It was recorded live on the sealing vessel Arctic Explorer and is a combination of the feelings and reactions of a neophyte sealer mixed with the memories of veteran sealers, as well as comments from DFO fisheries officers monitoring the hunt. “Berthed Swiler” personalizes the sealing experience for those who have never been there and presents the people who seal in the context of their lives as Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans and what sealing means to them and their families in their struggle to live in a difficult rural environment. The feelings of the people in the documentary are the same as those of sealers in Quebec and Nunavut.