Lobstering on the Benjo (Complete Documentary)
- 16 years ago
Experience a day on a Cape Cod lobster boat. Follow the Benjo out through the choppy early morning swells of Chatham harbor and accompany the lobstermen through their rounds- baiting and hauling their traps and buoys. Underwater footage reveals lobsters in their natural habitat feeding on fish and kelp. We then follow them into the traps and then topside into the holds of the Benjo. Also features extensive interviews with Captain Ben Bergquist and sternman Doug Schaffer. The Fishtown Educational Series documents the men and women of the New England fishing industry who continue their way of life despite an increasingly uncertain future.
Best Documentary- 1998 Masschusetts Cable TV Awards Winnter- 1997 Charleston International Film Festival
Review
"Head to the library and you'll find if, you haven't already made the discovery, that there is darn little available to read about lobstering or any other kind of fishing for that matter. But hark! A light develops at the end of the tunnel! This video, Lobstering on the Benjo, features loads of underwater lobster footage and lots of at-sea action. We see lobsters roaming around. We see them hiding in the traps. We even see the darn thing snatch an unlucky minnow that was swimming by. The lobstermen explain how traps work, explain how the entrance is called the kitchen and the next hopper is called the parlor. The narrator, who is none other than author Dana Eldridge, explains how eggers (egg bearing females) are flipped back just so, landing with their legs sticking up and thus protecting the eggs from the ker-splash. I'm tellin ya, this film is cool."
--Cape Cod Times, Molly Benjamin- November 15, 1997
Best Documentary- 1998 Masschusetts Cable TV Awards Winnter- 1997 Charleston International Film Festival
Review
"Head to the library and you'll find if, you haven't already made the discovery, that there is darn little available to read about lobstering or any other kind of fishing for that matter. But hark! A light develops at the end of the tunnel! This video, Lobstering on the Benjo, features loads of underwater lobster footage and lots of at-sea action. We see lobsters roaming around. We see them hiding in the traps. We even see the darn thing snatch an unlucky minnow that was swimming by. The lobstermen explain how traps work, explain how the entrance is called the kitchen and the next hopper is called the parlor. The narrator, who is none other than author Dana Eldridge, explains how eggers (egg bearing females) are flipped back just so, landing with their legs sticking up and thus protecting the eggs from the ker-splash. I'm tellin ya, this film is cool."
--Cape Cod Times, Molly Benjamin- November 15, 1997