A seiner is simply a large fishing boat that's designed to haul a big net through the water. The net circles a school of fish - herring in this case - and then it's tightened up to catch the fish as they head to the surface to feed on phytoplankton.

The crews of the boats live onboard for weeks at a time.

Herring seiners begin work in waters off the Acadian Peninsula in northern New Brunswick. The crews start fishing herring there, but those herring schools eventually leave that area heading for the deeper ocean water where they spend the winter.

The seiners chase the schools as they make the journey.

As the schools round the tip of New Brunswick, they pick up more herring, a process that's repeated a number of times along the coasts of P.E.I. and Cape Breton.

The N.B.-based seiners follow.

When they have a full load they head to the nearest federal port to transfer the catch to trucks. The herring is brought to fish processing plants along the north shore of New Brunswick.

Souris is one of the ports of choice because it is central to the area worked by the seiners in late October and November. It's also a shorter drive to the processing plants than federal ports in Cape Breton.

How does a seiner work?

Being part of a herring seiner crew is dangerous and takes skill because fishing takes place in the dark. The herring feed at night, heading toward the surface under cover of darkness to eat the plankton.

There are large lights on the seiners, but they'll scare off the fish, so they're off while the net is placed in the water.

Why is there a small boat on the back of the seiner?

It's used to help get the net into the water. One end of the net is tied to the small boat, it's launched into the water, the crew starts its motor, and they idle in the water as the larger boat pulls away to start laying out the seine net.

There are floats on the net to keep one end of the net on the surface, and the bottom of the net does not touch the bottom of the ocean floor.

Once the seiner has circled the school of fish, the end of the net carried by the smaller boat is handed back to the crew on the larger craft. The small boat then heads to the other side of the seiner and attaches lines to it. It pulls away to stop the net from drifting under the large vessel. If that happened the net would capsize the large boat.

A metal line at the bottom end of the net is pulled closing the net.

Then the line is pulled back onboard the vessel moving the bottom of the net, and the fish inside, toward the surface. When they're close to the top the herring are vacuumed into the seiner through a large tube.