The rarely seen first and only film directed by John Grierson, who became convinced that the salvation of Democratic institutions depended on films which put before the public issues of the modern world and inspired people to act. The sponsor was the Empire Marketing Board, a kind of British Chamber of Commerce devoted to promoting trade and unity amongst the Commonwealth. The subject of the herring industry was not an accident, as the man who held the purse strings of the E.M.B. was a leading authority on herring fishing. The result was an atmospherically photographed, rhythmically edited film which, in Grierson's words, paid tribute to "the tough continuing upstanding labour involved." Despite its now apparent flaws, the film exemplifies Grierson's famous dictum on what the documentary film should aspire to be-the creative shaping of actuality. MF