Entangled: Lobstermen & Conservationists Do the Right Whale Thing
By Liam Lacey
Rating: B
Mutual survival is at stake in Entangled, a documentary about the conflict between lucrative Atlantic lobster fishery and conservationists determined to save the North American right whales from extinction.
The film, co-directed by Andy Laub and Boston Globe reporter David Abel, is an example of similar battles taking place on multiple fronts, pitting environmental preservation against the future of resource-based jobs.
Presented as part of the Impact series focusing on environmental and social issues, Entangled (currently in some Canadian cinemas cross-Canada and streaming in late-July or early August) is a hybrid of educational nature film and advocacy.
Though the filmmakers provided space for lobster fishermen and industry leaders to express their frustration with this incursion on their livelihoods, it’s closer to a public service announcement on behalf of the whales, with a gauntlet of scientists, environmentalist advocates, regulators and museum docents and children’s drawings in their support.
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
Along the way, the film provides lots of information about our giant mammal cousins. The numbers of right whales (the origin of the name is obscure, though apocryphally it referred to the “right” kind of whale to kill) is the biggest whale species after the blue whale, reaching up to 70 tons.
Of the three related species in the world, the North Atlantic variety are the ones most at risk, dwindling down to fewer than 400, and not reproducing fast enough to sustain their population.
Though they are no longer hunted, the right whale population has dropped 25 percent in the past decade, mostly because of fatal injuries from rope lines and ship strikes. Climate change has aggravated the problem. Warmer waters from climate change, particularly in the Gulf of Maine, means the whales are foraging outside their traditional feeding areas in pursuit of the rice-sized crustaceans known as copepods that are their main food supply.
At the same time, lobster fishers are pursuing their catches in cooler, deeper waters, causing more collisions and entanglements with the whales. In addition, in busy shipping areas, the whales are unable to communicate because of noise pollution.
The filmmakers strive to hold dramatic interest with the lush cinematography, replete with spraying foam, scudding clouds, bits of computer animation, and even an autopsy on a beached whale carcass, all set to an incessantly earnest music score. This is a lot to untangle here though, in avoiding simplifying issues, the film can feel ungainly.
The talking heads and angry political meetings between the pro-fishery and pro-whale camps are repetitive, while the legal conflicts hard to follow. More useful and hopeful are relatively brief discussions of practical compromises — from seasonal closures to remote-controlled “ropeless fishing” — which might find a live-and-let-live solution for the whales and the lobster fishermen.
Entangled. Directed by Andy Laub and David Abel. Currently screening in theatres in Montreal and Vancouver and opening June 25 in Victoria. It will be available for streaming in late July or early August.