.
00:50:01.020 --> 00:50:03.340
Just like this wave of increase in landing
00:50:03.340 --> 00:50:05.870
started in southern New England.
00:50:05.870 --> 00:50:09.200
We\'re seeing now in the southwest, declines.
00:50:09.200 --> 00:50:10.520
I mean, real crashes.
00:50:10.520 --> 00:50:12.210
Long Island Sound, it\'s over.
00:50:12.210 --> 00:50:14.920
Southern New England, there\'s still lobsters,
00:50:14.920 --> 00:50:17.370
but not in the numbers you need to make a living.
00:50:18.230 --> 00:50:22.350
And so, in all probability,
00:50:22.350 --> 00:50:23.470
looking at the past,
00:50:23.470 --> 00:50:25.580
if it\'s repeating that same wave,
00:50:25.580 --> 00:50:28.553
the downward wave is following the same path.
00:50:30.150 --> 00:50:32.900
So if we get to a point where the lobsters
00:50:32.900 --> 00:50:35.730
can\'t find the deep, cold water,
00:50:35.730 --> 00:50:37.730
or whatever cold water they need,
00:50:37.730 --> 00:50:39.723
if they can\'t get to the cold water...
00:50:42.830 --> 00:50:44.963
...they\'re really and truly doomed.
00:50:48.019 --> 00:50:51.019
[crickets chirping]
00:50:57.280 --> 00:50:59.700
I started fishing when I was about 10 years old,
00:50:59.700 --> 00:51:03.180
and this is a way of life for most of us.
00:51:03.180 --> 00:51:06.890
I think these surveys serve a general purpose of
00:51:06.890 --> 00:51:09.197
keeping this industry alive.
00:51:09.197 --> 00:51:12.009
[pot puller whirring]
00:51:12.009 --> 00:51:13.840
On the landings reports
00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:16.250
that the guys turn in at the end of the year,
00:51:16.250 --> 00:51:19.477
that tells us all the legal lobsters that have been landed,
00:51:19.477 --> 00:51:21.980
but we don\'t get any data on the juveniles
00:51:21.980 --> 00:51:23.330
that get thrown back.
00:51:23.330 --> 00:51:24.500
So that\'s why we\'re out here,
00:51:24.500 --> 00:51:26.390
to try to see how many juveniles
00:51:26.390 --> 00:51:28.450
do show up in lobster traps.
00:51:28.450 --> 00:51:30.880
It\'s one segment of the stock assessment
00:51:30.880 --> 00:51:35.140
for the entire North Atlantic American lobster fishery.
00:51:39.490 --> 00:51:43.010
Four or five female, two claws.
00:51:43.010 --> 00:51:44.600
So we measure each lobster,
00:51:44.600 --> 00:51:46.620
we record information about
00:51:46.620 --> 00:51:48.410
whether it\'s an old shell or a new shell,
00:51:48.410 --> 00:51:50.550
whether it\'s missing any claws,
00:51:50.550 --> 00:51:52.350
whether it\'s got any shell disease,
00:51:52.350 --> 00:51:53.720
if it has any eggs.
00:51:53.720 --> 00:51:56.360
It\'s important to these guys, the lobstermen,
00:51:56.360 --> 00:51:59.067
because it will affect the rules
00:51:59.067 --> 00:52:00.883
that are placed on them.
00:52:03.280 --> 00:52:04.640
Last of this site.
00:52:04.640 --> 00:52:08.500
Up in the Gray Zone, up in Downeast Maine area,
00:52:08.500 --> 00:52:10.610
one reason we believe that the population
00:52:10.610 --> 00:52:12.760
is decreasing up there so much
00:52:12.760 --> 00:52:14.960
is because the bottom temperature
00:52:14.960 --> 00:52:16.693
is more stable than down here.
00:52:16.693 --> 00:52:17.890
When they first settle,
00:52:17.890 --> 00:52:19.470
they want that optimum temperature
00:52:19.470 --> 00:52:20.940
to grow and eat as long as they can
00:52:20.940 --> 00:52:24.160
to get big and strong before they go out in the world.
00:52:24.160 --> 00:52:25.490
Up in the Gray Zone,
00:52:25.490 --> 00:52:28.637
it\'s staying at that optimum temperature longer
00:52:28.637 --> 00:52:31.263
during that period when they first settle.
00:52:33.330 --> 00:52:34.473
Is that trend gonna continue?
00:52:34.473 --> 00:52:36.403
There\'s a lot of questions there.
00:52:39.290 --> 00:52:40.970
Yeah, I guess I am concerned.
00:52:40.970 --> 00:52:42.470
I think everybody\'s concerned.
00:52:43.400 --> 00:52:45.150
The settlement survey is the most concerning
00:52:45.150 --> 00:52:48.320
because we\'ve seen three years of down settlers.
00:52:48.320 --> 00:52:51.420
So does that mean they\'re settling somewhere else,
00:52:51.420 --> 00:52:53.180
somewhere deeper and colder and we\'re not seeing them?
00:52:53.180 --> 00:52:54.750
Hopefully, that\'s what it means.
00:52:54.750 --> 00:52:57.837
Or does it mean that we\'ve also got issues with
00:52:57.837 --> 00:52:59.990
the plankton population?
00:52:59.990 --> 00:53:02.250
Are they not getting enough to eat?
00:53:02.250 --> 00:53:07.043
Or is it a die off, is it a lack of juveniles?
00:53:08.300 --> 00:53:10.450
There\'s more we don\'t know than we do know.
00:53:12.467 --> 00:53:17.467
[somber ambient music]
[water sloshing]
00:53:47.936 --> 00:53:50.686
We hauled 22 trawls.
00:53:51.464 --> 00:53:52.530
330 traps.
00:53:59.565 --> 00:54:01.105
OK, 10 or 15 crates.
00:54:06.540 --> 00:54:08.010
The boys of the crew will make a little bit of money,
00:54:08.010 --> 00:54:09.640
but I\'m not gonna make a whole lot
00:54:09.640 --> 00:54:12.670
by the times I figure out my expenses and everything else.
00:54:12.670 --> 00:54:17.506
We only hit, I don\'t know, 800 pounds I guess, all together.
00:54:17.506 --> 00:54:18.339
Oh, yeah.
00:54:18.339 --> 00:54:21.453
A good day would\'ve been maybe 1,500 or 1,600.
00:54:22.522 --> 00:54:26.340
But I have had some issues with some gear being hauled,
00:54:26.340 --> 00:54:27.910
as have some other fellas, too.
00:54:29.959 --> 00:54:30.792
There\'s at least one fellow over there
00:54:30.792 --> 00:54:33.063
that\'s haulin\' some of our traps.
00:54:33.910 --> 00:54:35.040
Sometimes you get your gear out,
00:54:35.040 --> 00:54:39.600
but, yeah, that\'s done.
00:54:39.600 --> 00:54:40.558
So ya end up payin\' them
00:54:40.558 --> 00:54:41.750
and we\'ll take the boat to the mooring
00:54:41.750 --> 00:54:45.430
and hopefully take the rest of the week off perhaps.
00:54:45.430 --> 00:54:49.013
Enjoy the Labor Day weekend with my family.
00:55:23.171 --> 00:55:24.410
From what I\'d say that was in the crate,
00:55:24.410 --> 00:55:27.657
there\'s about 115 or 120 pounds.
00:55:31.489 --> 00:55:33.680
A little over a half pound to a trap isn\'t much.
00:55:33.680 --> 00:55:36.801
Anyway, you got to see the Canadian side of it.
00:55:36.801 --> 00:55:38.851
We didn\'t divulge any secrets [laughing].
00:55:44.040 --> 00:55:46.413
Interviewer>We\'ve already forwarded them to the CIA.
00:55:47.530 --> 00:55:49.280
You go right ahead.
We did.
00:55:49.280 --> 00:55:50.720
The Navy has got your number.
00:55:50.720 --> 00:55:55.230
Yep, I think they had it long before you come along.
00:55:55.230 --> 00:55:57.563
[all laughing]
00:56:03.371 --> 00:56:06.630
[motor whirring]
00:56:06.630 --> 00:56:08.420
These lobster here we\'re loading today,
00:56:08.420 --> 00:56:10.250
these are Gray Zone catch.
00:56:10.250 --> 00:56:11.890
Here, they\'re goin\' to the processor,
00:56:11.890 --> 00:56:13.523
more than likely the cannery.
00:56:15.160 --> 00:56:16.930
See if there\'s any hard-shell quality
00:56:16.930 --> 00:56:18.255
that they can ship overseas.
00:56:18.255 --> 00:56:20.410
Besides that, you\'ll buy it in the grocery store
00:56:20.410 --> 00:56:22.243
in a can or a bag of frozen meat.
00:56:29.450 --> 00:56:30.283
Jenny>Hey, guys.
00:56:30.283 --> 00:56:31.790
Think we\'re doing some shipping tomorrow?
00:56:31.790 --> 00:56:33.523
Yep.
Yes, we will be.
00:56:34.580 --> 00:56:37.430
This is where we store \'em long term.
00:56:37.430 --> 00:56:42.230
That right there has about 180 pounds of lobsters in it.
00:56:42.230 --> 00:56:44.280
We call them condos.
00:56:44.280 --> 00:56:46.890
That\'s what makes this work is temperature.
00:56:46.890 --> 00:56:49.600
We\'re making them hibernate, like a bear.
00:56:49.600 --> 00:56:51.510
In a controlled environment,
00:56:51.510 --> 00:56:53.210
we can keep a lot more of this,
00:56:53.210 --> 00:56:56.570
so that it actually makes it to the table instead of waste.
00:56:56.570 --> 00:56:58.550
The purpose of this facility
00:56:58.550 --> 00:57:01.600
is to be able to have a quality product
00:57:01.600 --> 00:57:04.230
that can go anywhere in the world.
00:57:04.230 --> 00:57:07.320
Not just make it down the road for you to have supper.
00:57:07.320 --> 00:57:10.360
If somebody wants these in China, if they\'re healthy enough
00:57:10.360 --> 00:57:12.310
they\'ll take an airplane ride to China.
00:57:14.500 --> 00:57:16.410
This is what we call a purge tank.
00:57:16.410 --> 00:57:17.980
When you bring these lobsters in,
00:57:17.980 --> 00:57:20.140
they\'ve been fed hard to be caught.
00:57:20.140 --> 00:57:21.830
We need to let \'em poop out,
00:57:21.830 --> 00:57:22.663
so that\'s what we do.
00:57:22.663 --> 00:57:25.600
We put them in here, 24 to 48 hours,
00:57:25.600 --> 00:57:29.310
then we can take \'em and put \'em in for longtime storage.
00:57:29.310 --> 00:57:32.180
Do you know the difference between a male and a female?
00:57:32.180 --> 00:57:37.080
You can see how much fuller her tail is compared to his.
00:57:37.080 --> 00:57:38.600
See the shape of her shell,
00:57:38.600 --> 00:57:40.890
fuller for protectin\' the babies.
00:57:40.890 --> 00:57:43.540
When she curls up, she\'ll be full of eggs in here.
00:57:43.540 --> 00:57:45.380
She curls up, they\'re gone.
00:57:45.380 --> 00:57:47.030
If you look at a male when he curls up,
00:57:47.030 --> 00:57:49.020
you can still see in through.
00:57:49.020 --> 00:57:52.320
There\'s actually a little hook on a metal gear
00:57:52.320 --> 00:57:53.530
and then that lays back
00:57:53.530 --> 00:57:57.130
and they would measure to the back of that shell.
00:57:57.130 --> 00:57:59.383
He\'d be just over the American measure.
00:58:01.090 --> 00:58:03.050
In the fall, they\'re catchin\' in bulk.
00:58:03.050 --> 00:58:04.610
There\'s all kinds comin\' to shore.
00:58:04.610 --> 00:58:07.000
We\'re separatin\' the quality out,
00:58:07.000 --> 00:58:09.450
and hopin\' down the road that the price is gonna go up
00:58:09.450 --> 00:58:11.423
so that you can make money.
00:58:12.330 --> 00:58:13.820
Let\'s take a little walk.
00:58:13.820 --> 00:58:15.350
It\'s a little bit loud in here,
00:58:15.350 --> 00:58:16.530
but this is the engine room.
00:58:16.530 --> 00:58:20.800
This is where all the air pumps, water pumps,
00:58:20.800 --> 00:58:23.550
heat exchanger, chiller barrels--
00:58:23.550 --> 00:58:25.400
everything we need to make it happen.
00:58:28.030 --> 00:58:32.190
This is the incoming water temperature from the ocean.
00:58:32.190 --> 00:58:36.040
This is what Mother Nature starts it at, right here.
00:58:36.040 --> 00:58:37.160
For this time of year,
00:58:37.160 --> 00:58:39.530
that\'s not a normal water temperature.
00:58:39.530 --> 00:58:41.700
It\'s increased over the years.
00:58:41.700 --> 00:58:45.980
This here normally should be reading about 48, 49 degrees.
00:58:45.980 --> 00:58:49.043
They say a degree temperature change
00:58:49.043 --> 00:58:51.013
can be devastating for them.
00:58:52.120 --> 00:58:54.433
These here are Gray Zone lobsters.
00:58:55.860 --> 00:58:57.780
It\'s summer; the water temperature\'s up,
00:58:57.780 --> 00:58:59.150
they\'re goin\' through their molting,
00:58:59.150 --> 00:59:02.420
the shells soft-- can\'t store \'em long-term.
00:59:02.420 --> 00:59:05.530
That wouldn\'t make an air flight overseas,
00:59:05.530 --> 00:59:07.853
where a lot of the market is nowadays.
00:59:08.740 --> 00:59:09.860
Four or five years ago,
00:59:09.860 --> 00:59:11.800
the Gray Zone lobster was a better quality
00:59:11.800 --> 00:59:13.240
than what they catch today.
00:59:13.240 --> 00:59:14.690
Global warming\'s real.
00:59:14.690 --> 00:59:19.340
I mean, the ocean temperatures, we study it daily here.
00:59:19.340 --> 00:59:21.040
I mean, they don\'t catch lobsters
00:59:21.040 --> 00:59:22.370
down below New York no more
00:59:22.370 --> 00:59:24.970
and they used to catch lobsters like we do here.
00:59:24.970 --> 00:59:26.420
It\'s over.
00:59:26.420 --> 00:59:27.620
It changed.
00:59:27.620 --> 00:59:29.477
The water temperature\'s gonna keep increasin\'
00:59:29.477 --> 00:59:32.770
and these animals are not designed to live that way.
00:59:32.770 --> 00:59:34.323
They\'re meant for colder water.
00:59:36.532 --> 00:59:39.615
[jaunty piano and fiddle music]
00:59:43.270 --> 00:59:44.760
These lobsters, they came from--
00:59:44.760 --> 00:59:47.540
most of \'em came from right here in Cutler Harbor,
00:59:47.540 --> 00:59:48.373
Bay of Fundy.
00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:52.680
I think they\'ll stay there once I get the cover on, I hope.
00:59:52.680 --> 00:59:54.630
My wife and I have it maybe, this time of year
00:59:54.630 --> 00:59:58.810
we\'ll have it every couple of weeks, we\'ll have a feed.
00:59:58.810 --> 00:59:59.643
We got enough here for me.
00:59:59.643 --> 01:00:01.494
What you guys gonna eat [laughing]?
01:00:03.800 --> 01:00:08.755
But for me to bring lobsters home and eat \'em on my catch,
01:00:09.480 --> 01:00:11.650
it costs me as much money as it would
01:00:11.650 --> 01:00:12.483
for somebody else to have \'em.
01:00:12.483 --> 01:00:13.370
I mean, if I don\'t sell \'em, bring \'em home to eat \'em,
01:00:13.370 --> 01:00:15.210
then I\'m not gettin\' the income from it.
01:00:15.210 --> 01:00:17.503
So, when available we\'ll have some.
01:00:20.760 --> 01:00:23.500
The biggest issue for me
01:00:23.500 --> 01:00:26.430
has been worrying about his safety.
01:00:26.430 --> 01:00:30.910
But God has taught me over the years to
01:00:32.560 --> 01:00:35.230
not worry about things that haven\'t happened.
01:00:35.230 --> 01:00:37.940
One thing I\'ve always been proud of
01:00:37.940 --> 01:00:40.780
and told him is that he\'s made a good living for us,
01:00:40.780 --> 01:00:42.640
and we\'ve never gone without.
01:00:42.640 --> 01:00:45.650
But I pray for him every day.
01:00:45.650 --> 01:00:47.590
I mean, I have two sons that are doing it,
01:00:47.590 --> 01:00:50.123
and I have to pray for their safety.
01:00:52.552 --> 01:00:54.925
Nothing\'s a guarantee.
Yep.
01:00:54.925 --> 01:00:57.507
Like I said, 43 years later, here we are.
01:00:57.507 --> 01:00:59.737
And I still love him.
[couple laughing]
01:00:59.737 --> 01:01:00.683
Right?
Right.
01:01:02.205 --> 01:01:03.038
Yep.
01:01:05.234 --> 01:01:06.567
All right, over.
01:01:08.904 --> 01:01:10.514
[gentle guitar music]
01:01:10.514 --> 01:01:12.940
We thank you, Lord, for the food you\'ve provided for us,
01:01:12.940 --> 01:01:13.773
and we just pray your blessing on it
01:01:13.773 --> 01:01:16.450
that it might strengthen us so we can further serve you.
01:01:16.450 --> 01:01:17.620
We ask in Jesus\' name.
01:01:17.620 --> 01:01:19.194
Amen.
Amen.
01:01:19.194 --> 01:01:21.450
[chair creaking]
OK.
01:01:21.450 --> 01:01:22.720
So our first lobster that
01:01:22.720 --> 01:01:24.150
my best friend and I ever caught,
01:01:24.150 --> 01:01:26.000
we actually caught it from the shore.
01:01:26.880 --> 01:01:30.117
We sold it for cash and went and bought candy with it.
01:01:30.117 --> 01:01:31.520
So I don\'t have the first dollar I ever made,
01:01:31.520 --> 01:01:34.410
but I remember where I spent it [laughing].
01:01:34.410 --> 01:01:37.760
My name is Jeremy Cates and Brian Cates is my dad.
01:01:37.760 --> 01:01:40.643
I have known nothing but fishing my whole life.
01:01:41.650 --> 01:01:43.978
Watching my best friends\' dads,
01:01:43.978 --> 01:01:47.050
growing up together they all are fishermen.
01:01:47.050 --> 01:01:50.123
But things have changed incredibly over the last 20 years.
01:01:50.980 --> 01:01:52.850
You almost can\'t recognize the fishery
01:01:52.850 --> 01:01:54.390
the way it used to be.
01:01:54.390 --> 01:01:58.320
There was un-fished bottom that had not yet been developed.
01:01:58.320 --> 01:02:01.770
There were less constraints in terms of
01:02:01.770 --> 01:02:03.630
the conservation rules that we have today.
01:02:03.630 --> 01:02:06.320
For instance, the mid \'90s, the sky was the limit.
01:02:06.320 --> 01:02:07.900
If you wanted to fish 2,000 traps,
01:02:07.900 --> 01:02:09.483
you could fish 2,000 traps.
01:02:10.690 --> 01:02:12.800
We are catching more lobsters than we ever used to,
01:02:12.800 --> 01:02:14.550
but we\'re also in a position now
01:02:14.550 --> 01:02:16.610
where we need to catch that many lobsters
01:02:16.610 --> 01:02:19.660
based on our boat sizes, boat payments,
01:02:19.660 --> 01:02:22.284
capital investments, and that sort of thing.
01:02:22.284 --> 01:02:24.690
[indistinct chatter]
They are family.
01:02:24.690 --> 01:02:26.590
She and I, we discussed the ramifications
01:02:26.590 --> 01:02:27.480
of getting a new boat.
01:02:27.480 --> 01:02:28.788
The best thing to do was to pray about it
01:02:28.788 --> 01:02:31.520
and ask the Lord to show us what He would have us do,
01:02:31.520 --> 01:02:32.644
\'cause you can\'t turn to the Bible
01:02:32.644 --> 01:02:35.430
and find a verse that says,
01:02:35.430 --> 01:02:37.330
\"Yeah, thou shalt have a new boat.\"
01:02:37.330 --> 01:02:38.270
Yeah, it was a step of faith,
01:02:38.270 --> 01:02:40.640
and so we went ahead and ordered the new hull.
01:02:40.640 --> 01:02:42.920
And lo and behold, it\'s nearly done.
01:02:42.920 --> 01:02:46.613
It\'s being finished as we speak over here in town.
01:02:48.502 --> 01:02:50.919
[gentle guitar music]
01:02:52.610 --> 01:02:53.443
Every boat\'s unique,
01:02:53.443 --> 01:02:55.330
everybody\'s got different ideas.
01:02:55.330 --> 01:02:57.857
And you want a boat exactly how you want it,
01:02:57.857 --> 01:02:59.757
that\'s the reason to build a new boat.
01:03:00.750 --> 01:03:03.100
I got into building boats when I went to high school.
01:03:03.100 --> 01:03:04.493
They had a program.
01:03:04.493 --> 01:03:09.485
After high school, I just knew I wanted to lobster fish
01:03:09.710 --> 01:03:13.050
and go draggin\' and do the Downeast stuff.
01:03:13.050 --> 01:03:15.877
So I really paid attention in school,
01:03:15.877 --> 01:03:18.420
and it\'s come in really handy.
01:03:18.420 --> 01:03:20.810
Is Brian getting antsy?
Yes.
01:03:20.810 --> 01:03:21.643
He\'s ready for it.
01:03:21.643 --> 01:03:25.200
He sold his a week and a half or so ago, a couple weeks ago.
01:03:25.200 --> 01:03:27.710
So, yeah, he\'d love to have his new boat soon.
01:03:27.710 --> 01:03:31.933
What you\'re lookin\' at is his new boat, 45 Dixon.
01:03:32.950 --> 01:03:37.950
Some people want to have a boat that has a dry area,
01:03:38.050 --> 01:03:39.950
so you can slide the door and go up inside,
01:03:39.950 --> 01:03:41.300
steamin\' offshore in the morning.
01:03:41.300 --> 01:03:42.600
You can stay out of the weather,
01:03:42.600 --> 01:03:44.592
especially in the fall when it gets cold.
01:03:44.592 --> 01:03:49.592
And in this case, the dry area will be everything forward,
01:03:50.160 --> 01:03:52.510
and then your wet area will be everything back.
01:03:53.960 --> 01:03:56.590
So you have a little flexibility there, I guess.
01:03:56.590 --> 01:03:59.793
That\'s one of the really unique part of this boat, anyways.
01:04:02.490 --> 01:04:03.610
We\'re doin\' some paintin\'
01:04:03.610 --> 01:04:05.190
and now hookin\' up his electronics,
01:04:05.190 --> 01:04:08.550
wirin\', hydraulics, final touches--
01:04:08.550 --> 01:04:11.840
the pretty stuff, the stainless on the sides.
01:04:11.840 --> 01:04:14.700
Brian will come out and he\'ll put the electronics
01:04:14.700 --> 01:04:16.290
right where he wants \'em.
01:04:16.290 --> 01:04:19.650
And then we\'ll run the wires to \'em.
01:04:19.650 --> 01:04:21.900
The hauler will go into place.
01:04:21.900 --> 01:04:24.000
The controllers will go on the top,
01:04:24.000 --> 01:04:25.803
steering wheel will go in.
01:04:25.803 --> 01:04:27.723
I think that\'s about it.
01:04:30.040 --> 01:04:32.473
Gettin\' ready to put it in the water here in a couple weeks.
01:04:34.046 --> 01:04:35.560
Interviewer>How do you know it\'s gonna float?
01:04:35.560 --> 01:04:37.580
Well, I hope it floats [laughing].
01:04:37.580 --> 01:04:39.160
No, it\'ll float.
01:04:39.160 --> 01:04:41.437
There\'s no holes in it or nothin\' like that.
01:04:41.437 --> 01:04:43.476
No, we\'ve done this a few times.
01:04:45.367 --> 01:04:47.472
Yeah.
01:04:47.472 --> 01:04:50.389
[rocks clattering]
01:04:51.690 --> 01:04:52.680
By the end of the season,
01:04:52.680 --> 01:04:56.570
we\'re one of the biggest geological events
01:04:56.570 --> 01:05:00.933
in New England\'s geological history.
01:05:00.933 --> 01:05:03.370
[Richard heavily breathing]
01:05:03.370 --> 01:05:05.200
Well, this is pretty much run-of-the-mill
01:05:05.200 --> 01:05:07.130
crushed rock from the quarry,
01:05:07.130 --> 01:05:09.010
but it\'s all about the sizes
01:05:09.010 --> 01:05:11.220
and the spaces between them that
01:05:11.220 --> 01:05:14.110
make for great shelters for little lobsters.
01:05:14.110 --> 01:05:15.420
Name is Richard Wahle.
01:05:15.420 --> 01:05:18.670
I\'m a research professor in the School of Marine Sciences
01:05:18.670 --> 01:05:20.023
at the University of Maine.
01:05:21.090 --> 01:05:24.220
Now, what we\'re trying to do with our lobster research
01:05:24.220 --> 01:05:26.820
is to try to develop forecasting tools
01:05:26.820 --> 01:05:28.220
for trends in the fishery,
01:05:28.220 --> 01:05:31.440
and also try to come to a better understanding of
01:05:31.440 --> 01:05:34.280
how climate change is influencing the distribution
01:05:34.280 --> 01:05:38.100
and abundance of lobsters throughout its geographic range.
01:05:38.100 --> 01:05:40.010
One of the ways we\'re trying to do that
01:05:40.010 --> 01:05:43.431
is to monitor the pulse of baby lobsters
01:05:43.431 --> 01:05:46.610
that settle to the seabed every year.
01:05:46.610 --> 01:05:50.120
I see these projects as almost a canary in the coal mine,
01:05:50.120 --> 01:05:53.410
where it gives us a sense six, seven, eight years out
01:05:53.410 --> 01:05:57.300
whether or not we\'re gonna see a sudden decline in landings.
01:05:57.300 --> 01:06:01.280
Unfortunately, with our standard diver-based sampling,
01:06:01.280 --> 01:06:03.930
we\'re really limited as to how deep we can go.
01:06:03.930 --> 01:06:07.270
But we\'re trying to extend our reach into deeper water,
01:06:07.270 --> 01:06:10.050
and now we\'re using these bio-collectors
01:06:10.050 --> 01:06:13.070
that are deployed from fishing boats.
01:06:13.070 --> 01:06:18.070
So, basically they\'re wire mesh boxes lined with finer mesh
01:06:18.290 --> 01:06:22.810
that keeps the baby lobsters and crabs and other animals in,
01:06:22.810 --> 01:06:24.910
covered with a one and a half inch
01:06:24.910 --> 01:06:29.490
vinyl-coated wire mesh top, and they have bridles.
01:06:29.490 --> 01:06:32.350
Then we rig \'em up more or less like a lobster trap,
01:06:32.350 --> 01:06:36.470
and we get not only lobsters that are
01:06:36.470 --> 01:06:38.200
as long as your thumbnail
01:06:38.200 --> 01:06:41.500
to a whole variety of different marine animals.
01:06:41.500 --> 01:06:44.480
And we put them on the bottom over a range of depths,
01:06:44.480 --> 01:06:48.700
crossing a dramatic thermal gradient as we do that,
01:06:48.700 --> 01:06:52.510
to see how deep we see lobster settlement occurring.
01:06:52.510 --> 01:06:54.140
One of the things that we\'ve been seeing
01:06:54.140 --> 01:06:57.430
is these dramatic declines in southern New England.
01:06:57.430 --> 01:07:00.460
At the same time, we\'ve seen this tremendous surge
01:07:00.460 --> 01:07:02.240
in the Gulf of Maine,
01:07:02.240 --> 01:07:04.560
and especially in eastern Gulf of Maine
01:07:04.560 --> 01:07:06.420
toward the Bay of Fundy,
01:07:06.420 --> 01:07:09.070
as a result of a change in climate.
01:07:09.070 --> 01:07:12.930
And it\'s forced the population and nursery habitats
01:07:12.930 --> 01:07:17.733
to recede from shore into the deeper environments.
01:07:19.330 --> 01:07:21.690
The Maine lobster harvest comprises about
01:07:21.690 --> 01:07:24.340
80% of the U.S. lobster harvest
01:07:24.340 --> 01:07:27.583
and, currently, the lobster harvest in the U.S.
01:07:28.510 --> 01:07:31.900
is the most valuable fishery in the nation right now.
01:07:31.900 --> 01:07:33.973
And that\'s true for Canada, as well.
01:07:33.973 --> 01:07:37.060
[arpeggiated synth music]
01:07:37.060 --> 01:07:39.430
These guys don\'t have any other option.
01:07:39.430 --> 01:07:41.890
They don\'t have another fishery to move to
01:07:41.890 --> 01:07:45.300
as they did back in, say, the 1960s and \'70s,
01:07:45.300 --> 01:07:47.370
when groundfish were more abundant.
01:07:47.370 --> 01:07:51.537
We\'re perilously dependent on this single fishery.
01:08:01.973 --> 01:08:04.473
[droning ambient music]
01:08:41.520 --> 01:08:42.570
My name\'s Frank Kornacki.
01:08:42.570 --> 01:08:44.673
I started lobstering in 1987.
01:08:46.240 --> 01:08:48.683
We fish in the eastern end of Long Island Sound.
01:08:53.850 --> 01:08:55.230
When I first started lobsterin\',
01:08:55.230 --> 01:08:57.360
it was like a mini gold rush. It was crazy.
01:08:57.360 --> 01:08:58.620
There were tons of guys doin\' it,
01:08:58.620 --> 01:08:59.930
tons of guys makin\' money,
01:08:59.930 --> 01:09:02.740
tons of guys buyin\' new boats.
01:09:02.740 --> 01:09:07.360
And at one time I thought, how could this go on?
01:09:07.360 --> 01:09:10.719
How can this fishery sustain that type of pressure?
01:09:11.270 --> 01:09:12.103
And it didn\'t.
01:09:12.103 --> 01:09:13.311
In the end, it didn\'t.
01:09:14.552 --> 01:09:17.052
[droning ambient music]
01:09:28.420 --> 01:09:30.240
There\'s people that did all right,
01:09:30.240 --> 01:09:31.690
and there\'s some that didn\'t.
01:09:33.170 --> 01:09:35.730
Presently, I\'m a carpenter at Connecticut College.
01:09:35.730 --> 01:09:38.410
So, since I wasn\'t able to do commercial fishin\',
01:09:38.410 --> 01:09:40.820
I don\'t catch \'em anymore, I sculpt \'em.
01:09:40.820 --> 01:09:42.963
And they don\'t go away, hopefully.
01:09:44.570 --> 01:09:46.180
With the warming of the waters,
01:09:46.180 --> 01:09:48.330
it\'s progressively gettin\' worse.
01:09:48.330 --> 01:09:51.980
You never think it\'s gonna end, but history repeats itself
01:09:51.980 --> 01:09:54.380
and there\'s a good chance that their lobster fishery
01:09:54.380 --> 01:09:57.100
as it goes from Connecticut to the north,
01:09:57.100 --> 01:09:59.250
that\'ll also come crashin\' down eventually.
01:10:01.859 --> 01:10:04.170
[saw whirring]
[upbeat quirky music]
01:10:05.070 --> 01:10:06.540
Brian C.>The name of the boat is Legacy,
01:10:06.540 --> 01:10:08.580
which is special to me because
01:10:08.580 --> 01:10:10.648
I come from a long line of fishermen
01:10:10.648 --> 01:10:13.500
and I hope to pass down the legacy
01:10:13.500 --> 01:10:15.990
that\'s been passed on to me to my grandchildren.
01:10:15.990 --> 01:10:18.260
Who knows what the fishery will even be like at that point,
01:10:18.260 --> 01:10:21.720
but I\'ve been fishin\' for several generations now,
01:10:21.720 --> 01:10:23.448
and hopefully it continues.
01:10:23.448 --> 01:10:26.640
[uptempo fiddle music]
Smile.
01:10:30.030 --> 01:10:32.250
Brian C.>The prospects of having hopefully another
01:10:32.250 --> 01:10:33.510
eight or ten more years, at least,
01:10:33.510 --> 01:10:37.210
of pretty hard fishin\' before I think about retirin\'.
01:10:37.210 --> 01:10:41.010
So, I\'m excited to have it and to get usin\' it.
01:10:41.010 --> 01:10:43.963
I\'m really lookin\' forward to workin\' the boat.
01:10:46.970 --> 01:10:48.182
Thank you for this beautiful day,
01:10:48.182 --> 01:10:49.423
and the opportunity to launch this boat.
01:10:49.423 --> 01:10:50.954
We just pray you bless it.
01:10:50.954 --> 01:10:53.300
Thank you for the safe travels, so far.
01:10:53.300 --> 01:10:55.057
We just pray you bless this boat, the launching of it
01:10:55.057 --> 01:10:57.510
and the use of it, and pray it all in your name, amen.
01:10:57.510 --> 01:10:59.020
Amen.
Yes!
01:10:59.020 --> 01:11:00.130
By way of christening,
01:11:00.130 --> 01:11:02.154
I just wanna say a special thanks to Patrick
01:11:02.154 --> 01:11:03.463
and all of his crew.
01:11:03.463 --> 01:11:06.890
It\'s Wanda\'s and I wish and prayer
01:11:06.890 --> 01:11:08.790
that all the people who worked on this,
01:11:08.790 --> 01:11:09.970
and all who will work on it,
01:11:09.970 --> 01:11:12.430
and all who will travel in this boat
01:11:12.430 --> 01:11:17.430
will have God\'s blessin\', safety, and prosperity.
01:11:19.480 --> 01:11:20.453
Thank you.
01:11:20.453 --> 01:11:24.278
[glass shattering]
[crowd cheering]
01:11:26.980 --> 01:11:29.030
E.B. White: In lands where men are free,
01:11:29.030 --> 01:11:30.690
no sight is finer to the eye
01:11:30.690 --> 01:11:33.480
than of an independent trapper from the sea.
01:11:33.480 --> 01:11:35.897
[swelling guitar music]
01:11:40.600 --> 01:11:42.700
A boat does not merely transport a man
01:11:42.700 --> 01:11:44.620
to his traps in the sea,
01:11:44.620 --> 01:11:46.590
it carries him, in some degree,
01:11:46.590 --> 01:11:48.267
to where all men want to go,
01:11:48.267 --> 01:11:51.120
toward the destination that gives the illusion
01:11:51.120 --> 01:11:52.553
of security and strength.
01:11:53.770 --> 01:11:57.170
The boat is a living prop to the spirit of the man.
01:11:57.170 --> 01:11:58.870
The throaty rumble of the exhaust
01:11:58.870 --> 01:12:00.920
is the music that he knows,
01:12:00.920 --> 01:12:02.593
the theme that he understands.
01:12:07.240 --> 01:12:11.440
Storms smash the coast and take their toll on boat and gear,
01:12:11.440 --> 01:12:14.061
but whether the fishing is good or bad,
01:12:14.061 --> 01:12:16.230
the sea belongs to all equally.
01:12:22.455 --> 01:12:24.872
[droning guitar notes and ambience]