World Premier at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary's 2008 Ocean Film Festival.
HD Cinematography by award-winning Tom Campbell Funded through a grant from Save Our Seas Foundation
This high definition film is about an extraordinary
partnership that is bringing the world’s most endangered sea turtle
back from the brink of extinction. Dr. Patrick Burchfield has put
together a team that no one would have dreamed possible. He has managed
to pull together two governments, Mexico and the U.S., to save the
Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. Along the way his straight talking, holistic
approach has turned adversaries into advocates and taught the locals a
new way to make a living rather than poaching or eating the turtle eggs.
The story of the turtle itself is beautiful and dramatic; full of first
time ever footage and amazing transformations that no one knew would
happen when the turtle was filmed underwater. For the first time in his
life Pat Burchfield has the opportunity to swim with the Kemp’s Ridley
and see this turtle he has devoted his life to, swimming in its natural
environment.
This turtle faces tremendous odds against natural
predators, poachers and the scorching heat on their sole nesting
beaches in northeast Mexico. Yet through the efforts of the Kemp’s
Ridley Recovery Project their numbers have increased from 300 nesting
females in the mid 80’s to over 7,500.
While this is a story
about sea turtles, it is also about people. People who are willing to
set aside seemingly unsolvable differences, and work together to save
the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. People who understand, perhaps for the
first time, that saving this turtle will have a tremendous impact on
our ocean environment.
Headed home
Dr. Pat Burchfield
A local in the kiln
A rare glimpse as she lays her eggs
The Turtle Dance
The first hatchlings of the season
DP Tom Campbell
First ever under water footage
This is the only sea turtle that nests during the day
One perfect hatchling--what all the fuss is about.
One of the tens of thousands of hatchlings we filmed taking their first steps, then fighting the waves with all their might. Hopefully in 13 years the females will return to this beach to start the process all over again.
