Coastal Routes

While fisheries science explores the wide and vast world of fisheries knowledge, the stories of fish harvesters themselves are less often brought to the forefront within scholarly thinking. This knowledge mobilization project sought to elevate stories of fish harvester and fishing community resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in how they innovated to overcome barriers and make use of their strengths. This project used scholarly podcasting and documentary filmmaking  to explore stories of small-scale fish harvester and communities around North America, including:

• What variables (e.g., policies, infrastructure, etc.) within supported or limited fisher’s ability to be resilient to change (particularly COVID-19 related change);
• How those changes and variables impact the ways fishers contribute to local food systems and sustain important industries and livelihoods in coastal communities

While this project is ongoing, you can see some of our knowledge mobilization outputs:

Wrapped in 2021, the award-winning, 22-episode Social FISHtancing podcast shares stories from small-scale fisheries around North America, including Canada’s coasts, throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen to Social FISHtancing here: www.coastalroutes.org/podcasts.

Coming in 2023, Last Boat on the Lake is a research-based documentary film that explores the Canadian commercial fisheries of the Laurentian Great Lakes. These unique fisheries are found in small ports across the Great Lakes, yet largely go unseen by most of Canadian society. This film will feature the voices of fish harvesters and never-before-seen footage of commercial fishing life to give viewers an intimate portrait of the challenges and opportunities faced by this historic industry. Get to know the greatest fishery most people have only tasted.