The Fish Belong to the People, a feature length documentary, follows a group of family fishermen in Port Clyde, Maine as they work to save their fishing grounds from government, market structure, and themselves. With each passing season their way of life has slowly been extinguished by old ways of doing business that favors the most efficient and destructive ways of fishing over sustainability.
In the last forty years fishing technology has advanced largely unchecked and without conscious attention to the preservation of the fish stocks. As a result government and big business are slowly pushing small family fishermen out in the name of conservation.
With nothing left to lose, the local fishermen of Port Clyde are trying to stay afloat by finally becoming an environmentally friendly operation. Their proactive association is developing cleaner ways of fishing by reducing their use of powerful technologies at sea. On land they retool how their catch is sold- as a cleaner alternative that comes fresh off the boat straight to the public. Ultimately it is the people as consumers who will put their support behind factory machines or local family owned boats.