New Scientist - USA (2019-10-05)

32 | New Scientist | 5 October 2019

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THE documentary Sea of Shadows

is the story of the world’s smallest

porpoise, the critically endangered

vaquita, which is hiding out in the

extreme south-western corner of

its territory in the Sea of Cortez off

Mexico. It isn’t a story that will end

well, though Richard Ladkani,

whose 2016 Netflix documentary

The Ivory Game was shortlisted

for an Oscar in the 89th Academy

Awards, has made something that

is very hard to look away from.

This isn’t an environmental

story, but a true crime. No one

wants to hunt the vaquita. The

totoaba fish, which shares the

vaquita’s waters, is another matter.

It is known as the cocaine of the

sea, a nickname that only makes

sense once you learn that Mexican

drug cartels have moved into the

totoaba business to satisfy the

Chinese luxury market, where the

fish’s swim bladders are said to

have rare medical properties.

Illegal gill nets that catch the

totoaba also catch and kill vaquitas.

The Mexican government talks a

good environmental game but has

let the problem get out of hand.

Law-abiding fishing communities

are ruined by blanket fishing bans

while the illegal fishers operate

with near-impunity.

Late on in the film, there is CCTV

footage of a couple of soldiers with

car trouble. They ask for help from

a passing motorist, who shoots

one of the soldiers dead and drives

away. Meet Oscar Parra Aispuro,

the totoaba padron of Santa Clara.

(I said you couldn’t look away; I

didn’t say you wouldn’t want to.)

Things are so bad, a scheme is

dreamed up to take the vaquitas

out of the ocean to live in captivity.

It is an absurdly desperate move

because virtually nothing is

known about the vaquita or its

habits. Some locals believe the

creature is a myth dreamed up by

a hostile government to bankrupt

the poor: how’s that for fake news?

Project leader Cynthia Smith

explains the dilemma facing the

Doomed to destruction? With Mexican drug cartels involved, the tragic story of

the vanishing vaquita – the world’s smallest porpoise – has you on the edge of your

seat as documentary Sea of Shadows unfolds, says Simon Ings

“ Some locals believe

the vaquita is a myth

dreamed up by a

hostile government

to bankrupt the poor”

Film

Sea of Shadows

Directed by Richard Ladkani

National Geographic

Netflix, streaming from

4 November

Simon also

recommends...

Film

The Girl Who

Talked to Dolphins

Directed by

Christopher Riley

A powerful, sometimes

eccentric story about

maritime laboratory life

The Ivory Game

Directed by Kief Davidson

and Richard Ladkani

A previous cinematic outing

for Andrea Crosta’s

intelligence-led

environmental activism

vaquita: “possible death in our

care or certain death in the ocean”.

She knows what she is doing – she

is a senior vet for the US Navy

Marine Mammal Program – but

no one has ever tried to capture,

let alone keep, a vaquita before.

Sea of Shadows won the

Audience Award at the Sundance

Film Festival in February this year;

National Geographic snapped it

up for $3 million. It is built around

a collaborative investigation

between Andrea Crosta, executive

director and co-founder of Earth

League International (the hero-

detectives of The Ivory Game) and

Carlos Loret de Mola, a popular

correspondent and news anchor

in Mexico, with an international

audience of 35 million daily.

Crosta, de Mola and the

Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society – their maritime partners

in crime-prevention – are expert

in handling and appealing to

the media, and Sea of Shadows is,

among other things, their slick

calling card. From the film’s

“whodunnit” structure to the way

content is squeezed to release a

steady drip-drip of information,

Sea of Shadows is pure Nat Geo

fodder. If you don’t like that

channel much, you won’t like this.

The rest of us will be perched

on the edge of our sofas, in thrall

to drone-heavy cinematography

that owes not a little to Denis

Villeneuve’s 2015 thriller Sicario,

rocked by a thumping score

full of dread and menace, and

appalled by a story headed

pell-mell for the dark.

Can the vaquita be saved?

When Sea of Shadows was made

in 2018, there were fewer than

30 in the ocean. Today there are

fewer than 10. ❚

NA

TIO

NA

L^ G

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AP

HIC

Illegal nets for hunting

the totoaba fish catch

and kill vaquitas

The film column

Simon Ings is a novelist and

science writer and a culture

editor at New Scientist.

Follow him on Instagram

@simon_ings