Cartels, Spies, and the Last Days of the World’s Rarest Dolphin A documentary that recently premiered at Sundance Film Festival follows the struggles faced by the vaquita porpoises and the conservationists that want to save them. No wide release date has been set, though National Geographic did buy the rights to the film. I'll be keeping my eye out for it.
The doc is on Hulu now. They have excellent footage of wild, living vaquitas, way better than any videos or photos we've had before. I've never seen them look so beautiful, I almost cried. Theye have this grace and vibrance that film has never captured before, those brief clips alone are worth seeing the documentary for. Of course, the rest of the movie is excellent as well, going into the totoaba trade and how it's tied up in cartels and corrupt law enforcement. It also follows a few groups working to save the vaquita: Sea Shepherd and Vaquita CPR. Sea Shepherd goes around pulling nets out of the water and reporting illegal fishermen, and we follow Vaquita CPR's ill-fated attempt to save the species by holding them in captivity. It's hard to watch the members be so full of hope when they find and capture a porpoise when you know how it's going to end... But despite that program sadly not working out, other efforts to save the species continue.
