Hook, Line and Sinker: The Relentless Investigators in Ghana
Sometimes a story doesn’t grab you because of the scale of the crime.
It grabs you because of the people who refuse to ignore it.
On the latest episode of Rising Tide, filmmakers Mark Benjamin and Katie Carpenter describe the moment they knew they were all in — “hook, line and sinker.” It wasn’t just the global fishing industry’s corruption that pulled them deeper into the film. It was the investigators.
In Ghana, they met men who had spent years on the water, asking difficult questions and refusing easy answers.
Richard had worked as an observer at sea. He knew the system from the inside. He understood the unspoken rules, the pressure, the risks. He had seen firsthand how corruption operates in the shadows of industrial fishing.
And yet, he chose to keep looking.
This is what investigative storytelling reveals when we slow down long enough to listen: not just systems of exploitation, but individuals willing to confront them.
The ocean can feel abstract — vast, distant, unknowable. But stories like this remind us that accountability begins with people. With observers. With investigators. With filmmakers willing to follow them into uncertainty.
When narrative meets persistence, something powerful happens. The truth surfaces.
Listen to the full episode of Rising Tide to hear how these investigators became the heartbeat of the film — and why their work matters far beyond Ghana’s shores.
Because sometimes the most important stories aren’t about what’s happening to the ocean. They’re about who is brave enough to protect it.