Hand Line Cod

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Set in the coldest waters surrounding Newfoundland’s rugged Fogo Island, Justin Simms’ short film HAND.LINE.COD. follows a group of “people of the fish”—traditional fishers who catch cod live by hand, by hook and line, one at a time. Their secret mission? To drive up the price of fish. After a 20-year moratorium on North Atlantic cod, the stocks are returning. These fishers are leading a revolution in sustainability, taking their premium product directly to the commercial market for the first time. Simms takes viewers deep inside the world of the brave fishers returning to past methods that hold tremendous potential for the future. Travel with them from the early morning hours, spend time on the ocean, and witness the intricacies of a 500-year-old tradition that’s making a comeback.

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Main credits

Simms, Justin (film director)
Simms, Justin (screenwriter)
Simms, Justin (editor of moving image work)
Clarke, Annette (film producer)

Other credits

Director of photography, Andrew MacCormack; edited by Justin Simms & Andrew MacCormack; original music by Ian Foster.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

; "Hand Line Cod"; National Film Board of Canada

[music]

On-Screen-Text: Centuries of fishing for Northern Cod off Food Island ended when industrial practices swiftly depleted the stocks.

Now fisheries on Food Island are returning to the old ways by building their future on a technique rooted deeply in the past.

This is the beginning.

Speaker: We're going to catch some cod till here, Iceberg Alley. This is Iceberg Alley, you've got the coldest water, we got Northern Cod.

Speaker: Look like it grazed the water, don't it?

Speaker: It's a challenge to find the right place to catch fish, to know where to go on the grounds, to use the tides in your favor.

Speaker: We are people of the fish, our confidence is wrapped up in the fish. It's so essential to restore our faith in the cod and our confidence and what comes with that.

On-Screen-Text: HAND LINE COD

[background noise]

Speaker: You catch them and then release the punt?

Speaker: Can we get that rope, that ringer?

[background noise]

Speaker: They’re off that boat, just--

Speaker: We're going around?

Speaker: Handlining for fish, catching them live, catching them one at a time by hook and line is something we've done since around the 1600s. We've continued to catch cod that way even after the advent of industrialized fishing. Even after the big boats came-

Speaker: Factory trawlers, etcetera.

Speaker: -the factory trawlers came, our fishers continued the old way.

Speaker: All of here, we didn’t wear gloves. They were too stubborn, aye? They never had gloves. Oh, that's a nice fish.

Speaker: Handline fish, handline cod, I mean the price is a lot better. Of course, the product is going to be a lot better if it's handled properly.

Speaker: If it's handled with care, too, yes, because when you're handlining, you’re hauling fish up one by one, and a gill net is coming up with probably 20 fish the one time. Then it's coming over the risings of the boat, the gunwales of the boat, and squat. Then it's coming around the [unintelligible 00:04:15] and the squat opened out, and then you have [unintelligible 00:04:17] and then you've got the hull to go and [crosstalk]-

Speaker: It's banging around it.

Speaker: -busting it open to get the fish out, and then it's hauling them to the back of the boat, but a single fish is coming up, it's handled, it's bled. Handlining is just definitely the way to go in terms of quality.

Speaker: Down there, from here, this area has-- it's dead, as it is, with its description and we're going to go--

Speaker: We need to cut our crab net.

Speaker: No, negative punt addition is a nice idea.

Speaker: I like the idea of the punt. That was the boat that we fished in for a couple of hundred years. What we do is encourage our fishers to handline. We pay them more than double the market rates for that fish, and we ship it to restaurants in Toronto, to chefs who appreciate that premium-quality product. The difference between a hand-lined fillet and a mechanized cod fillet is very different, and they are absolutely blown away by the quality of the product.

The taste, the texture, the color of this cod is something that they've not seen in the marketplace before, and that's because we've never had a handline cod product in the marketplace before.

Speaker: Whale bushy in the hull, the lifts.

[background noise]

Speaker: There's a lot of good fishermen who can't handline fish, they come back in at the end of the day with nothing, but I've been successful in handlining cod. I guess I know the grounds, I know where to trap on the grounds, and I guess that's the reason why we've been successful.

[background conversation]

Speaker: That's the kind we're looking for. Oh, this is a good one. Yes, a nice one, right?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Yes. Great cod.

Speaker: I didn't think you were going to catch me here.

Speaker: I only gave you that permit for one day, the other day.

Speaker: One day only?

Speaker: That was only a one-day permit you was allowed here.

Speaker: Yes?

[laughter]

That's right? Lovely morning.

Speaker: Oh, you're right, it is.

Speaker: What is that? 40? It's probably going to be around--

Speaker: Yes.

[music] [background noise]

Speaker: I think the time for intermediaries is over. I think the opportunity is to take their product directly to market themselves. Every fish that comes from the water, we have to honor. The lowly cod can't pay for everything, but I think when we connect directly with our markets, we get maximum return from each fish, and I think that's the greatest honor you can give to any creature that you take from the ocean.

Our real secret mission-- I mean, there's a secret mission here. Our secret mission is to drive up the price of fish, which is exactly the opposite of what's been going on for the last 50 years.

[music]

Speaker: Here at Ruby Watchco, we always do what we call "Fish Friday." I always grew up having fish on Fridays. Lately, now, these last couple of weeks, we've been just bringing in the Fogo Island cod for fish Friday, and the response is amazing. Most people have never had Fogo Island cod, let alone line-caught cod, and they are blown away. They don't understand-- They can't even hardly describe to us how good it is. It's amazing. Look how pretty that is?

[background noise]

[music]

Speaker: It brings a smile to my face because if I know there's someone out there that likes the quality of the fish, guaranteed the demand will get better. As people find out about our cod, they’re going to want it, and if it comes from a chef and he says, "You have good cod," other people take their word. It brings a smile to my face because I know there's going to be a big demand for cod in the future. Looks like, right now, we may be getting bigger quotas, and every cent counts to the fisherman. Every cent counts.

[music]

Speaker: It's hard to keep a serious face. It's too nice of a day to keep a serious face to face. I just said, "It's too nice of a day to keep a serious face."

[laughter]

[music]

[end credits]