The fishing communities of the Bigouden, on France's rugged Western coast, are determined to fight back. From the Paris fish riots of 1991, to the newly formed World Forum for Fish Harvesters, these small town fishermen have launched a sophisticated and multi-faceted strategy to stay small and successful in the face of global competition.

Filmed in ports from Western Canada to France, from Scotland to Senegal, Weather The Storm introduces viewers to the logic underlying both industrial and artisanal fishing economies. It provides compelling evidence for the environmental and socio-economic benefits of staying small and local. Although the battle to save the oceans is often publicly waged between environmentalists and corporations, this film gives voice to an important group who just may have the solutions we need: the small-scale artisanal fishers.

Web Page: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/wstorm.html

Reviews
"Through a very biographical and anthropological lens, the film raises critical questions about the potential loss of artisanal fishing to a globalized and corporate model of fish harvesting. This loss would not only spell the end of unique regional cultures of fishermen and the identities they have built around their work, but also the end of a flexible system of resource management that relies upon local ecological knowledge and techniques that preserve entire species of fish. At a time when economies of global scale and fish harvesting technologies threaten to deplete fish stocks throughout the world, this film asks us to consider that the global conservation of natural resources and the local conservation of working people are often highly dependent upon each other. As such, Weather the Storm asks conservationists of all stripes to make local and global alliances with working people in the effort to design new global models of sustainable resource use."