Sea of Shadows

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It's a shame.

It's more than a shame, it's a...

I don't know how to put it in English, just...

My kids have seen me away for so many things,

covering wars, drug lords, natural disasters.

And now they see me going because of the vaquita,

this little animal that calls their attention.

Buenos dias.

Buenos dias. Como estas?

I'd love to bring back a nice beautiful happy ending story.

I don't know if it's gonna happen.

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These are 22 totoaba swim bladders.

One person was transporting them in the trunk of a vehicle

coming from San Felipe to Mexicali.

This is the suitcase where this guy was transporting the

totoaba swim bladders when he got captured and then released.

He's not arrested, released.

The guy claimed his constitutional right to remain silent.

So, they don't know what organization all this comes from.

They don't know who was going to get this in order

to take it to China.

22 totoaba swim bladders.

Look at that one. It's huge.

This is it.

This is why vaquitas are dying.

This is why a lot of the species from the upper Gulf of California are in danger.

This is what is fueling the entire operation,

from the small town of San Felipe,

all the way to the huge country of China.

This is butchery.

I wanna find out who is making the profit of this.

How it starts at a price of $4500 and ends up in China about 70,000.

There is a lot of money involved.

Who is the El Chapo of the totoaba.

Our team at Earth League International,

we have potentially many many wars to fight around the world.

And we think it's important to be here now and to fight this

war because it's highly symbolic.

It's extinction in real time, under our eyes,

entirely driven by profits and greed,

and this is what is happening to the planet.

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Hey man.

Hey. How are you?

Good to see you again. Good to see you.

Let's get out of here. Yeah.

I have a car here. Alright.

A couple of years ago I started to create a unique

team of people who did much...

until yesterday they were chasing Bin Laden, El Chapo and...

Russian mafia, Italian mafia, and now they're actually

fighting for the planet.

Yeah one of our sources was telling me last week,

the Chinese community in Tijuana,

the Chinese community in Mexicali,

they have the, you know, relationship with some of the

Sinaloans from the Cartels.

Sinaloa?

Yeah, it's the one that's running a lot of the trade up here.

At first, when you look at this matter from the outside,

you think it's just an environmental issue.

But then the more you dig in, the more you realize that

there are huge criminal implications behind this problem.

When you have the involvement of the Chinese traffickers,

the involvement of the drug cartels, and

you can imagine, you need much more than a conservation plan.

You know, you need much more than that.

And this is exactly why we're here.

What was surprising actually, when we started working on

this issue is that almost nobody was looking at the Chinese.

And for us, it's very important to find the exact point

where Chinese traffickers meet with the Mexican traders.

They wanna do it like this. Alright.

So we hope to get this information from these two guys.

They are locals.

They are very connected and they know who are the players.

Very nice to see you.

Of course.

This is a problem.

Now let me ask you. Do you have any idea if there's any

Chinese connections out of Tijuana and Mexicali?

Oh yes. Absolutely.

That's where the cut off is.

That needs to be fused together.

He only. Only? One person?

The whole thing?

Now, who's that?

How did he get there? One guy?

Oh, how did he get there?

So then you know, he's the guy that's been

paying all the...

Oscar Parra is apparently the guy who is

dealing with the Chinese.

But we don't know yet who's physically buying from Oscar Parra.

So if you look at the entire supply chain,

and you have to look at the entire supply chain

if you want to understand the problem.

You have to also come here to the very origin of the issue.

Ground zero if you want, San Felipe.

The fishing of the Totoaba is here.

Vaquita lives here.

This is the place where the Totoaba trafficking begins.

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Look at that. A dolphin.

Yeah.

There are miles of gill nets all over the Sea of Cortez

destroying one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Jacques Cousteau said, "This is the aquarium of the planet."

It's so rich, full of life.

This war is not just for the vaquita.

The vaquita is our flag.

This is the big challenge.

If we don't save the vaquita we will lose the whole Sea of Cortez.

We will lose the aquarium of the planet.

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I keep thinking about the last vaquita.

The moment when only one vaquita will be left in the wild.

He or she will be calling to other vaquitas.

Nobody will answer.

Welcome to San Felipe.

I am the Rear Admiral, Edgar Capatillo Commander of the Naval Sector.

Nice to meet you. Cynthia Smith.

I got the call to join a group of veterinarians and

scientists to help save the vaquita from extinction by

bringing it into human care.

No other option was working.

The speed at which the species was declining really picked up.

There were 100, and then there were 60,

and then there were 30.

And now there's fewer than 30.

If they stay out there, we believe they're gonna all die.

Unfortunately, we got here really late and there's just

no room for error.

Have a look at the sea pens.

Yeah. Have a quick look at the sea pen.

We haven't formally met. I'm Cynthia Smith.

Great to meet you.

The vaquita is still a mystery.

Most of us have never even seen one,

no underwater footage exists of them.

So to prepare for this mission we built them sea pens and pools,

and we're talking about creating a sanctuary option to

provide them with what they need to thrive.

But there are so few vaquitas left,

that finding them will be really hard.

Most fishermen have never seen a vaquita.

So they don't really believe they exist.

They think of them as a myth.

That they're just ghosts.

We brought in the best observers in the world.

60‐something scientists and vets and biologists,

the right equipment, and the right boats.

All of that to really make a difference.

WOMAN (over radio): Odissea, instructions please?

Yeah, Odissea stand by.

November 49, can you come back toward us please.

MAN (over radio): Yeah. Copy. Coming back.

The definition of success for this project is

that vaquitas return to the wild,

that they are only with us for a short time,

and then they go home.

But this can only happen if the Sea of Cortez is safe for them again.

The government put the ban on gill nets.

The gill nets that were trapping vaquitas out of the water.

A lot of fishermen went out of business.

Fishermen got some money as compensation,

but what everybody tells you is compensation is not enough,

compensation is not the money I used to make.

You are in the verge of a social outburst that had

turned into violence.

And the drug cartels are taking advantage of this.

Because the fishermen, they're not willing to wait,

and they're jumping into the totoaba business,

becoming part of the cartels of fishing illegally.

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Thank you.

Currently we're just approaching a net.

Hopefully there's no animals in it.

Hopefully it's fresh.

Five meters and we have the buoys.

Okay. Haul in and lock it off.

That's the horrible thing,

if a poacher just forgets about a net,

and just leaves it in the ocean,

it becomes a ghost net and that can be the most deadly thing.

WOMAN (over radio): Straight down on port.

We got a turtle in the net.

Turtle in the net copy that.

Alive or dead?

WOMAN (over radio): It was dead.

Damn.

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These walls of death kill everything here.

If we let emotions get in the way of things, game over.