Taking possession
In 2017 I visited the Chatham Fish Market in Massachusetts where small fishing boats queue up daily, decks laden, each waiting patiently for their turn to offload. Boat after boat, load after load, countless tangles of limp adult bodies slide and tumble into huge plastic boxes iced for further shipment by workers in white gumboots.
Having depleted most of the other coastal populations, the catch that day consisted almost entirely of one species of fish: a small shark referred to as the spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). It turns out these little sharks can live up to 100 years and are particularly vulnerable to overfishing because they have the longest known gestation period of any animal (18 to 24 months), have very small litters (about 7 at a time), and give birth to live young.
David’s response, a single channel video called Lullament, played in the Art and Ocean exhibition in July 2018.