The Tignish Cooperateives video project began in 1974/1975 with a discussion between Barry Burley and Niall Burnett of the National Film Board Video Theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Gary Webster. The original idea of a videotape about the cooperative movement in Prince Edward Island was scaled down to West Prince and predominantly Tignish where the cooperative spirit had flourished and had seen the first Fishermen's Union on the Island, Station #1, the development of Tignish Fisheries Joint Stock Company and its evolution into the Tignish Fisheries Cooperative Association following the Cooperative Associations Act, the formation of a Marine Plants Cooperative, and the development of the Tignish Credit Union and Tignish Cooperative. Interviews were conducted in 1975 with individuals closely involved with the fisheries cooperative movement at all stages, primarily by Gary Webster and Barry Burley with the sometime assistance of Niall Burnett, Lucie DesJardins and Ralph Holt. On completion of the interviews two videos were produced by Video Theatre: "A question of survival" about the Tignish Fishermen's Union, Tignish Fisheries and other local cooperative history, and "Room for a Co-op" which dealt with the Prince Edward Island Marine Plants Cooperative.

The fonds consists of 45 interviews with individuals involved in the fisheries cooperative movement in Tignish including fishermen and their wives, members and officials of the Fishermen's Union, Tignish Fisheries Joint Stock Company, Tignish Fisheries Cooperative and the Marine Plants Cooperative, as well as personnel from the Marine Colloids Plant in Tignish. Interviews include four charter members of the Tignish Fisheries: Ferdinand Gaudet, Harold Cormier, Arthur Chaisson and Will Shea. Second generation fishermen who began fishing in the 1930s include Freddie Richard, Josie Doucette, Terrence Gavin, Milton Keough and Max McInnis.

Discussion focuses on fishing as a way of life in Tignish before the Union and at the time of the interviews, the various stages of the cooperative movement and the changes they brought, the philosophy and structure of the cooperatives and some of their advantages and disadvantages. They explore the feelings of fishermen towards the movement, relations with private companies, government involvement in the industry, and their current concerns regarding the fishing industry as well as their perception of their community in general.