No-one wants to play football with Gaby now that she has breasts. Like every other year, the 13-year-old is spending the summer with her dad on a small island off the Canadian coast – and she is not about to pretend that she’s suddenly a different person.

On the Magdalen Islands, during the short lobster season, fishermen and plant workers ensure the economic prosperity of an entire people. In the reality of a global market driven by the United States, the fragility of the fishing industry is palpable, as is the future of seafaring and island culture.

Documentarian Richard Lavoie follows the artists of the Mer Océane symposium which took place on La Grave, in the Magdalen Islands, in 1998.