From Cornwall to Ghana and Indonesia, small-scale fishers face the same risks and realities at sea, as highlighted in a new Lloyd’s Register Foundation documentary.
The universal pressures of safety and economics faced by inshore fishers are the focus of a new documentary released by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. Titled All That Separates Us Is Distance, the film follows three small-scale skippers and their families in Newlyn in Cornwall, Dixcove in Ghana and Pelabuhan Ratu in Indonesia. The foundation said the project aims to shift the conversation “from data to people”, highlighting the human stories behind global fishing risks. An estimated 32,000 fishers lose their lives at sea each year, underlining the scale of the safety challenge.
The International Fund for Fishing Safety, founded in 2023, is working to reduce that toll through international cooperation. The initiative is coordinated by Alan McCulla, former chief executive of the Anglo-North Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation. He said the distance between fishing communities in Cornwall and south-east Asia is “purely geographic”, pointing to a shared bond among those who go to sea. The documentary was produced by Friday’s Child and is available to view below.
