'Salt Lines', a Lloyd's Register Foundation Film

Overview

Salt Lines is a story of a single mother hauling lobster traps in a man’s world. Featuring Captain Brittany Dunbar, just one of two million women around the world who bring in their own catch in nearshore coastal fisheries every day.

Salt Lines is the third documentary film commissioned by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, as part of our ocean safety campaign. It shares Brittany’s story as a captain of a commercial lobster boat in Correa, Maine, and fifth generation fisher, in a community with fishing in its blood. From law school to single motherhood, she tells of her daily grapple with the potential dangers of life at sea, knowing that there's no other parent at home should something ever happen to her. Despite this, her family bonds and deep-rooted legacy means her ocean ties remain unwavered.

Produced by award-winning film-maker, Dan McDougall, this film sheds an important light on gender bias within the industry and the safety challenges for those working at sea. Salt Lines continues our commitment to telling unheard stories to spark change and make the world a safer place.

We are proud to announce that ‘Salt Lines’ won best documentary category at the Toronto Film Festival.

Ruth Boumphrey, CEO of Lloyd's Register Foundation, said: “Women constitute close to half of all those employed in fisheries globally. This documentary helps give a voice to those women reliant on the ocean for their livelihoods and who face the potential dangers of life at sea each day, to provide for others and continue a legacy of fishers within their communities.

As a global safety charity, Lloyd's Register Foundation's mission is to engineer a safer world - and that includes a safer ocean. Our aim is to raise awareness of these issues and to support positive change across the industry. We fund safety-at-sea programmes, and collaborate with partners around the world to raise awareness of ocean-related safety challenges with a view to make the world a safer place. If you are an organisation working in this space and would like to use any of our films, please do contact us.”

Dan McDougall, Award-Winning Journalist and Director of Saltlines, said: “Saltlines is about one woman’s unlikely journey from law student to lobster fisher. Brittany Dunbar is the fifth-generation Captain of her own lobster trawler, The Esquire and balances work with raising her son, Gunner while she is also pregnant with her next child, Hunter. Both her children were conceived through IVF as Brittany has chosen to raise her children as a single parent within a close, loving family. Gunner is looked after by his grandfather while Brittany is at sea. Her story is remarkable because it’s one of many untold narratives of women fighting to stay afloat in what remains a man’s world. Close to half of those employed in fisheries worldwide are women and more than two million women bring in their own catch in nearshore coastal fisheries each day. They are a critical and unsung part of the supply chain who revere the sea for its sustenance and opportunity, but who also face daily threats to their lives and communities from it. Brittany has to cope with the immense challenges of her daily life. Lobster fishing in Maine is intensely physical and dangerous work – the weather, wave height and the sea depth the crew are working at all pose huge risks and it takes place in the depths of winter. But it is also at the heart of the community and, following a law degree in Nashville, it has called Brittany back to the small community where she grew up.”