Movie Questions - "The End of the Line"

I recommend stopping at various points during the film to review and go over the answers to the questions. I wrote a lot of questions; please pick and choose which ones are relevant for your curriculum or lesson goals and appropriate for the level of your audience.

I used this film while teaching high school students, but younger children can understand the concepts in this film with more explanation and discussion.

Please watch the entire film yourself before showing it and feel free to add new questions to the handout.

Handout

1.   _________________ is the oldest marine reserve in the world.
2. The fisherman at the beginning of the film caught a ____ pound salmon, but has felt guilty about it ever since. It was the last of the spring run that no longer comes, and no one knew why. What possible reasons can you think of?
3. Trolling for fish in the sea is like plowing a field ____ times a year. Very few crops could grown that way, and it is not sustainable for fish either.
4. The oceans have been full of life for ________ of years, and are the common heritage for all life.
5. In Newfoundland, Canada legend had it that you could walk across the backs of the ____ there.

Cod Overfishing

6.     What was the main source of income for Newfoundland?

7.     What significant event occurred in 1992?

8.     Explain the term 'moratorium' in the context used in the film.

9.     Why do you think this moratorium was brought in? What were the consequences?

10.  Historically why did people migrate to Newfoundland?

Technology

11.  How could you describe the impact of hi-tech fishing vessels on the 'world catch'?

12.  The mouth of the largest trawling net is big enough to accommodate _______ 747s.

13.  Did you find the scale of the technology employed (lines, nets, monitoring etc.) surprising?

14.  Think about this statement: 'The thing is we're too good right now. Technologically not a single hunted animal on this earth has a chance.' (Professor Jeffrey Hutchings)

15.     What evidence does the sequence/film provide to support this statement?

Senegal

16.   How many of the global population identify fish as a key part of their diet?

17.  Find out which are the main Senegalese cities that can be described as coastal. (Homework or classwork in a computer lab)

18.  How much of the 'world catch' is returned dead to the sea?

19.    What differences in technology are there between the Senegalese fisherman and those from foreign fleets?

20.    What connections are made to the local, national and global experiences?

21.    Think about the relationship between overfishing, and the choice that people like Adama face regarding emigration.

22.    What do you think the attractions of fish farming are?

23.    What is used to feed farmed fish?

24.    What are the potential consequences of fish farming?

25.    The voiceover says that 'On average five kilos of anchovy makes only one kilo of salmon.' Could you describe this process as sustainable? Why?

26.    Why do you think Patricia recommends that we eat small fish like the Anchovy? (think about the film and the food pyramid and the Rule of 10% we learned about last semester).

27.    Explain what a marine reserve is.

28.    What are the economic consequences of:

            a.    Continuing with the marine reserves we already have

            b.    Implementing a global marine reserve network

29.    What percentage of the world’s oceans are currently marine reserves?

30.    Identify who you would approach locally and nationally to ask for more marine reserves. In pairs/small groups write a letter outlining your request.

31.    What else did you learn?

32.    How did you feel while you watched the film?

Population Changes

North Carolina is experiencing an explosion in the Cownose Ray population, while the population of Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks plummets. What is responsible for both of these population changes?

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Questions you can use to prompt paragraph long responses

“If you look at it from just a personal perspective then maybe it is a personal sacrifice , but if you look at it from the big picture  you gotta take a cut in the Harvest. But you take that knowing it maybe gives you a better season 3, 4, 5 years from now. We don’t just want to catch salmon next year, we want to catch it 10, 20, 30 years from now.” – Matthew Moir

What is this symbol and why should you look for it on the fish you buy?

To learn more about which seafood you should purchase and consume, please visit http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_recommendations.aspx?c=ln
You can download a pocket guide, and even get an app for your phone!

Fish Depletion and Commercial Fishing

1952-Start of Modern Commercial Fishing

1960s

Now

These images are taken from the film and are reproduced here for educational purposes only.

The color code represents the number of fish caught per 1,000 hooks set. The idea is that a higher catch percentage correlates to more fish in the area. Red (10+) means there are a lot of fish present, while the blues (2-3, 1-2, and less than 1) mean very few fish in the area.

Movie Questions - "End of the Line" by Caitlin Kempski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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