Meeting places

Video length: 4 minutes and 29 seconds

Location and shooting date: Magdalen Islands, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer and editor: Guillaume Lévesque

Interviewee:

• Alain Longuépée, Les Cultures du Large

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Shot of Alain Longuépée talking, sitting on a pontoon.]

Alain Longuépée: My name is Alain Longuépée, from Fatima on the Magdalen Islands. I’m director of business development for the Christian and Gabriel Vigneau enterprises.

[Background music begins.]

[Successive shots of docked boats and beachside facilities.]

I love challenges, whether it’s permits with the municipality, or construction, development; whether it’s with the governments, the MAPAQ, or inspections…

[Back to Alain, who is talking in a closer shot.]

There are lots and lots of issues. And that’s what keeps me going, gives me a lot of energy. So, you don’t get into a rut, and that’s what makes you feel good.

[Successive shots of a lighthouse, a cliff, then a flag flying in the wind with a boat sailing in the background.]

With Les Cultures du Large, it’s oysters.

[Background music stops.]

[Shot of a harbor, then of the sea from a boat.]

We have Poisson Frais des Îles and Pêcheries LéoMar, which are processing and exporting companies for live lobsters, and the processing of lobster, scallops and crab.

[Shot of a woman lifting a cage of oysters onto a boat, then back to Alain talking.]

In the beginning, when Mr. Vigneau started out, he was in the mussel business, for mariculture. And in the Magdalen Islands, ducks also exist.

[Music resumes, shot of a coastline with lots of birds, then successive shots of the opening of a hand taking oysters from a pouch and showing them to the camera.]

So they destroyed Christian’s inventory. I think oysters were Christian’s second choice. And it wasn’t really developed enough in Québec. It was a challenge for him. So, he worked really hard to make a name for himself in Québec.

[View of hands opening an oyster.]

At first, it was “me, oysters, okay, are the people of the islands going to eat that?”. But now all the restaurants serve oysters as appetizers. The islanders come here to buy them for their little happy hours or as appetizers, whatever. So, people have evolved and learned to love oysters, after all.

[Back to Alain.]

It’s always Québec first. And then, until… when Québec has what it needs, because we don’t want to lose the resource.

[View of hands sorting oysters, then a close-up shot of the oysters.]

Then there’s the time limit we have to respect for freshness. So, it’s important to properly manage transport and export logistics.

[Shot of a pallet of crates filled with oysters.]

So, it’s really… But for sure it’s Québec first. Of course you have to take the ferry. We’re on an island.

[Back to Alain, music stops.]

So of course, depending on the season, sometimes it can be a bit more complicated, but whatever. Otherwise, there’s a day’s delay. But the trucks are refrigerated, so the freshness is maintained.

[Shot of an open crate filled with oysters, then a closed crate stamped with the “Trésor du Large” logo.]

And within 2 days, it’s on the shelves. The number of visitors who come here and say, “Oh, we buy this in Saint-Hyacinthe or in Montreal; we know the Trésor du Large! They’re the best oysters you can find in Québec”.

[Back to Alain talking.]

So it’s nice, because they come to see where it all starts from.

[Music resumes, shot on the side of a boat sailing, on the captain in the cabin, then on people chatting on deck, and back to Alain who is talking.]

The words we always hear from visitors are: “Oh my God, it’s salty. But my God, it’s good”.

[Views over the water with the coast in the background.]

The advantage here, in the islands? We’ve got an incredible, immense playground all around the islands. The quality of the sea is excellent in terms of cleanliness.

[View on the water with buoys on the surface.]

We hope and wish that this will continue in future years. It’s always a risk.

[Back to Alain talking, music stops.]

The fishing industry is a very fragile, very, very important activity. It’s the number one industry in the Magdalen Islands.

[Shot of a captain at the helm, then views from the boat.]

Of course, every year, it’s always… It’s never a sure thing. We’re never sure if the fishing will go well. We hope so. As much for the fishermen as for those who make a living from it. The acquisition of LA Renaissance, I use the term again because it’s…

[Back to Alain talking.]

Everyone on the islands says LA Renaissance, but it’s now called LéoMar Fisheries. A lot of work has gone into it. I saw Christian and Gabriel work very hard, and even in the evenings, to get everything ready and get started on this big project. Meeting all the people, the factory workers, it was… it was emotional because we were coming to tell them, “You won’t lose your job this year. We’re going to work hard, and you’re all going to work this year. But you have to trust us”. Then Christian convinced them. Great, really great in that meeting. I’ll always remember that.

[Music resumes, shot of seaside, then of equipment on board a boat.]

Christian always dreamed of having what he has today. He’s a great dreamer, but he’s also a great entrepreneur.

[Successive shots of oysters through a boat pouch, of a harbor, of an oyster cage being unloaded at the dock.]

For him, having all these departments, whether it’s the transport fleet, the processing plants, the fish tanks, the oysters… is about protecting the resources, protecting jobs on the islands and having quality products. And to move forward with the dream he always had with his son Gabriel.

[Back to Alain talking, music stops.]

So, I’m very proud to work with them.

[Exploramer logo.]

Video length: 5 minutes and 22 seconds

Location and shooting date: Gaspé Peninsula, 2022

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Yannick Ouellet, MRC de la Haute-Gaspésie

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Background music begins.]

[Successive shots of a seal on a rock in the water, of a storefront “La Mer à boire”, of a building, of Yannick Ouellet speaking to an audience.]

Yannick Ouellet: Yannick Ouellet, chef and economic development consultant for the Haute-Gaspésie Regional County Municipality’s bio-food sector.

[Shot of Yannick speaking to the camera in a kitchen.]

I come from a family of farmers. And I’ve always worked with raw materials. I always joke that my father was a miner, and my mother was a gardener.  And I’m somewhere in between.

[Shot of Yannick speaking to an audience.]

I started when I was 15. My real job over the last five years has been to work behind the chefs.

[Shot of hands cutting raw meat, then back to Yannick speaking to the audience.]

So, for me, my job, in my business, what I was doing was coming in for establishments that had cooks who weren’t chefs but who played the role of chef.

[Back to Yannick speaking to the camera.]

Then me, in the shadows behind them, I’d act as the executive chef and lead them to become chefs, managers and, ultimately, executive chefs. Then I’d disappear. So, in the last five years, I’ve been, yearly, running about a dozen establishments at the same time.

[Shot of Yannick seen from behind talking to people, and then of men cutting raw and cooked meat.]

A kitchen is like a beehive, it’s all the same. And that’s what I like. For me, it’s… For too long in the industry, we’ve talked only about the chef. It was always the chef who made the renown of the establishment.

[Shot of hands putting meat in a hot pan.]

And I’ve never been like that. I’ve always been a team player. Yes, I used to come out in front, but that’s not what I was looking for. But for me, I work more in… It’s the beehive that interests me.

[Music stops, back to Yannick speaking to the camera.]

Because in the end, everyone’s going to grow. I think that, over time, that’s what I’ve become. I’ve become like a queen bee. I provide the information and then everyone works for the common good. And that’s the honey, that’s the end.

[Music resumes, shot of meat cooking, a man in an apron tastes and enjoys.]

I’m not interested in the path. It’s the result that’s important.

[Shot of Yannick cooking in front of people.]

In the years 2000, I was a chef, 90… yeah, 99-2000, I was a chef at my Manège à toi restaurant in Québec City, a restaurant that no longer exists. And my job there, the only reason I went there was because the owner was from the Gaspésie and she wanted to change.

[Back to Yannick speaking.]

It was a Belgian food truck selling mussels and fries. She wanted to change the formula a little. She wanted to bring in products from Gaspésie, the Islands, Gaspésie. Then I said “yes, I’d like that”. So, we set up an embassy out there, telling myself it was going to take a long time to make a name for myself out there – it took six months. And no thanks to Yannick, it was just the momentum from telling the people of Gaspésie “there’s a place for you in Québec City. If you’re interested”; it filled up pretty quickly.

[Shot of a full room, a man walks around with a dish and giving a taste of meat.]

And then one of the first things I did was to call Réjean Vigneau, since we’d already met. I called Réjean and I said, “Is it possible to get seal sausage? He said “yes”.

[Shot of the tray filled with pieces of meat and hands helping themselves.]

So, I served the seal sausage with Tapp sauerkraut, which was made with seaweed. It was my top seller.

[Back to Yannick speaking.]

Even if the local chefs, the well-known ones, they’d say to me, “It doesn’t make sense Yannick, it won’t work your thing”. It worked very, very, very well. Then Réjean explained to me a few years later that I’d been one of the first to introduce the Islands seal. But I didn’t know that.

[Shot of Yannick speaking to an audience and two men cooking in the background.]

For me, it’s natural. I never took it upon myself to say, “I have to defend Gaspésie products”. It just happened like that. So, from one effect to another, people have always acknowledged me for that. And I’ve never tried to be extravagant.

[Shot of hands cutting cooked meat into pieces.]

For me, it was the product. The seal, it showed up in my career just like any other product. Réjean started doing that. Then I said, “ah that’s interesting”, and I was buying lots of products from the Islands at the time too.

[Back to Yannick speaking to the camera.]

So, it came up, but the sausage brought me a lot of things. That’s why, when Sandra said to me five years ago, “Yannick, I’ve been thinking about doing something with Réjean, would you get on board?” It was only natural to get on board with him.

[Change of music.]

[Shot of hands shaking a bowl of churros and then people tasting a churro.]

That’s how I see myself. I’m just adding a brick to the building, and Jean Soulard is my role model in that sense.

[Back to Yannick speaking.]

It’s…  I didn’t ask for it, but at some point, I saw him do what he does. I went, that’s what I want to do. A simple guy like that, he could snub humanity with the awesome career he has.

[Back to Yannick speaking in front of an audience.]

He’s my model in the sense of sharing knowledge. I don’t work to create the need. I work to stimulate demand.

[Back to Yannick speaking to the camera.]

Do you understand what I mean, the difference? Because when we’re working to create the need, what do we do? We go and find some flag-bearer at any given establishment that will sell the product. We’re not stimulating demand here. We’re saying, “if you need it, you can find it here”.

[Shot of a full room, a man walks around with a dish and offering a taste of meat.]

If you stimulate demand; if you make Facebook posts, give out recipes, share your knowledge, at some point the world will say “I’m going to try it”.

[Back to Yannick speaking to the camera.]

That way, you stimulate a demand, and they’ll look for it. They’ll look for where they can find it. And that creates other points of sale that will say, “That’s the fourth person who’s asked me for it. I’m going to order some”.

[Back to the man walking among people with a dish.]

Do you see the difference? When everyone at the bottom asks for it, at some point you’re going to find it in the grocery stores. Because in reality, there were people before us.

[Cut back to Yannick speaking to the camera.]

The natives were here, and they ate seal.  That means we just have to come full circle. We’re not there yet.

[Back to Yannick speaking in front of an audience and then to Yannick in front of the camera.]

There’s a little matter at some point that’s going to… Just as it did 50 years ago. For a silly thing, a misperception, then at the European level, it got out of hand, all of that. It was a small event that threw things off. I think we’re capable of doing things the other way round.

[Back to someone helping themselves to the meat platter.]

There is going to come a time when food…I hope not, but I think that’s what’s coming…will be more expensive for the ordinary people of Gaspésie.

[Back to Yannick speaking to the camera.]

When we go hungry, we’ll hunt for seal.

[Exploramer logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 6 minutes and 14 seconds

Location and shooting date: Smarter seafood show, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Videos of sea urchin harvests provided by Uni-Que.

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewees:

• Denis Chau, Uni-Que
• Saki Kajita, Uni-Que

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Shot of sea urchins that have just been caught.]

[Background music begins.]

[Shot of Denis Chau and Saki Kajita facing the camera, Denis speaks.]

Denis Chau: My first name is Denis, Denis Chau. I represent Uni-Que company. In Japanese, uni is the name for a sea urchin.

[Shot of two fishermen emptying a basket of sea urchins from a boat and sorting the sea urchins.]

And we started this in 2021. Our company is located in Montreal. However, we work jointly, in association, in partnership with Gaston Bérubé, who is located in Rimouski, whose plant is located in Sainte-Luce.

[Shot of Denis speaking.]

Actually, the story comes from the fact that I’m a sea urchin enthusiast. I love sea urchins. Before the pandemic, I used to go to Japan almost every year, not just to visit, but also to eat sea urchins. Then, during the pandemic, we didn’t have the chance to go to Japan because of the…

[Shot of the boat table filled with sea urchins and then on a dish of sea urchin gonads.]

In fact, the situation or the cancellation of plane flights had me trying to find out if there was any possibility of getting sea urchins in Québec.

[Back to Denis speaking.]

Finally, I discovered Gaston Bérubé, a local Québec fisherman from Rimouski who is passionate about sea urchins and has been in the business for 40 years. I said to myself, “We are going to work with him. We’ll create an association. We’ll create a partnership together”. And that’s how we started our meeting and, together, our passion for sea urchins in Québec.

[View of a man on a boat hanging a rope from on a pulley.]

With Gaston, we do mariculture, which means we don’t do industrial or hyper-commercial fishing.

[Back to Denis and Saki in front of the camera, Denis speaks.]

It’s really…depending on the demand, we’ll prepare the order accordingly. We’ll fish out the quantity needed for the requested product.

[Shot of a Uni-Que banner, Québec sea urchins directly from Rimouski, and then of Saki Kajita speaking.]

Saki Kajita: Really, our mission is to promote Québec sea urchins. We also want the direct consumers to be able to buy our products. We also offer products on our website that we deliver to their doors. But that’s really limited to Montreal because of logistics. Also, since we’re just starting out, we don’t really have a very large transportation network.

[Shot of Saki talking to other people, then back to Saki facing the camera.]

We don’t want people to think that sea urchins are really something… very expensive…

Denis: That they’re not affordable or anything.

Saki: Well, no. It’s something you can still buy, and then taste.

[Shot of a platter of sample jars with sea urchins in them.]

Denis: They can get in touch with us. Then we can always discuss the quantity needed for the following season.

[Shot of Denis speaking.]

We’re going to be able to supply, for… for the season, there’s no problem. But place the order now.
[Laughing.]

[Camera pans to Saki.]

Saki: And for the restaurants, even if they’re in the regions, we can always find a solution. We don’t want to limit ourselves by saying “sorry, we’re just in Montreal”. No, like he said, our mission is to get all Quebecers to taste our Rimouski sea urchins at least once.

[Shot of a Québec sea urchin brochure, then back to Denis speaking.]

Denis: In fact, the season, I would say that… Because during the winter, January, February, March. Because of the freezing of the St. Lawrence River, you can’t go and pick them, you can’t harvest them.

Saki: But now, it’s really the season. If we could…

Denis: If he could, this is the season. We’d be able to. However, the real season starts in April, when the ice melts and the boats can go out and get the sea urchins. That’s until the month of May. Then starting in June, July and August, there’s a break in urchin fishing, because we… That’s when they lay their eggs.

[Camera pans to Saki.]

Saki: That’s when the gonads shrink. After that, after egg-laying, they become very small, then it takes about three months, and then they continue to eat algae, then they grow, grow, grow. In September, that’s when we can start harvesting again.

[Camera pans to Denis.]

Denis: Harvesting and fishing sea urchins from September, October, November and December. That’s the second part of the season.

[Shot of two people sorting sea urchins on a boat.]

So, all year round, it’s really a good six months.

Saki: I really wanted to work directly with the fisherman.

[Shot of Saki talking.]

And sometimes, it’s not the sea product itself that makes the change, but it’s, for example, the solution used to soak the gonads to keep their shape, the slightly salted solution that of the fresh sea urchin product. So, from that point we really worked in collaboration with the restaurateurs in Montreal. We provided samples so they could test it, put it on their menu, taste it, and then give us feedbacku, de goûter, puis ils nous donnaient des feedbacks.

[Shot of hands opening a sea urchin on a boat, then a close up of the open sea urchin and back to Saki facing the camera.]

Then we give this feedback to the fishermen, to the plant, so that they change their recipe for the solution. And that’s how the conversations and the real connection between the two made it possible for us to produce the high quality, standard products that are now recognized by Japanese restaurants in Montreal.

[Shot of the small sample pots of sea urchin samples.]

It tastes a lot like the sea. And sometimes, Quebecers have a tendency…

[Back to Saki.]

They’re a little reluctant about it, but that’s why we’re also developing other recipes, other products that are a little easier; to introduce these products to Quebecers.

[Camera pans to Denis.]

Denis: More suitable, like for example, steaming the urchins which gives a taste, a texture that is different, but so much easier to try, to taste. Because often people don’t like eating things raw.

[Successive shots of a fisherman pulling up a sea urchin cage on a boat, of an open sea urchin, and then of a box full of sea urchin gonads.]

Saki: When I hear customers asking for Rimouski sea urchins, specifically Rimouski sea urchins, it makes me really proud. That’s when I say to myself, “oh my God, we worked hard for this, and finally they recognized the Rimouski sea urchins as being in the same league as the Vancouver urchins”.

[Shot of a person sorting sea urchins on a boat.]

Our product, it’s not just…

[Shot of Denis and Saki facing the camera.]

You can just see the two of us right now, but there’s Gaston behind us. There are also others…

Denis: Workers.

Saki: Workers at the plant, the whole team.

[Close-up of Denis.]

Denis: There are so many people who are passionate, all working together to offer Quebecers a quality product.

[Back to Denis and Saki.]

Saki: Before, we used to say it was a hidden treasure, but we don’t want it to be hidden.
[Laughing.]

[Exploramer logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 6 minutes and 44 seconds

Location and shooting date: Cacouna and Smarter seafood show, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Animal videos: Jean-Christophe Lemay, Mario Longpré

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewees:

• Nancy Dumont, Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation
• Bastien Gingras Nicolas, fisherman’s helper

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Shot of Nancy Dumont speaking.]

[Background noise of a room full of people, very light background music.]

Nancy Dumont: Hello, Nancy Dumont, Commercial Fisheries Assistant for Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation, Maliseet First Nation.

[Shot of a small beach and a First Nation flag waving in the wind.]

Its offices are located in Cacouna, about 10 to 15 minutes from Rivière-du-Loup. The Maliseet First Nation’s main source of income is commercial fishing.

[Back to Nancy speaking.]

We fish mainly for lobster, crab and shrimp. We also fish for sea urchins, sea cucumbers, a small amount of whelk, turbot and halibut. These catches are distributed to industries, but we also fish for the community; redistributing to the community at least once a year.

[Background music intensifies.]

[Shot of a sea urchin in the palm of a hand, a moored boat, and then of Nicolas Bastien Gingras speaking, sitting outside.]

Bastien Gingras Nicolas: At one time, the community was looking to hire young natives. And that’s still the case to some extent for later, for the future. And at the time, I think I got lucky. I came across a crew that fished sea urchins right here in Cacouna, the same fishing I do now, every year in fact.

[Shot of the sea with a stone pier, then back to Bastien speaking.]

What brought me to this? It would really be the family, the community, and the values associated with this atypical trade.

[Shot of a sculpture of two people in a canoe, then back to Bastien, who is speaking.]

My name is Bastien Gingras Nicolas, and I’ve been a fisherman’s helper for nearly 11 years. As a fisherman’s helper, I’m a commercial fisherman, so I’ve been able to catch all kinds of fish over the years.

[Shot of crates on a boat deck, a close-up of a beachside and back to Bastien talking.]

Essentially, my relationship with the sea, I’ve always found it mysterious. It’s… It’s enticing, the sea. It seems so unpredictable. When I was younger, I always went swimming in the sea with my friends or family. My father had companies with ships. My grandfather was a sailor. I think for me, the sea is a part of who I am.

[Shot of a docked boat and back to Bastien, who is speaking.]

Personally, I’m already living my best life. I’m already really happy because I’m doing a job that allows me to make a decent living, a job that gives me the feeling of being free. And what … what more could I ask for?

[Successive shots of a sculpture of a bear holding a fish, then of the top of a Totem pole with the First Nation’s flag waving in the wind next to it, then back to Bastien speaking.]

There’s a slight difference between aboriginal and non-aboriginal fishing. First of all, in the aboriginal fishing industry, we’ve kind of had our permits given to us. It’s not the same as a fisher who bought another fisher’s permit. The purpose of being given a permit is to give work to members of the community. In other words, to help people help themselves. It’s also to generate income for the community, to redistribute, of course. So, the difference between us, aboriginal fishermen, and non-aboriginal fishermen, is that we have easier access to permits, but we do it for more people. We don’t do it for just one person. The fisherman, he does it for himself, then for his crew, who are his employees. We do it for our community.

[Music intensifies.]

[Shot of rocks in the sea with lots of birds on them, then back to Bastien talking.]

Most people say we don’t deserve it. It’s not a question of whether we deserve it or not.

[Close-up shot of the top of the Totem, then further away view of the Totem with three people next to it, then back to Bastien.]

It’s because our ancestors have always done it, and our descendants will always do it. It’s a bit unfair when you arrive in fishing villages, where there may be 30 vessels, and then there’s the one native vessel, “Hey, you’ve come to catch our fish, what are you doing here, you bunch of savages”. It can be difficult in some of the villages, even.

[Music intensifies.]

[Cut to a shot of crates and diving equipment on a boat, close-up view of the surface of the water with seagrass sticking out, then back to Bastien.]

It plays quite an important role, because traditionally, it was our way of life. The St. Lawrence River was a river of abundance. It was really easy for us to feed off the sea as much as off the land. And for me, I think it’s a bit of a credit to the community to give back, you know. To be able to live, but to also be able to give back to the community. I think that’s cool and honorable. And what does it also bring? It brings income that can be redistributed in various ways for the community.

[Shot of the diving equipment from above, then back to Bastien.]

If I had something to say to everyone, it would be to come and see us. As fishermen, we sometimes look like pirates, and we don’t seem very chatty, yet we love to present our work, to show what we do. Look at the beautiful boat. Look at the beautiful fish. I think the fishing trade is a profession that has always been noble, and one that everyone should see and get to know.

[Shot of the back of a moored boat and back to Bastien.]

Do I think fishing has a good future? I’d answer yes, if we’re extremely careful.

[Shot of the water from the coast.]

Fishing… it’s okay, I understand, you remove fish, the biomass and that sort of thing. But there’s a way to fish to ensure that the stocks are sustainable.

[Back to Bastien.]

It’s like shrimp for example. We’ve been fishing for shrimp for decades, when the shrimp are carrying their eggs or when they’re reproducing for example, and then we blame the redfish, the seals. Of course, there are perhaps 200 commercial fishing boats that fish shrimp here in Québec. But there are other factors. There are cities that empty their sewage right into the Saint Lawrence. There are ships that travel the river, burning hundreds of liters of fuel per hour. You know, the future of the Saint Lawrence is really uncertain, and, by the way, I find it alarming that we don’t talk about it more than that.

[Music intensifies.]

[Shot of the water with seagrass sticking out on the surface, then back to Bastien.]

If I had something to say to people, it would be to take care of the sea, respect the environment and don’t hesitate to pick up all the little bits of rubbish you see on the beach. Your cigarette butts, don’t throw them in the water, put them in the garbage can, and then a little bit of awareness for the Earth.

[Shot of a rock with water passing over it in waves, algae are visible.]

We eat fish, but we’re not here to destroy everything in our path either.

[Exploramer logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 6 minutes and 13 seconds

Location and shooting date: Magdalen Islands, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Animal videos: Jean-Christophe Lemay, Mario Longpré

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Gil Thériault, Intra-Quebec Sealers Association (IQSA)

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Shot of Gil Thériault speaking, sitting outside.]

Gil Thériault: Gil Thériault, I’m director of the Intra-Québec Sealers Association.

[Background music begins.]

[Aerial shot of an island, then of three seals with their heads above water and back to Gil talking.]

When I first started working on this project, I was in my early twenties, so it wasn’t my first job, but it was one of my first jobs on the labor market. I simply saw an advertisement that said, “Seeking Director for Seal Hunters Association”. So, I’m like, you know, seal hunting for me, it’s a natural thing. I’d seen it since I was a kid. So, my brothers, cousins, etc. all used to go seal hunting.

[Shot of the back of a rolling pickup truck with a kayak inside, on the sea and then on a hunter seen from behind, walking on the beach.]

I said to myself “oh well, that could be interesting”, but without really doing any more research so to speak. Then, finally, when I started working on it, I realized just how deep it went into many, many aspects, be they of biology, ethics, philosophy, politics and with regards to industrial products and so on.

[Back to Gil speaking.]

So, it’s… it’s just that it had so much depth that it really appealed to me. What’s more, I’m someone who thrives on challenges, and we all agree that working on the sealing issue was probably one of the biggest challenges you could take on. And then when I worked in the 90s, for a few years, I did a whole lot of other things after that.

[Shot of a coastline, then back to Gil talking.]

When I moved back to the Magdalen Islands after travelling around the world the job was advertised again. Then I had a bit of a “crush ‘, saying to myself “ah, I think I’d like to take over this job”, and I’ve been doing it for 13 years now and I just love it, every morning, when I get up and go to the office. There are always elements of your work that you don’t like as much, but overall, it’s a matter I’m still just as passionate about.

[Underwater shot of a diver swimming next to a grey seal.]

I joke all the time that even when I catch a fish, I find it so pitiful that I want to throw it back in the water.

[Back to Gil speaking.]

And often to journalists who asked me, “Oh, you must be so passionate about this. You must surely be a hunter, a fisherman, etc.”. I’d tell them “no, I’m not a fisherman, hunter or farmer, so I depend 100% on others to feed me”.

[Shot of an aerial view of a beach with a man walking on it and then to the hunter seen from behind.]

But at the very least, let’s have some respect for these people. Because if it wasn’t for these people, we’d have nothing on our plates, or else we’d have to take it upon ourselves to go hunting or fishing or grow our own gardens.

[Back to Gil speaking, music stops.]

So, I think that, once again, at the very least, you have to have respect for these people. Me, I decided to work with them, for them.  And I like it, I like it; maybe it makes me feel less guilty about not being able to get my own food; I don’t know.

[Music resumes, shot of three seals on an ice floe, seen from above and then view on the horizon and shot of people tasting meat in the room.]

It’s clear that people love seal products.

[Back to Gil speaking.]

And when I say people, obviously I mean people who know about seals.  Obviously, when you go to New York or Paris, people are a bit far from nature.  They’re more easily influenced by misinformation campaigns. Basically, these people don’t want to touch it, not because they don’t like the product, but simply because a psychological barrier has been put in their minds right from the start. So, as soon as you mention seal, they pull back.

[Shot of people tasting meat, then back to Gil talking.]

But all those who consume these products, whether it’s for the meat, for the skin, for the fat, and then for everything else: in fact, the skull, the offal; everything can be used in the seal.  And all those people who’ve had access to these products, who’ve tried them; they tell us what an absolutely incredible resource it is. And that’s what keeps me going, because it’s clear that this is a high-quality product, at every level.

[Shot of hands cutting raw meat, of a hand putting pieces of meat in a pan, and back to Gil talking.]

So, nobody can come and tell me no, it’s not a good product. Oh no. Basically, this is clearly a good product. It’s even a top-of-the-range product in every respect. So, the potential is enormous, really enormous, and we know that this potential is huge.

[Shot of a seal haul-out site.]

We know that there are phenomenal quantities of this resource in the water itself, even creating an imbalance from an ecological point of view.

[Back to Gil speaking.]

So, you know, I feel like … Will I still be alive when this issue is resolved, maybe not. But I’ve got the impression that it’s obvious here; that at some point it’s going to have to happen, because it just doesn’t make any sense otherwise.

[Music intensifies, shot of a man walking on a beach and back to Gil.]

It’s very personal, and what makes me proud is simply that I’m deeply convinced that I’m doing something that’s just and right in defending this issue. And often, despite everything, all the, how shall I say, the backlashes it can bring…I’ve had death threats, I’ve had all kinds of things. Some people are really cranked up on the animal issue, the seal issue in particular.

[Shot of a rock in the middle of the water with seals on it.]

But at the same time, I think it’s just ignorance. And then seal hunting is all that.

[Back to Gil speaking.]

It’s about consuming less, because it’s not industrialization, it’s wild products, etc. We consume better because it’s a quality product. You don’t need to consume as much to get the same results, and better results in terms of health, taste, at every level. And it’s better in terms of local consumption. We have this right here in our own backyard.

[Background music stops.]

[Exploramer logo.]

Video length: 6 minutes and 37 seconds

Location and shooting date: Gaspé Peninsula, 2022

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Animal videos: Jean-Christophe Lemay, Mario Longpré, Yves Persoons

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Réjean Vigneau, Côte à Côte butcher shop

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Background music begins.]

[Successive shots of the banks, the front of the Exploramer Museum and Réjean Vigneau handling meat.]

Réjean Vigneau: Réjean Vigneau, I’m a Magdalen Islander, not adopted… by birth.

[Shot of Réjean speaking.]

I’ve been hunting seals since I was 16 years old.

[Successive shots of Réjean surrounded by people, people around chatting, then back to Réjean talking.]

Then after that from… I would say that, around, more or less the age of 40, I opened a butcher’s shop where I marketed… I sort of had it in my head to market seal meat.

[View of the front a butcher’s shop, followed by successive shots of different seal products and a diagram of a seal.]

[Background music stops.]

[Successive shots of the Côte à Côte butcher’s vehicle, then of a cut of meat.]

I’m a hunter by trade, I’m a butcher, I’m a charcutier. I have a lot of fun cooking. With that, I manage a slaughterhouse. So, we’ve had to work closely with MAPAQ to invent new protocols, to make these things admissible, and to put them on our tables.

[Shot of Réjean in his work clothes cutting meat.]

Because it wasn’t easy at first. There’s a lot of people… And out of trust, MAPAQ said “Ok, fine, we’ll let you go ahead”. It wasn’t easy, but we were able to get a dispensation, and we still have it today.  Then every year we send the meat for analysis, and we pass with flying colors. For me, hunting is a big part of my life, really.

[Back to Réjean speaking, quieter music begins.]

How would you explain this? When someone asks me what I do for a living, I say I’m a seal hunter. I don’t hunt just to eat but to let people discover.  I hunt all year round. The hunter’s DNA is impossible to describe. How do you explain that you can get up in the morning to take the life of an animal, and that you like that? It’s something… because you’ll never look good, taking an animal’s life. It’s talked about a lot for a lot of reasons.
[Sobbing.]

[Shot of three seals on an ice floe, seen from above.]

[Background music stops, back to Réjean speaking.]

You can’t say that you like it. It’s your life. You take the life of an animal, you do it with respect, incredible respect. Then you do it and then you market it. For me, slaughtering a young seal isn’t much more work than slaughtering a young calf. On the contrary. For me, it’s harder to slaughter a young calf than to slaughter a seal. For me, slaughtering a seal is… mechanical things I do, it’s routine, it’s a protocol. It’s a ritual. It’s much less religious than the native ways. But we do it with great respect. And it’s… The “What does it do to us?”, it’s… I say it all the time, there are many sides, facets to it, saying there’s no pleasure in taking an animal’s life.  But we do it with the greatest respect. And you do it with restraint.

[Background music resumes, successive shots of seals, on rocks in the middle of the water.]

And the independent vets told us, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the animal was not suffering at all. That the animal was killed in the best way there is on the planet.

[Back to Réjean, background music stops.]

There’s no animal that’s commercially slaughtered as ethically as the seal. And if there was anything to change, we would have changed it. We’ve been studied. Our hunting was studied. We’ve turned it every which way, not to try and find fault with it, but to try… so that we could be perfect.

[Background music resumes.]

[Shot of seals swimming on the surface of the water and then of a seal swimming underwater.]

[Background music stops, back to Réjean speaking.]

Our mission at the Côte à Côte butcher shop, at the Seal Hunters Association, is to use this animal from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. So far, all we can… All we have to throw back in the water is the innards and the tip of the tail.

[Shot of Réjean Vigneau and two men cutting up meat, background music resumes.]

[Successive shots of cuts of different parts of meat.]

What we’re aiming for in the not-too-distant future is to save this part, which we’re throwing in the water. Then we’ll be able to say “Mission accomplished!”. We’re not going to throw anything back in the water. We’ll save the meat. The carcass will be ground up for dog food. So, when we get there, we’ll be able to say, “mission accomplished”.

[Back to Réjean speaking.]

We’re using this animal with honor because we’re going to use it, and we’re not going to throw anything away.  That’s the ultimate goal. That’s our ultimate goal as sealers.

[Shot of Réjean cutting up a carcass.]

Here, because to the great dismay of my friend Yannick Ouellet, with this I make sausages.

[Exploramer logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 6 minutes

Location and shooting date: Gaspé peninsula, 2022

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Jean-Sébastien Laliberté and Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologists

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewees:

• Tanya Condo, Mi’gmaq Wolastoqey Indigenous Fisheries Management Association (MWIFMA)
• Jérémy Jérôme, member of Gesgapegiag Mi’gmaq First Nation

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Background music begins.]

[Shot of the roadside MWIFMA sign and then to Tanya Condo, standing in front of a zodiac, talking.]

Tanya Condo: My name is Tanya Condo. I work for the Mi’gmaq Wolastoqey Indigenous Fisheries Management Association.

[Shot of the MWIFMA logo and a black-and-white photograph of fishermen.]

And I’m a research assistant. So, basically, we have a project that happens to be on the Banc-des-Américains.

[Back to Tanya speaking.]

It’s a protected area. How would I say that in French… Yeah, a protected zone. Then they asked us to find something that could monitor the healthiness of that zone. So, we chose to count the seal pups. So, if there’s a good seal population, then it means there’s a good fish population on the Banc-des-Américains. We have three outings this year, each lasting about three days. So, we are going to go out with the zodiac, then we’ll have our binoculars on our zodiac, and then we’ll count the seal pups.

[Shot of the sea.]

You know, as Mi’gmaq, we’ve always been known as the people of the sea.

[Back to Tanya speaking.]

Fishing has always been important for our people.

[Shot of teepees and back to Tanya talking.]

For me, that’s what it means. That we can make a living from our fishing. I know that my community lives a lot from its fishing. We have a big… we have a big fleet. We have a lot of people in the community who fish. It’s one of the most popular jobs in our communities right now. And that’s what it is … it’s a rebellious act! Me, that’s how I see it.

[Shot of the top of a teepee, then back to Tanya talking.]

My dream, basically, would be that all Aboriginal communities could have their own science, that they could manage their own fisheries, that we’re capable of doing it ourselves so that we can govern ourselves.  It’s really that we create our independence from the Government of Canada, because we’re capable of it. That’s exactly what I’m talking about when I say… “rebellious act”, it’s “we want to do it ourselves”. We want to govern ourselves like we used to. It’s about going back to the way it was and really doing everything we can ourselves, because we can.

[Shot of the MWIFMA sign on the side of the road, then of Jérémy Jérôme speaking, standing on a beach.]

Jérémy Jérôme: My name is Jérémy Jérôme, member of the Mi’gmaq community of Gesgapegiag. I was born in Maria, but have lived my life, as a child and an adult, here in my community.

[Shots of traditional Indigenous tents.]

My father is a subsistence fisherman.

[Back to Jeremy speaking.]

Me, I learned a lot from him, especially about sharing. There can never be a surplus because there are other families who don’t have any. So, I learned to share with other families. Not all families fish. Not all families hunt either.  But as hunters-fishermen, to feel good about himself, he has to share.

[Shot of a mountainous coast.]

He can’t keep it all to himself.

[Back to Jeremy speaking.]

We went through a period – I think you know what I mean. The famous Marshall decision in 2000. It opened a lot of doors for us. I’m a commercial fisherman because of Mr. Marshall. The Supreme Court of Canada decision finally recognized our rights. And we all took off from there. Of course, before that, other kinds of fishing existed, but it was mainly subsistence fishing: salmon, trout and flounder. But after the Marshall event, the big commercial fishing took off for me and for other people in the community.

[Shot of the front of a building with the MWIFMA logo, then back to Jérémy speaking.]

As a captain-commercial fisherman, from my point of view, let’s say in the lobster fishery, the crews that are currently fishing, a good part of them were my students, let’s say.

[Shot of a mountainous coast.]

So, I’m proud of that. Passing on knowledge is natural for me too. You can’t keep everything for yourself because then you forget.

[Back to Jeremy speaking.]

I’ve often explained it to a lot of people, and now I’ll explain it to you; me, me with my name, my title as captain, it’s not worth a whole lot of money.  It’s my guys behind me who are worth money. And it’s them, thanks to them, thanks to the crews I’ve had, that I am where I am right now. But it’s like…  I thank them every year. I don’t have a choice. And that’s that. You can’t have a good captain without a good crew.

[Close-up shot of a pebble beach, then back to Jérémy speaking.]

I’ve always had wet hands, wet feet, either in the river or in the bay here. Water is a magnificent force that can’t be beaten. You have to go with it. I find an extension of who I am in the sea. I can’t stop fishing. I just can’t… I can’t even explain it. I don’t know how.

[Shots of the beach, then back to Jeremy speaking.]

I’ll tell you, I’ve been lobster fishing for 24 years, and I’m good for many more.

[Exploramer logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 5 minutes and 57 seconds

Location and shooting date: Québec, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Videos of the Château Frontenac Garden provided by Frederic Laroche.

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Jean Soulard, Chef

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Shot of Soulard speaking, in a kitchen.]

Jean Soulard: Jean Soulard, I’m a chef and my life is cooking.

[Background music begins.]

[Successive shots of parts of the Château Frontenac and its garden, then back to Jean speaking.]

I was lucky enough to grow up in a tiny village in the west of France called Vendée. There was an inn run by my grandmother, and a bakery run by the other grandmother. In this village, we were practically self-sufficient. There were cows, everything you needed. There was agriculture. Naturally, we ate everything there was in the area. And that was what cemented what my life would later be inside the kitchen. I was born with my grandfather’s big garden behind… behind the inn with all the fields. There were a thousand people in the village. They were all farmers, the people.  So, the whole cycle of the year was inside the things that grew, the culture; and I lived it all. And that runs through my veins.

[Music intensifies, successive shots of the Château Frontenac and on herbs, then back to Jean speaking.]

And then, as fate would have it, a transfer brought me to Canada. It was Québec City. I was due to put down my suitcase.  I was already 30, and I felt I had to do something. And then I set down my suitcase here. In ’93, the Château made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. So, I spent the last 20 years of my career at the Château Frontenac.

[Shots of parts of the garden and plants identified as wild garlic and balsam fir.]

I don’t think there’s a cook in the world who doesn’t like to stick his hands in the soil.

[Back to Jean speaking.]

At the Château Frontenac, when I arrived at the Château Frontenac… Now that’s a good question you asked me. At first, it took me a while to get all the way around, because it’s a big place, with four kitchens. And then, all of a sudden, I see a space at the level of the main kitchen, above the main kitchen, a large space. A sort of garden where they had put a lot of plants to hide the squalor, okay? So that the windows facing the interior wouldn’t be too ugly. And then I said “Oh my god!” It wasn’t big.  It was about the size of this kitchen, what you see behind me. It was in two parts. I said, “Oh, I’m going to do something”. Obviously, the first thing I did, I didn’t plant potatoes or onions, but all my herbs; they’ve been there for years. Obviously, I had a vegetables grower, not a market grower, a gardener in the hotel who helped me out a lot, because I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But for me, it was important! Then it was… in the afternoon, between the two services, I’d go up and I had a stone bench and my coffee. Then I’d look at all my herbs. Then sometimes I’d experiment with vegetables, with blackcurrant bushes or… well, whatever, mini eggplants, … I’d experiment with them. It was a “flop”, or not, a tomato plant or something like that. Of course, I couldn’t produce for the entire Château. Of course, the Château is 1500 covers a day. But for a very specific table, where I could write “Basil from my garden”. Afterwards, I put beehives and “Honey from my garden” on the menu. I put chickens. I stopped there. There were only eggs. I had 5 hens. And the eggs were part of a special dessert for a table with “Eggs from my garden”.

[Music intensifies, successive shots of plants in the garden and a bee in a flower, then back to Jean.]

Food is a pleasure. It’s a daily pleasure we can enjoy every day. Of course, sometimes we don’t have the time. Sometimes you just do what you can.  Sometimes you just lose it because…  Because life is the boss! But it’s a pleasure like… like being around friends, taking a trip, watching the waves in Gaspésie. It’s a pleasure. And food is a pleasure. When the cook succeeds in bringing this pleasure to the people around him, be they children or adults, he has just received his salary. His salary in pleasure, not in pay, we agree. And that’s happiness. That’s happiness, and that’s what every chef is looking for?

[Shots of the roof of the Chateau and tree leaves below.]

In pursuit, at the very least, of bringing happiness to the people he serves. Yes, I believe that.

[Back to Jean speaking.]

We have magnificent biodiversity, okay? Around you, around Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, the place is grand.  There are some superb things that nature has given us that we absolutely must protect. And there are rules to be respected. But when you see something new close to you, that you could taste, I, as a chef, would say “Do it! Try it!”.

[Background music stops.]

Keep what you’ve got, or what you’ve seen, but take it all the way. Bring it to your table. And you’ll see, people will be surprised. And tell them, “This comes from home. And it’s the best thing you can get”.

[Jean does a clapperboard at the end of the clip, Exploramer logo.]

Video length: 4 minutes and 10 seconds

Location and shooting date: Rimouski, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Videos at sea provided by Devocean.

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Olivier Grenier, Devocean

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Background music begins.]

[View of the sea, then a man hauling up a buoy on a boat.]

Olivier Grenier: Devocean is a company that started out about 3 years ago.

[Shot of Olivier Grenier speaking.]

I’m a production manager. I’m a mechanical designer, a salesman, a sales rep, a marketing manager. That’s the joy of entrepreneurship. You have to wear a lot of hats to make the business work.

[Different successive shots of men handling a buoy on a boat.]

It started with a course where we had to find issues, and then find a few projects that could have an impact. Then at the beginning, we looked at everything to do with ghost traps, so lobster and crab traps that are lost in the sea.

[Back to Olivier speaking.]

So, we looked into how we could recover it all. Then, as we looked into the matter, we realized that there was a bigger issue at stake, and that was the whales.

[Shot of the buoy rewinding aboard the boat.]

How can we make progress in fishing equipment for the protection of the environment and ecosystems. Us, we said to ourselves that there was a pretty good problem to solve.

[Back to Olivier speaking.]

And there are also great contributions to be made, because the maritime environment in Québec, and indeed all over the world, has been somewhat neglected in terms of technological advances.

[Shot of a man throwing a buoy overboard.]

Let’s just say that the fishing methods that were used 50 years ago, the way they worked, that’s the way they still work today.

[Shot of a buoy on the surface disappearing into the water.]

The grandfather who taught the father, who taught the boy, that’s still a bit a traditional way of doing things.

[Back to Olivier speaking.]

It’s like adapting technology to their way of doing things so that, basically, there’s common ground.

[Successive shots of photographs of the development of buoys in the workshop and then their installation on board a boat.]

We’re developing something. We rush to put them in the hands of someone more competent to see what they think. Then we build upon that with the expertise of the fishermen so that, as we develop, we develop with the goal of developing something that’s designed for them. And that will really solve their problem. We have feedback from the fishermen.

[Back to Olivier speaking.]

Again, this year, with the distribution of 130 buoys, we’re looking at how we can complete the development, taking their comments into account.

[Successive shots of photographs of the production of buoys in the workshop.]

Then to start distributing our systems on a larger scale. And we’re at the stage where the design of the product is advanced enough to go on the market.

[Back to Olivier, then successive shots of photographs of the buoys and back to Olivier.]

Going from functional prototype to an actual product. What was it like to go out in the field with the fishermen? Listen, we did a lot of sailing, and then we realized that nobody had good sea legs.

[Shot of a man lifting a buoy out of the water and then placing it on its base aboard the boat so that it can be rewound.]

It was… It cost… We had an employee budget for Gravol to be able to get through some of the outings. But no, it was still a lot of fun. Fishermen are happy to have people on their boats who don’t know much about fishing. And they’re a friendly bunch too, to bring us along… Some of our staff have gone out with fishermen for 2 or 3 days, even a week, to test products with them, to make sure that the whole operating cycle went smoothly with them.

[Back to Olivier.]

And that they had fully understood how the system worked. But I’d say it’s a friendly environment, an environment… even… even with the conservative methods and the reluctance to change, there’s a certain curiosity that makes them interested in seeing how things work. They’re interested in welcoming us.

[Shot of a boat, view of the sea.]

They want to show us what they do, but they also want to see what we do! It’s a really great relationship.

[Music intensifies.]

[Exploramer logo and Devocean logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 4 minutes and 37 seconds

Location and shooting date: Smarter seafood show, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Emmanuel Sandt-Duguay, Chasse-Marée

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Background music begins, sounds of a room full of people.]

[Shot of Emmanuel Sandt-Duguay speaking.]

Emmanuel Sandt-Duguay: My name is Emmanuel Sandt-Duguay, co-owner and co-founder of Chasse-Marée, a Rimouski-based company.

[Shot of the “Chasse-marée” sign with successive preserves in front and then back to Emmanuel.]

In fact, I’m a whelk fisherman. And the history of the company; we started this project in 2019, canning whelks and other species as well. In fact, after… trips to Europe, friends, discussions… In Europe we see, for example in Portugal, in Lisbon, there are grocery stores with lots of canned sardines.  In Spain, there are some different products too, that are a little bit similar to whelks, or mussels, or whatever.

So, it was a project that we had, me and Guillaume, who is the co-owner of Chasse-Marée. And then the triggering factor, in fact, was that there was a building for sale in Rimouski, not very far away, that really met our needs. That’s when we decided to embark on this project.

[Shot of a fishing trap on the ground and then on a “Conserverie du Saint-Laurent” can.]

This has led us to, really to begin our marketing, our product commercialization in the summer of 2022.

[Back to Emmanuel speaking.]

We’re really into what we call “clean label”. So, our products are really additive-free, and healthy as possible. So, the recipes we’ve developed…. We really did over 130 trials. It really is research and development, trial and error. Then we did taste panels, too, with different criteria for appearance and texture.

[Shot of a box filled with Chasse-Marée canned goods.]

So, from there, we selected and decided to market these three standardized recipes.

[Shot of open cans, of Emmanuel at his kiosk and back to Emmanuel speaking.]

All the flavor of the whelks is kept in the preserve along with other ingredients. We have three products. One in a, what is called boreal brine with some bog-myrtle.  Another in camelina oil. This oil is produced in Québec. Then we have the whelk with lobster bisque, so it’s a beautiful pairing that’s different.

[Shot of an open can of Chasse-Marée, then back to Emmanuel speaking.]

It’s a question of texture. I think that’s what it is. People were used to eating vinegar-coated whelks, and that gave it a texture that was a little tougher. Then we decided to treat this whelk flesh in other ways, so that it becomes very tender. I think that’s where people are a little surprised, so that’s the way they like it.

[Shot of Emmanuel talking to people at his booth.]

Since we started marketing our products, we’ve sold all of our production, and it was pretty quick.

[Back to Emmanuel.]

I think the product was expected, too, at least for some.

[Shot of an open can, then back to Emmanuel speaking.]

Then there were others who tasted them and liked them too. I’ve really seen an evolution in recent years; of restaurants wanting to put Québec products back on their tables and to cook with them. And whelk… is really part of our culinary identity. And to have it promoted by chefs who have also made it known, so that stimulates demand. Then there’s a certain enthusiasm for it, so I think we’re talking about bourgot more and more in Québec.

[Shot of the Fourchette bleue sign with the name Chasse-Marée Inc. Then on a closed Chasse-Marée can.]

Then, on our own small scale, we have developed it in other ways. And yes, chefs play a very big role, because you can often say that they’re in the media.

[Back to Emmanuel speaking.]

But just the fact of putting whelk on the menu, that people eat it, that they appreciate it, that they talk about it and then, after that, they go and look for it at the fish market or want to have a meal with friends, “Ah I’ve eaten whelk, like this recipe, etc.” and then they want to try it… So, I think that chefs, fishermen, everyone has a role to play in stimulating, raising awareness and making these products known.

[Shot of several cans stacked horizontally, then back to Emmanuel.]

To contribute a little to the local economy and also to the model we have. They’re really good products. And we’re lucky to have good products.

[Shot of the cans and then Logo Exploramer.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 6 minutes and 38 seconds

Location and shooting date: Magdalen Islands, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Yann-Philippe Poirier, captain of boat La Chouette III

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Shot of Yann-Philippe Poirier, with a boat in the background.]

Yann-Philippe Poirier: You see, I grew up by the docks. It’s always been part of my environment. My father was a fisherman, his father before him, his great-grandfather, and so on, have practically always been. It’s part of me, it’s part of who we are.

[Background music begins.]

[Successive shots of a coastline, fishing traps, a boat buoy, boats moored at a dock.]

[Background music stops.]

[Back to Yann-Philippe talking.]

My name is Yann-Philippe Poirier. I’m originally from the islands, from l’Étang-du-Nord. I’m a young entrepreneur in the fishing industry. I’ve been doing it for… at least a good ten years now I’ve been doing this. I ended up buying a fishing business, my father’s business, and since then I’ve expanded it.

[Background music resumes, view of the front of the boat La Chouette III.]

I bought another boat with another permit… he had a lobster business; me, I bought a clam business, which I combined with the lobster business.

[Shot of the boat’s pontoon.]

[Background music fades, back to Yann-Philippe speaking.]

It’s a very risky business, because you have very good years and then not so good years.  We’re at the mercy of fuel prices, international markets, the weather, the resource itself, and Fisheries and Oceans bureaucrats. Fishermen have been able to do this for many years. We’re leaders in resource protection, let’s say for lobster. We’ve made many, many, many, many efforts ourselves, initiatives for fishermen, fishermen’s organizations to protect and develop the resource. I have a lot of faith in the fishermen on this issue. Of course, even with all that, there’s always people who break the rules.

[Shots of people loading a truck on the dock, music resumes.]

11 years ago, lobster fishing wasn’t what it is today on the Magdalen Islands. We would talk about twenty or so 1,000 pounds per fisherman. Today, it’s more like 40-50. Who’s to say that in 10 years, we won’t be back to 25,000 pounds of lobster per boat? And if the price goes back down to $5-6 a pound, it won’t be profitable anymore.

[Back to Yann-Philippe talking.]

But I have faith, faith still, in the evolution of… the evolution of attitudes in the fishing industry. It’s changed a lot. Some people are much more conscientious about the environment. But we don’t have a choice, because we realize that we’re also very closely linked. I’ve always said, “We always have to take care of the sea, because it’s the sea that feeds us”.

[Music stops, successive shots of fishing traps, of boats moored at the dock, then back to Yann-Philippe.]

History with a capital “H”. For decades, we’ve seen several fisheries close one after the other. And, in the end, it gives lessons.

[Background music resumes, view of a seaside, boats moored at the dock, then back to Yann-Philippe speaking, music fades out.]

I love my job. I love my job, and I’m not going to change it. I didn’t… I didn’t become a fisherman by default. I studied business administration at university. I became a fisherman by choice, out of love for the job.  It’s… First of all, I’m my own boss.

[Successive shots of photographs depicting fishing sessions.]

I work with… I often hire my friends.  So, you know, we have great adventures together, we go out, we see magnificent sunrises, it’s an adventure, it’s challenging, it’s demanding, but it’s also great times.

[Back to Yann-Philippe speaking.]

The day before yesterday I changed the name of the boat again to carry on the tradition, and then I found… I was so proud. I put my daughter’s name on the front of my boat. I thought it was… it’s priceless.

[Music stops, image of a boat full of clam crates, then back to Yann-Philippe speaking.]

The first time I came back with a boatload of clams, I was very, very proud! Because I often came back with not very much at first.

[Successive shots of a hydraulic dredge.]

Hydraulic dredging is like what I do for clamming. It’s been … we’ve only been doing it on the islands for about thirty years. It’s extremely hard on the equipment, on the men, on the expenses.

[Back to Yann-Philippe speaking.]

So, you see, the profitability is really, really not exceptional. As a result, people will often abandon this type of fishing. And we also have a Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads because there’s a certain amount of pressure to stop dredging, therefore the dredging of scallops and clams. I’m a little less worried because we’re on loose seabed, we’re on sandy bottoms.

[Successive shots of a hydraulic dredge.]

So, we don’t hurt much because the bottom will rebuild itself afterwards, given that it’s a sandy bottom. However, in terms of resources, we are currently working on a project to rationalize fishing.

[Back to Yann-Philippe speaking.]

So that in the end, with the help of the government, we can buy back two licenses and just keep the two that operate this type of fishing, because we fully satisfy local demand. And that’s how we could, actually, ensure the sustainability of the resource.

[Shot of a coastline.]

And it’s the principle of agricultural land that you farm the land for “x” amount of time, then put it to rest for “x” number of years so that it can regenerate.

[Back to Yann-Philippe speaking.]

And that’s what we wanted to do, to try and protect our resource ourselves, as we’ve done with lobster; so that it continues to be sustainable, so that things continue to go well. We didn’t want it to end up like many other species, being overfished. And that’s what happened, at the last minute. Finally, they realized it was too late and closed the fishing. They put moratoriums on it.  It’s something that scares the hell out of us.

[Background music resumes.]

[Successive shots of boats moored at the dock, on the name of the boat La Chouette III and then back to Yann-Philippe.]

It’s very big financial risks, it’s big commitments, and then at some point… I’m a very resilient person, patient and determined.

[Aerial shot of a port and back to Yann-Philippe.]

I love it. We’re a great community, and we help each other out any way we can. We feed people. It’s a bond that’s so strong that I feel… I feel as much at home out at sea or even underwater, diving, as I do at home; well almost.

[Exploramer logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 5 minutes and 18 seconds

Location and shooting date: Magdalen Islands, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Benoit Arseneau, Fumoir D’antan

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Background music begins.]

[Successive shots of boats moored at the dock, the Fumoir D’Antan vehicle, a wooden building, then the opening of a shutter revealing suspended fish rods.]

[Shot of Benoit Arseneau, talking while sitting outside.]

Benoit Arseneau: My name is Benoit Arseneau, Ben à Ben.  I’m co-owner of Fumoir D’Antan.

[Shot of the Fumoir D’Antan sign, then back to Benoit.]

We’ve been in business for 25 years. So, we’ve put my grandfather’s old smokehouses back into operation.

[Successive shots of old photographs of the buildings and workers of the time.]

My grandfather built his smokehouses in 1940, because at the time there was a lot of herring around the Magdalen Islands. Smoked herring was an industry back then.

[Back to Benoit.]

There were 40 smokehouses on the islands. They smoked 10 million pounds of herring every spring. So, in the early ’40s, my grandfather built three back-to-back smokehouses.

[View of a large vertical photograph showing the inside of the smoking room.]

And then after that, until 1975, when he had to stop smoking because there was overexploitation of the herring fishery.

[Back to Benoit.]

So, the smoked herring industry collapsed. And then it was closed for 25 years. We started up again in 1996.

[Shot of open window revealing rods of hanging fish, then back to Benoit.]

There were 40 smokehouses on the islands. So, wherever there’s a fishing port, inevitably there were smokehouses somewhere around.

[Successive shots of old photographs representing the work in the smoking rooms, then back to Benoit.]

And today, all the people you are talking about, aged 60 and over, their first job was working in the smokehouses, you know. That meant that everyone had worked or at least smelled those odors, somehow that enriches our knowledge today.

[Successive shots of the smoking rooms.]

Today, we are the only original fishing vessels.

[Back to Benoit speaking.]

There’s no more smokery. Today, there are only these here buildings left. All the others were demolished in the ’80s or fell into ruin. The last one to fall into ruin was 5 years ago.

[Successive shots of a photograph of a smokehouse in ruins, followed by photographs of work in smokehouses.]

It’s always been a family business. When we started to take over it from my father, when we were at the table stringing the herring, the procedure of putting it onto rods if you like, around the table I had two of my uncles, I had one of my aunts and then…

[Back to Benoit talking.]

And it was there, around the table, that we learned some of the stories that are still being told today. So, it was a nice period, it was special. We learned the technique, of course, the smoking technique. But we also learned the stories that go with all that, stories that we still tell our visitors and tourists today.

[Shot of the front of the smokehouse, followed by a photograph of smoked herring.]

[Background music stops.]

[Shot of a boat on the water.]

I think you have to be passionate. You have to love food, you have to be a bit of an epicurean, you have to love adventure, you have to love risk. I think that’s what being an entrepreneur is all about.

[Back to Benoit talking.]

Nothing can be taken for granted. Today, we’re experiencing labor problems. We’re experiencing supply problems.

[Successive shots of smoked products, then of Benoit and a woman eating a skewer of seafood, seated outdoors.]

Except that, at some point, when you sell a fish, when you make a transaction with someone, when you inform someone, you give someone information about a product, it’s rewarding.

[Close-up shot of the rods, then back to Benoit talking.]

I think it’s a trade. It’s exciting, you have to love it, you have to love food. We work in food; we work in the food industry. People come here, we tell them our story, we let them taste our products and even, from time to time, we even serve our products to a camera. So, that’s it, that’s the fun of it. That’s the fun of it. It’s all part of life’s pleasures.

[Background music resumes.]

[Shot of boats moored at dock, then back to Benoit talking.]

If there are fewer fish, we’ll keep smoking them as long as we can, otherwise we’ll smoke something else. We’ve got nice buildings, we’ve got expertise, so there’s a way forward and then we’ll keep moving forward. I think we’re going to diversify like we did in the early 2000s, when we started with smoked herring, and today we have 15-20 different products here.

[Successive shots of different smoked and packaged products and back to Benoit talking.]

We work with mackerel, salmon, scallops, cheese and we also do meat… So, we have a very wide range of products. But as I say and like to say, herring remains our signature product. Herring is what we’ve always smoked here.

[Shot of an open window, revealing fish.]

The soul of our smokehouse is smoked herring.

[Back to Benoit.]

I think we’ve had a lot of great times. There have been many fine moments. The new generation is one of them. The first rod of herring we put up in the smokehouse, the first fire we lit, the first story my uncle told me around the table threading the herring, those were moments too. Le Fumoir D’Antan is all about authenticity. We live every moment; every day is an exchange. We’re doing what we love, we’re producing, we’re smoking. We have younger workers. Tourists are coming, visitors are coming, they’re happy, they’re happy to be here. They’re happy to be on the islands. They’re happy to be at Fumoir D’Antan. All this means that, for me, life… life is beautiful. Life is beautiful, and I just hope that it will continue.

[Close-up shot of skewers of smoked products.]

It’s somewhat of a love story. It’s bits and pieces of a love story between us and our buildings, our approach. There you go!

[Exploramer logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 2 minutes et 56 secondes

Location and shooting date: Smarter seafood show, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist

Videographer: Guillaume Lévesque

Editor: Philippe Chaumette

Interviewee:

• Anh Nguyen, KLKT Inc.

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Shot of Anh Nguyen speaking.]

Anh Nguyen: I’m Anh Nguyen from the KLKT company.

[Background music begins and sounds of a crowded room.]

[Shots of a promotional banner and KLKT fish sauce bottles.]

What we’re showcasing today at the trade show is fish sauce, which is an Asian condiment.

[Back to Anh speaking.]

We started this project with the idea of creating a cultural bridge, a culinary bridge, between my adopted country, which is Québec, because I feel like a Quebecer, and my native country, which is Vietnam. That’s where this project started. It took us 8 years of research and development to be able to update and arrive at the formula we have today. Because we have to make adjustments in fish species, temperature… And we also have to comply with MAPAQ regulations.

[Close-up shot of a bottle of sauce, then back to Anh speaking.]

We prepared the sauce using Québec fish, capelin, and with salt. Strictly these ingredients, because I’ve noticed that the fish sauces currently available on the market are industrial sauces. In other words, they’re a mixture of products, flavorings, glutamates and colorings.

[Shot of Anh at her booth talking to someone, then back to Anh speaking to camera.]

And that’s not what I knew when I was growing up. It wasn’t like that. I knew fish sauce with fish and salt.

[Alternating shots of KLKT’s exhibition table, Anh Nguyen and another man at their booth, and Anh facing the camera.]

Me, I consider the project a success only if everyone embraces the same idea as we do. In other words, sustainable fishing and sensible, conscious consumer behavior. And what’s most important, too, is to democratize the sauce and to get Québec women to use it in their cooking, other than in Thai stir-fry, Chinese fried rice… Forget it! Put it in your Québec dishes. That’s the success we’re looking for. So, use your imagination in your dishes, in your bouillabaisses, in your soups, in your stews. Replace salt with this for the taste and also for the protein. Because there’s protein in fish sauce.

[Shot of KLKT fish sauce bottles.]

It’s from a Quebecer of Vietnamese origin.

[Back to Anh.]

There are not… there can’t be any better than that. [Laughing.]

[Exploramer logo.]

[Background music stops.]

Video length: 4 minutes

Location and shooting date: Gaspé Peninsula, 2022 and Smarter seafood show, 2023

Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Jean-Sébastien Laliberté and Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologists

Videographer and editor: Guillaume Lévesque, Les productions de la Morue Salée

Interviewee:

• Patrick Denis, Cloridorme

Credit: Exploramer, 2024

[Background music, view of the shoreline and the village of Cloridorme, then a view of the coastline.]

Patrick Denis: My name is Patrick Denis. I’m the third generation to take over the family business, Poissonnerie Cloridorme, based in Cloridorme, Gaspésie.

[Close-up of Patrick holding a dried sea cucumber between his fingers.]

Sea cucumber, it’s… Here’s an example of sea cucumber. This is in its dried state.

[View of Patrick talking, sitting by the sea.]

Sea cucumbers are in the same family as starfish.

[View of the coast.]

It lives here, along the coast. It’s fished all along the Gaspé coast, mainly just on the north side, but also on the south side.

[Shot of Patrick’s hands turning a dried sea cucumber between his hands.]

The interesting thing about sea cucumbers is that they’re packed with vitamins. I won’t name them all, because the list is too long.

[Tilt upwards to Patrick’s face who is speaking.]

But we’re talking about vitamin B12, which is impressive because we’re talking about one hundred and four percent of this nutritional value. Lots of protein too. Earlier, we were talking about twenty grams for twenty-eight grams of sea cucumbers. That’s quite high. So, it’s interesting. But it’s a product that’s still very little known to Quebecers, much consumed in China, but very little known to Quebecers.

[Shot of Cloridorme’s wild sea cucumber packets.]   

[Overall shot of the exhibition hall at the Smarter seafood trade show, filled with visitors. Text displayed: salon Fourchette bleue 2023.]

[Shot of Patrick talking to trade show participants.]

I often compare it to tofu, because it takes on a bit of the taste of… what you’re cooking it with.

[Shot of Patrick speaking to participants at the trade show and then of various pages on the Cloridorme website.]

Recipes, we have a few on our website. We have a risotto, a ceviche, a stir-fry. We’ve got it all. Everything you need to prepare sea cucumber is on our website. So, people can see it all there.

[Close-up shot of 3 pop-combres in an open hand.]

The pop-combre is a product we’ve developed, and that’s also recent. It’s a product… you know in Gaspésie, people like to eat it around the fire in the evening, with or without alcohol, depending on their taste.

[View of Patrick speaking.]

But that’s where we started from. And then people, they can consume it just like that. There’s no need for a procedure so that they can consume it like that.

[View of the coast.]

For us, sea cucumbers have always been an industry that was… Well, we’re very close, the processors, the fishermen, the DFO, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, we always work together.

[View of Patrick talking, sitting by the sea.]

We always have work committees.

[View of buildings on the seafront.]

And the goal for everyone is to have cucumbers still available in the future. For us, the priority has always been the quality of the sea cucumber.

[Shot of a packet of wild sea cucumbers from Cloridorme, then back to Patrick.]

And every year, we look to innovate in this direction. Always, always, always, we’re improving our transformation processes. And we consult… One of the most important things is to be very close to our customers. We have a lot of discussions with them. We do tests that we send out, and then they give us a bit of feedback, some feedback on our improvements.

[Shot of several bags of sea cucumber.]

When it’s worthwhile, we make improvements, and we keep going.

[Shot of a young man’s face talking, then a screen with a video about Cloridorme playing.]

We sell a bit in Québec, a bit in Canada, but these percentages are minimal.  It’s still the Asian clientele that buys it. So, we’re trying to promote it in different ways.

[Shot of a hand holding a sea cucumber.]

We’re also going to explain to average Quebecers that sea cucumbers often appear on the shelves as something with a high price tag. But in fact, when you go through the rehydration process, sea cucumbers weigh seven times as much as what you bought.

[Close-up shot of sea cucumber salad on which a hand places a whole sea cucumber.]

So, if you buy one pound, you end up with seven pounds of product. That’s not the problem. But you know, it’s the interest in sea cucumbers. People have often seen cucumbers on the beach. That’s the image they have in their heads when they eat sea cucumbers. And that’s what makes things difficult. But we are trying in different ways to break down that image of sea cucumbers.

[View of Patrick speaking at the trade show.]

We eat a lot with our eyes. You know, the eyes, it’s the visual, it’s very important. Sea cucumbers are a bit more difficult in that respect. But try it, because once people try it, they’ll change their ideas about sea cucumbers.

[Shot of the plate with the whole sea cucumber on top of the cucumber salad.]

Me, I’d say try it, don’t be afraid to try it. After that, you’ll have made up your mind, once you’ve tasted the product.

[Exploramer logo.]

[The background music stops.]