Documentary film crew catches lobster on camera

By Carla Allen

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

A European audience will view several Shelburne County, N.S. lobster festival events this fall in a documentary about the lobster fishing industry.

A three-person German documentary film crew from the company Lona•media was on site at the lobster eating contest in Barrington and also attended the lobster chowder supper at Sandy Point Lighthouse.

The crew spent close to two weeks from late May to early June visiting several locations in the province for footage.

Managing director Susanne Brand says they went to a Halls Harbour lobster pound and saw the steps involved in shipping the product including weighing, grading and packing.

“We also saw the tourists who choose their live lobster and bring it to the cook, then eat it in the restaurant,” she said.

Brand, camerawoman Marion Reischmann, and soundman Alexander Egert went lobster fishing for three hours but only caught four or five lobsters in the 11 traps hauled. They visited the Cabot Trail for scenery shots and spent two days in Tangier for more tours with fishermen and lobster scientists where they were shown v-notching and how lobsters are measured. At Bish World Cuisine in Halifax the chef showed them how to prepare three lobster dishes.

Brand says their second trip on a lobster fishing boat was more frightening than the first.

“The typical Nova Scotia fog came up and it was kind of scary for us, so fast this fog! After that we were invited to a fisherman’s house, ate lobster and drank rum,” she said.

Brand explained that in Germany, lobster is very expensive and seldom served whole.

“Sometimes it is part of a dish, a small piece of lobster. It is also something you eat here with a bad feeling because they are cooked alive. I was wondering, that no one in Nova Scotia makes a problem about that. In Germany there are a lot of critical voices,” she said.

The crew filmed the end of the lobster season in Meteghan as traps were packed and loaded at the harbour. They finished by filming lobster being loaded onto a plane at the Halifax airport.

The 45-minute lobster-fishing documentary will air in October or November on Arte, a Franco-German cultural channel.

(Carla Allen is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Shelburne Coast Guard, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)