1953-10-16
N/A
11 min
Herring Hunt is a 1953 French-English language documentary about the operations of a herring boat off the coast of British Columbia, directed by Julian Biggs, written by Leslie McFarlane, and produced by Guy Glover. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-Reel.
Funnily enough I had a kipper for breakfast earlier, so was especially interested in this short feature depicting a day in the life of a small Canadian fishing fleet. With the salmon season now behind them, these hard working men have but a short time to land 40,000 tons of this staple before the catch quota is reached and they have to stop. After a little mishap from an over-enthusiastic rookie, it falls to the captain to use his skill and a their basic sonar to try and pick up a shoal. That can bring in as much as 1000 tons per haul - so a find can involve a fleet of up to half a dozen small boats and some skilful net laying if they are to get paid. Commission only here - no wages! The documentary is presented as if it were an extended news report with little time for embellishments as the single camera captures what they capture. It's worth a watch to see just how much hard work was required here.
