KENNEBUNK — The film, “The Sacred Cod” will be shown at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28, at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, on Main Street in Kennebunk.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event is free and open to the public.

The film is co-sponsored by the Sierra Club of Maine and the First Parish UU Church of Kennebunk.

Before the film screening, Dr. Jason Goldstein, the new research director at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, will offer remarks.

Goldstein oversees the Wells Reserve fish studies, salt marsh restoration activities, and long-term environmental monitoring program.

“The Sacred Cod” is an examination into New England’s fishing industry. Delving into the drama and disputes that surround New England’s cod fishing industry, the film examines a cod population in sharp decline, the scientists and policy makers who are fighting to save it, and the local fishermen who are fighting to save their livelihood.

The diminishing cod population in the Gulf of Maine is largely attributed to over-fishing and warming waters, and has drastically changed the shape of the commercial fishing industry in New England.

Scientists insist that fishing must be regulated in order to preserve the species, while those who catch it say that the strict quotas are destroying the only way of life they’ve ever known.

Throughout the film, the documentarians juxtapose scientific researchers, government offices, and political figures with men in rubber pants and old t-shirts, boats falling in to disrepair, and families who have been fishing on the Gulf of Maine for generations, all of whom have a stake in the cod fishing industry.

“The Sacred Cod” film explores the issue from all angles, and shows the consequences reaching beyond the fishermen and their families, to local pubs, one of the last icehouses in the region, and more.