Four years ago the waters off the east coast of New Brunswick became a battleground between natives, commercial fishermen and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The fuse that ignited this hostile confrontation was a Supreme Court of Canada decision that stated based on old treaties native peoples have the right to make a moderate livelihood from commercial fishing. At the Big Cove reserve in New Brunswick, the reaction was euphoric. Cyril Ponchese one of the residents summed it up: “for Big Cove it was the biggest upset in history. And to us it meant that, hey, we’re not going to be standing on the shores any more.”

The native fishermen immediately set out their lobster traps in one of the most lucrative fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The minute they did that commercial lobster fishermen retaliated cutting their traps and the battle was on. One of the reasons why the fishery is so lucrative is the adherence to strict conservation rules. Rules that included a short fishing season, trap limits, limits on the number of licensed fishermen. However, at first the Supreme Court decision did not impose any limits so when the native fishermen set their traps shortly after the decision, the legal fishing season was over. Commercial fishermen feared the worse. Without controls the fishery would be wiped out and their livelihoods destroyed. The violent confrontations were almost predictable.

That was four years ago. This year during the regular lobster season, the waters were calm. There was cooperation and communication between native fishermen and commercial fishermen, their boats were tied up at the same wharfs, native and non-native fishermen could now sit down and come up with solutions together. What happened in the intervening years?

Land & Sea traces the hard work, the massive leaps of faith by our first nations, by non-native fisherman and by the federal government over the past four years that created this new age of cooperation. It may become a template or have a huge influence on treaty obligations and disputes across the country.