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Oceans and Coasts

LOBSTER WAR: THE FIGHT OVER THE WORLD'S RICHEST FISHING GROUNDS

Directed by David Abel

Climate-changed ocean temperatures shift New England's lobster fishery across national boundaries, sparking international tension.

The buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is warming the oceans, and the waters off New England's coast are seeing some of the most dramatic temperature increases on the planet. This is having a major effect on lobster populations and the fishermen who rely on them. The southern New England lobster fishery has collapsed and the catch has moved north into cooler waters.

LOBSTER WAR documents an escalating conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War.

The disputed 277 square miles of sea known as the Gray Zone--the swath of water surrounding Machias Seal Island at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy--were traditionally fished by US lobstermen. But as the Gulf of Maine has warmed lobsters have migrated north and the Gray Zone's previously modest lobster population has surged. As a result, Canadians have begun to assert their sovereignty in the area, contesting American claims to the bounty and foreshadowing potential conflicts exacerbated by climate change.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 10-12, Adults, College) / 74 minutes

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GLADESMEN: THE LAST OF THE SAWGRASS COWBOYS

Directed by David Abel

In a classic battle of competing interests, gladesmen and their airboats are being banned from Everglades National Park in the world's largest attempt to restore a damaged ecosystem.

Gladesmen: The Last of the Sawgrass Cowboys is an award-winning documentary about the federal government's ban on Florida's iconic airboats in much of the Everglades. The measure is part of the world's largest and most expensive effort to repair a damaged ecosystem, a vast river of sawgrass and cypress swamps that has been ravaged by more than a century of development, pollution, and other environmental degradation. The outcome will determine the future of the region's water supply and its ability to withstand rising sea levels. It may also lead to the demise of the Gladesmen, who for more than a century have hunted alligators and gigged frogs, sought peace on isolated tree islands, and taken refuge from the ever-increasing development that has carved up the Everglades.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 86 minutes

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BLUEFIN: THE LAST OF THE GIANTS

Directed by John Hopkins

In North Lake, Canada, the spectacular Atlantic bluefin tuna are so plentiful they eat out of people's hands but scientific evidence shows the species is on the brink of collapse.

BLUEFIN is a tale of epic stakes set in "the tuna capital of the world," North Lake, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The film explores the baffling mystery of why the normally wary bluefin tuna no longer fear humans. Local fishermen swear tuna are so starving and abundant now that they will literally eat out of people's hands like pets. But something is not right. Have these "endangered" tuna stocks suddenly recovered as the fishermen claim? Or are we actually hunting down the last of them--like the buffalo--as scientists claim? One thing is certain: this sudden and incredible abundance of tuna off their shores flies in the face of scientific assessments claiming endangered stocks are down by 90 percent.

With stunning cinematography, director John Hopkins documents this mystery and brings the issues into sharp focus. At the heart of this documentary lies a passionate concern by all about the fate of the giant bluefin tuna. Isn't it time we learned to appreciate the giant, and relentlessly hunted, bluefin as extraordinary "wildlife," in the same way we love whales, dolphins and panda bears?

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 53 minutes

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SACRED COD

Directed by Steve Liss, Andy Laub, David Abel

Captures the collapse of the historic cod population in New England, delving into the effects of overfishing, climate change and government policies on fishermen and the fish.

For centuries, cod was like gold, driving men to extremes. Cod were so abundant in the waters off New England that fishermen used to say they could walk across the Atlantic on the backs of them, and generations of men from places like Gloucester and Cape Cod spent their entire lives chasing the coveted fish.

In recent decades, something began to change in the Gulf of Maine. As the region's cod catch plummeted, government surveys of the iconic species reported increasingly dire results. Scientists and environmental activists raised alarms about overfishing and the warming ocean. They urged officials to act.

On Nov. 10, 2014, after years of ignoring warnings, NOAA officials banned virtually all cod fishing throughout the region. Fishermen were infuriated. They challenged the findings and accused the government of trying to destroy their livelihood. Environmental activists feared the government's action had come too late to save the cod.

In 2016, officials estimated there were fewer than 200 cod fishermen left in the fleet, and they're now in the fight of their lives, struggling to hold fast to a tradition that has endured for centuries in New England.

SACRED COD gives us an up close look at the challenges many will have to face in the age of climate change.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 65 minutes

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AFTER THE SPILL

Directed by Jon Bowermaster

The oil and gas industry has historically dominated Louisiana politics and is largely responsible for the state's rapidly disappearing coastline.

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana. Five years later the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spilled more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the worst ecologic disaster in North American history. Amazingly those aren't the worst things facing Louisiana's coastline today. It is that the state is fast disappearing through coastal erosion caused largely by oil and gas industry activity.

A follow-up to our 2010 film SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories, this film introduces us to some of the spill's most aggrieved victims as well as those who are desperately trying to save its coastline. Writer and historian John Barry who launched a suit against 97 oil and gas companies attempting to get them to pay their fair share for reparations caused by their explorations. Consultant and native son James Carville who manages to find some hope in new technologies that may save the coast. And Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, the man who saved New Orleans post-Katrina, whose new passion is for a Green Army he has recruited.

Fishermen, scientists, politicians, environmentalists, and oil-rig workers document how the coast of Louisiana has changed. What really happened to all that oil? What about the dispersant used to push it beneath the surface? How has the spill impacted local economies as well as human health and the health of both marine life and the Gulf itself? How much resilience is left in the people and coastline?

DVD / 2015 / (Grades 7-12, Colleges, Adults) / 62 minutes

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DAMNATION

Directed by Ben Knight, Travis Rummel

Explores the sea change in national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the call for dam removal as awareness grows that our own future is bound to the health of our rivers.

This powerful film odyssey across America explores the sea change in our national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers. Dam removal has moved beyond the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang to go mainstream. Where obsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and other wild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades without access. DamNation's majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.

DamNation opens big, on a birth, with the stirring words of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the dedication of Hoover Dam, and on a death, as the engineer at Elwha Dam powers down the turbine on its last day. DamNation stints neither the history nor the science of dams, and above all conveys experiences known so far to only a few, including the awe of watching a 30-pound salmon hurtling 20 feet into the air in a vain attempt to reach the spawning grounds that lie barricaded upriver. We witness the seismic power of a dam breaking apart and, once the river breaks free, the elation in a watching wild salmon - after a century of denied access - swimming their way home.

DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 87 minutes

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PLASTIC PARADISE: THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

Directed by Angela Sun

Angela Sun reveals the effects of our rabid plastic consumption as she investigates The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Thousands of miles away from civilization, Midway Atoll is in one of the most remote places on earth. And yet it's become ground zero for The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, syphoning plastics from three distant continents. In this independent documentary film, journalist/filmmaker Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. Along the way she meets scientists, researchers, influencers, and volunteers who shed light on the effects of our rabid plastic consumption and learns the problem is more insidious than we could have ever imagined.

DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes

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CHASING WATER

Directed by Pete McBride

Breathtaking photography tells the story of the Colorado River, which flowed to the sea for 6 million years and now dries up 90 miles short of the Sea of Cortez.

After spending a decade working abroad as a photojournalist, Colorado native Pete McBride, decided to focus on something closer to his home and his heart: the Colorado River which cuts through his backyard. Taking nearly three years, McBride followed the river source to sea on a personal journey to see exactly where the river goes and what becomes of the irrigation water that flows across his family's cattle ranch in central Colorado after it returns to the creek.

Recruiting hisfather, John, as his personal pilot McBride chose an aerial vantage to capture a unique and fresh view of the Colorado River Basin. He also partnered with Jon Waterman, an author who stayed stream level to paddle the entire length of the river.

This short film takes the viewer on a 1,500 mile adventure downstream, from mountains and cities and through canyons and across shrinking reservoirs. For 6 million years the Colorado River flowed to the sea. Today it runs dry some 90 miles shy of its historic terminus at the Sea of Cortez.

This visual journey is both revealing and alarming as it highlights the state of the river and the Southwest's drying future.

Featuring the photography of Pete McBride and music by Explosions In The Sky, This Will Destroy You, Jesse Cook, and Ludovico Einaudi.

DVD / 2011 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 18 minutes

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LIFE 8: LOOTING THE SEAS

Investigates the looming collapse of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna stocks and the role EU policies have played in the crisis.

With growing global appetite for sushi, bluefin tuna is big business--one fish can sell for up to a hundred thousand dollars. But scientists and environmentalists now argue that Atlantic bluefin-- the kind caught in the Mediterranean--is on the verge of collapse, and that the rules designed to protect them aren't working. At the heart of the dispute over bluefin tuna regulation is the European Union. Its member states include big fishing countries like France, Spain, and Italy. For the EU, the task is to prevent a final, and terminal, collapse of bluefin stocks. Looting the Seas investigates why, and reveals a world where even the experts seem unable to agree how to ensure the sustainability of Atlantic bluefin stocks.

DVD / 2010 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 26 minutes

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SOLA: LOUISIANA WATER STORIES

Investigates how the exploitation of Southern Louisiana's abundant natural resources compromised the resiliency of its ecology and culture, multiplying the devastating impact of the BP oil spill and Hurricane Katrina.

Everywhere you look in Southern Louisiana there's water: rivers, bayous, swamps, the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico. And everyone in Cajun Country has a water story, or two or three or more. Its waterways support the biggest economies in Louisiana - a $70 billion a year oil and gas industry, a $2.4 billion a year fishing business, tourism and recreational sports.

They are also home to some insidious polluters: the same oil and gas industry, 200 petrochemical plants along a 100-mile-long stretch of the Mississippi known "Cancer Alley," the world's largest Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico and erosion that is costing the coastline twenty five square miles of wetlands a year. At the same time, SoLa is home to one of America's most vital and unique cultures; if everyone who lives there has a water story they can also most likely play the fiddle, waltz, cook an etoufee and hunt and fish.

DVD / 2010 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 62 minutes

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WHALE, THE

Directed by Suzanne Chisholm, Michael Parfit

The story of Luna, a young wild killer whale, who challenged the established order of things when he tried to make friends with people.

One summer in a fjord called Nootka Sound on the remote west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, a young killer whale whom people call Luna gets separated from his pod. Like us humans, orcas are highly social and depend on their families, but Luna finds himself desperately alone. So he tries to make contact with people. He begs for attention at boats and docks. He looks soulfully into your eyes. He wants to have his tongue rubbed. When you whistle at him, he squeaks and whistles back. He follows you around like a puppy.

People fall in love with him -- a cook on an old freighter, a gruff fisheries officer, an elder and a young man from a First Nations band. But the government decides that being friendly with Luna is bad for him, and tries to keep him and people apart.

This effort becomes hilarious and baffling, because Luna refuses to give up his search for a social life. Policemen arrest people for rubbing Luna's nose. Fines are levied. But humans are social, too. When the government tells people they can't even look at Luna, people still go out to meet him, like smugglers carrying friendship through the dark.

But friendship is complicated, even among humans themselves, and does it work between species? People who love Luna don't agree on how to help him. The fisheries officer wants Luna captured and trucked away to try to force him to connect with his family. The young First Nations man thinks that's disrespectful because his band says Luna is the spirit of a chief. The elder believes Luna is supernatural, the sea's source of wisdom and justice. The ship's cook doesn't know what to do except marvel when she looks in his eyes.

Then conflict comes to Nootka Sound. The government builds a huge net. The First Nations' members bring out their canoes. Then, suddenly, as the two sides start to fight over Luna on the wind-swept water, the young whale has all the friends he wants. As the officer tries to lead Luna into the net, the First Nations elder sings and paddles and tries to lead him away, and Luna plays among the boats like a kid out of school. To Luna this must be great, but in this human conflict above him, someone has to win and someone has to lose, and where will his friends be then?

Nothing goes as planned on Nootka Sound. Finally even the filmmakers get swept up in events that catch everyone by surprise and challenge the very nature of that special and mysterious bond we humans call friendship.

In the end, THE WHALE explores one of the greatest of mysteries: Who are these lives who share the planet with us humans, and what are the connections between us that we do not yet know?

DVD / 2010 / (Grades 3-12, College, Adult) / 85 minutes

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END OF THE LINE, THE

Directed by Rupert Murray

The first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans. Based on the book by Charles Clover.

THE END OF THE LINE delves beyond the surface of the seas to reveal a troubling truth beneath: an ocean increasingly empty of fish, destroyed by decades of overexploitation.

Exploring the tragic collapse of the cod fishery in Newfoundland in the 1990s, the imminent extinction of the prized bluefin tuna, and the devastation wreaked by illegal catches and surpassed fishing quotas, the film uncovers the dark ecological story behind our love affair with fish as food.

The film argues that unless we demand political action from governments, responsible menu selections from restaurateurs as well as changing our own consumption habits, we could see the end of wild fish by mid-century.

DVD / 2009 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 82 minutes

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SEA CHANGE, A: IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT FISH

Ocean acidification threatens over one million species with extinction--and with them, our entire way of life.

A Sea Change documents how the pH balance of the oceans has changed dramatically since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution: a 30% increase in acidification. With near unanimity, scientists now agree that the burning of fossil fuels is fundamentally reshaping ocean chemistry. Experts predict that over the next century, steady increases in carbon dioxide emissions and the continued rise in the acidity of the oceans will cause most of the world's fisheries to experience a total bottom-up collapse--a state that could last for millions of years.

A Sea Change broadens the discussion about the dramatic changes we are seeing in the chemistry of the oceans, and conveys the urgent threat those changes pose to our survival, while surveying the steps we can take to reduce the severity of climate change. The film's protagonist Sven Huseby asks how will he explain to his oldest grandchild, Elias, what is happening to the oceans and their ecosystems.

A Sea Change is both a personal journey and a scientifically rigorous, sometimes humorous, unflinchingly honest look at reality. It offers positive examples of new technologies and effective changes in human behavior that we all must choose before the oceans are lost.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2009 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 83 minutes

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BLACK WAVE: THE LEGACY OF THE EXXON VALDEZ

Directed by Robert Cornellier

The story of the Exxon Valdez and the 20-year legal battle to get restitution from ExxonMobil.

In the early hours of March 24th 1989 the Exxon Valdez oil supertanker runs aground in Alaska. It discharges millions of gallons of crude oil. The incident becomes the biggest environmental catastrophe in North American history.

In a flash, dramatic images shoot across the planet. They show thousands of carcasses of seabirds and sea otters covered in oil. A thick black tide rises and covers the beaches of once-pristine Prince William Sound.

For twenty years, Riki Ott and the fishermen of the little town of Cordova, Alaska have waged the longest legal battle in U.S. history against the world's most powerful oil company - ExxonMobil. They tell us all about the environmental, social and economic consequences of the black wave that changed their lives forever.

This is the legacy of the Exxon Valdez.

DVD / 2008 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 99 minutes

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LIFE AMONG WHALES, A

A fascinating exploration into the life and work of whale biologist and activist Roger Payne.

Weaving together natural history and biography, A LIFE AMONG WHALES is a fascinating exploration into the life and work of whale biologist and activist Roger Payne. Payne's electrifying discovery in the early 1970s that whales sing "songs" helped ignite the modern day environmental movement.

A charismatic and passionate individual, Payne's pioneering spirit has consistently advanced the boundaries of science and activism over the last four decades.

A LIFE AMONG WHALES traces Payne's scientific research beginning with his early work in Patagonia, where for two years, he, his wife and four young children lived in tents on a remote bay so that they could have unhindered access for the study of Southern Right Whales.

It explores Payne's tireless and passionate fight to ban whaling -- a ban which today, 20 years after an international moratorium was imposed is threatened -- and follows him to his present day study of ocean pollution and his work with The Ocean Alliance, a non-profit organization and global leader in whale research and conservation which he founded.

With beautiful and haunting images, Payne challenges us to become the greatest generation of all. Saving earth's largest creatures would open the door to humanity's recognition of our true role in the biosphere.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2005 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes

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FARMING THE SEAS

The perils and promise of fish farms in a world running out of ocean fish stocks.

Aquaculture was intended to take the pressure off ocean fish stocks and help avert a global food shortage, but many experts now believe that some forms of "fish farming" are actually creating more problems than they're solving¡K and time is running out.

The sequel to EMPTY OCEANS, EMPTY NETS, FARMING THE SEAS explores what's at stake for us all. As the aquaculture industry explodes across the globe, a growing number of communities and fisheries experts are engaged in an intense debate over its environmental, socio-economic, and health and food safety consequences.

Market demand for seafood now far exceeds the ocean's ability to keep pace, and the crisis is deepening. Worldwide, most marine fisheries are either fully exploited or in sharp decline. With stunning visuals and compelling narration, FARMING THE SEAS journeys around the world documenting the most important stories as they unfold. From the indigenous tribes of British Columbia to the large-scale operations of multinational corporations, from Mediterranean fishermen to Thai shrimp farmers, FARMING THE SEAS gathers perspectives from around the globe as it examines the problems and the promises of this emerging industry.

The viability of the global food chain and the sustainability of our oceans' fisheries hang in the balance.

DVD (Color) / 2004 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 55 minutes

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NET LOSS: THE STORM OVER SALMON FARMING

Examines the controversy surrounding salmon farms, and the threat they pose to wild salmon.

All over the world, fish are at the heart of people's diet and culture. And in the Pacific Northwest, there is no fish like the legendary salmon. But decades of poor fisheries management and habitat loss have decimated many wild salmon runs. Now there's a new way to produce fish-raising them in giant underwater cages known as "net pens." At first, these pens and the salmon farms that use them seem like a good idea, providing more fish for consumption, while taking the pressure off their wild counterparts. But the farms themselves have become a serious new threat to the survival of wild salmon.

Filmed in Chile, Washington, and British Columbia, NET LOSS assesses the risks and benefits of salmon farming through interviews with government and industry spokesmen, who make the case for salmon farming, and the fishermen, native people, and scientists

DVD (Color) / 2003 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 52 minutes

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EMPTY OCEANS, EMPTY NETS

Examines the global marine fisheries crisis and the efforts to implement sustainable fishing practices.

"Many of the new changes that are happening in the oceans are a consequence of activities that people have always been engaged in. It's just a much greater rate and a faster scale. Nobody created these problems deliberately." - Dr. Jane Lubchenco, National Academy of Sciences

"Never before has a wake-up call from nature been so clear, never again will there be better opportunities to protect what remains of the ocean's living wealth." - Dr. Sylvia Earle, former Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Our oceans are not yet empty but the signs are not good. The seas have always been humanity's single largest source of protein, but for the first time in history this critical food supply is at risk in many areas. Despite an ever-intensifying fishing effort, the global catch appears to have reached its limit while the demand for seafood continues to grow.

According to the FAO, 15 of the world's 17 major ocean fisheries are already depleted or over-exploited. These trends are even more troubling when population growth is considered. The world population-now at six billion-will continue to grow by over 60 million people per year, with nearly half this growth in areas within 100 kilometers of a coastline. Over one billion people in Asia already depend on ocean fish for their entire supply of protein, as does 1 out of every 5 Africans. Although North America and Europe rely less on ocean-caught protein, much of the seafood consumed on both continents is imported from developing countries. The entire world shares an interest in restoring and maintaining this critical food supply.

EMPTY OCEANS, EMPTY NETS examines the full extent of the global fisheries crisis and the forces that continue to push many marine fish stocks toward commercial extinction. The program also documents some of the most promising and innovative work being done to restore fisheries and protect essential fish habitat. New market initiatives are examined that give consumers a powerful vote in deciding how our oceans are fished. Commentary is provided by fishermen and by many of the world's most respected marine and fisheries scientists.

DVD (Color) / 2002 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 55 minutes

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