Original subtitles

(inaudible chatter).

CARLOS: 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.

GUARD: Buenos dias. CARLOS: Como estas?

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

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

(speaking Spanish).

CARLOS: 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.

ANDREA: 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.

(yelling, chatter).

Hey man.

MARC: Hey. How are you?

ANDREA: Good to see you again. MARC: Good to see you.

ANDREA: Let's get out of here. MARC: Yeah.

ANDREA: I have a car here. MARC: Alright.

ANDREA: 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.

MARC: 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.

ANDREA: Sinaloa?

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

ANDREA: 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.

ANDREA: Of course.

INFORMANT 1: This is a problem.

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

Chinese connections out of Tijuana and Mexicali?

INFORMANT 2: Oh yes. INFORMANT 1: Absolutely.

MARC: That's where the cut off is.

That needs to be fused together.

INFORMANT 1: He only. ANDREA: Only? One person?

ANDREA: The whole thing?

ANDREA: Now, who's that?

ANDREA: How did he get there? MARC: One guy?

INFORMANT 1: Oh, how did he get there?

INFORMANT 1: So then you know, he's the guy that's been

paying all the...

ANDREA: 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.

(buzzing).

ANDREA: Look at that. A dolphin.

MARC: Yeah.

ANDREA: 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.

(whale singing).

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.

CAPATILLO: Welcome to San Felipe.

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

CYNTHIA: 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.

MAN: Have a look at the sea pens.

CYNTHIA: Yeah. Have a quick look at the sea pen.

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

Great to meet you.

CYNTHIA: 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?

WOMAN: Yeah, Odissea stand by.

November 49, can you come back toward us please.

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

CYNTHIA: 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.

CARLOS: The government put the ban on gill nets.

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

CARLOS: 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.

CARLOS: 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.

(dogs barking, yawning).

(speaking Spanish).

(speaking Spanish).

(radio chatter).

JACK: Thank you.

Currently we're just approaching a net.

Hopefully there's no animals in it.

Hopefully it's fresh.

WOMAN: Five meters and we have the buoys.

Okay. Haul in and lock it off.

JACK: 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.

JACK: Turtle in the net copy that.

Alive or dead?

WOMAN (over radio): It was dead.

JACK: Damn.

(groaning).

(stretching).

JACK: These walls of death kill everything here.

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

You have to keep a level head no matter how many

dead animals we go through.

We want no nets in the ocean.

And our tactic right now is to pull them.

Anyone who says just one person can't make a difference,

just look at what we've done here.

All these whales that have been saved,

all these dolphins and sea lions and rays.

30 people can save literally thousands of lives here.

WOMAN: Careful! Careful!

MAN: Totoaba coming up.

JACK: Is it dead?

MAN: Dead.

JACK: Alright. Totoaba coming on board.

MAN: Yep.

JACK: Thank you.

The swim bladder is still very much intact.

This could still be sold.

Whenever Sea Shepherd finds a totoaba in a net,

we open up the fish that we pull out of the net,

we take the swim bladder that is so precious to all these

people and we destroy it.

The poacher who gets this will earn around $5,000.

And on the black market this can go up to $100,000.

Jose!

MAN: Bridge bridge deck, we have a panga approaching from port.

JACK: We have the military protecting us 24/7.

The poachers are losing so much money due to Sea Shepherd

that they're prepared to take any means necessary.

Four individuals in a panga, with fishing gear,

but with no fishing rods.

They can't really make it more obvious that they're going out to get a net.

So we'll keep that target on radar,

and we'll watch where they're going.

ANDREA: As an outsider it is nearly impossible

to infiltrate the totoaba cartel.

But sometimes you find that one person that is willing to talk.

ANDREA: How many nets you have right now in the water?

ANDREA: That's a lot of... that's a big loss.

ANDREA: Exactly it's a lot of money.

Who is paying for all these nets?

I mean he cannot pay for all these nets.

Like, there is hundreds of thousands of dollars of nets

right now, right, who is paying?

TRANSLATOR: There is someone to loan them money.

ANDREA: So it's still a loan. So I give you...

TRANSLATOR: Give you... yeah.

ANDREA: Okay. So, curious now if you lose $56,000 in nets, you still owe...

TRANSLATOR: Then you have to pay.

ANDREA: ...the money to these people.

TRANSLATOR: You owe the man, of course.

ANDREA: So who are these people?

He knows?

(speaking Spanish).

ANDREA: The buyer. Mexican, or Chinese?

JT: Mexicanos.

ANDREA: Still Mexicanos okay.

CARLOS: We want to interview the highest officer in charge of the investigation,

and we wanna know why they haven't captured him.

(speaking Spanish).

CARLOS: Admiral Romel Ledezma, is the one that is in charge

of the law enforcement in the area.

Federal police, the army, the navy,

all the law enforcement areas of the Mexican government come

together in the desk and the decisions of Admiral Ledezma.

CARLOS: All I want is to put pressure on the authorities,

and try to make things happen.

As a journalist, that's as far as you can go,

but it's a lot.

So if I meet with an admiral, if I meet with a commissioner,

if I meet with a minister, and I ask him about the thing,

they know we're watching.

And if they come out with a promise,

they better keep it.

ANDREA: For us it's important to understand how the cartels operate,

where do they land, and where the trafficking actually is starting.

There is one organization that has been operating here for years,

fighting for the vaquitas,

patrolling the waters, removing the nets,

and it is Sea Shepherd.

Hi, Carolina, how are you?

CAROLINA: Hey Andrea. ANDREA: Nice to see you.

CAROLINA: Nice to see you. Welcome.

ANDREA: Thank you. CAROLINA: Here's the ship.

(foghorn blaring).

JACK: We're gonna head north because we know that's where

the main totoaba run is at the moment.

So now, go night ship. Nav lights off.

MAN: Yeah, it's off.

JACK: The farther north we go, the poachers get much bolder.

The poachers that come out of San Felipe are always very cautious,

but from Santa Clara,

they're the ones, that shot at us. Like...

ANDREA: Oh, from Santa Clara?

JACK: Yeah. We were in the north whenever that happened.

ANDREA: Okay.

JACK: On all five occasions now. Yeah.

They went north.

Certainly get the drone ready.

MAN: Yeah.

ANDREA: It is actually very powerful to see how

Sea Shepherd operates.

Their weapon is basically a camera on a drone.

The only weapon.

JACK: Watch your legs.

JACK (over radio): Alright. So where am I going?

WOMAN: Okay the first target is target number three,

they're at our 11:30.

JACK (over radio): Alright. We're out there.

JACK: So. We got two pangas here, we've another six up here.

We've another...

like, there seems to be around nine or ten,

just along this stretch of two miles of coastline.

Bridge, I'm pretty sure they were pulling in a net.

I'll fly a little closer and find out.

WOMAN (over radio): Okay copy that.

JACK: So yeah, these guys are pulling in a net.

ANDREA: Yeah.

JACK: There we go. They saw us.

ANDREA: Yeah.

JACK: This is what we do every night.

We see a target, we launch the drone,

we see if there's a net, we chase them away,

we pick up the net.

Now they've seen us we are hoping that they cut their net.

Yeah, they cut it.

ANDREA: So they're leaving.

JACK: They have cut their net, they are now taking off.

I have the exact position they have cut their net, so...

WOMAN (over radio): Awesome! We will drag.

JACK: Anyone else around?

WOMAN: Actually he looks like he's turning towards us Jack.

JACK (over radio): How far ahead of us?

Is he feeling like intimidating us?

What's he up to?

WOMAN: Actually he is coming really close to us here.

JACK: Aye aye.

We'll... I'll make sure there's no guns on board,

if not we are going to be on your port side.

WOMAN: I hate it when they do this.

I really hate it.

JACK (over radio): Yeah, that's a panga, he's coming to give us

a bit of intimidation.

WOMAN: Okay let me know if you want me to do spotlight,

because they know we're here.

Where are they?

Can you let me know where they're at?

JACK (over radio): Alright they're on us.

These guys are just approaching your aft,

around 40 meters out.

WOMAN: What are they doing?

JACK (over radio): Alright. They're just about 20 30 meters from your aft.

They're gonna come around again.

They're trying to intimidate us.

WOMAN (over radio): Navy coming, but we don't have a position on them.

JACK: Alright starboard side.

WOMAN (over radio): Panga really really close.

It's going around our port side,

is coming around on our bow now.

(yelling, cursing).

WOMAN (over radio): Land the drone and bring the guys inside please?

JACK: I can keep the drone in the air if I go to the fly

bridge and we'll fly from there.

WOMAN (over radio): Okay, that's a good plan.

JACK: The rest of you have to go inside so that none of you get shot, yeah.

Bridge, bridge, do we know how far away the Navy is currently?

WOMAN: They're right in front of us.

ANDREA: He's on her. I can see it now.

JACK (over radio): The Navy has stopped the pursuit.

The panga is heading north to Santa Clara.

JACK: Now that this chase has happened,

I doubt we will see any other poachers tonight.

ANDREA: Right. Right. Right.

JACK: Because they all work together.

ANDREA: They already radio everyone else.

JACK: Yeah, I'm sure they have.

This is organized crime we're currently watching.

It's like cocaine out here.

WOMAN: Hold.

MAN: Totoaba.

WOMAN: It's alive. It's alive.

JACK: We have a knife ready?

Yeah, we'll pull it up and we'll put it up over the gunnel.

Totoaba coming on board.

(inaudible chatter).

JACK: Problem is the net that is designed to catch totoaba

unfortunately kills vaquita by accident.

And every single vaquita that I've seen that has been dead

is because of a net.

WOMAN: We got it. Ooh!

JACK: We will continue the fight here.

Pull nets. Free animals.

And fight for every single life.

We won't stop.

Every single animal here matters for every single

animal everywhere else in the ocean.

Aw, check out these lads!

It's all so incredibly intertwined.

Oh that's fantastic!

There they are.

We're not a virus here to kill our host.

To sit there and let an entire ocean die because of the greed

of a few, and to be okay with that?

That is unacceptable.

As a species, that is unacceptable.

If that happens we should be ashamed.

ANDREA: Four trucks, four trucks of Federal Police.

It's interesting, in San Felipe,

you usually you see one truck at a time.

And here there are four going around together.

Everybody is looking at us.

Look at the Hummer. Look at the yellow Hummer.

Who can afford this kind of car here?

It's a super expensive car.

MARC: Yeah, and no license plates.

ANDREA: Look, this is exactly what we saw last night with Sea Shepherd.

Santa Clara is really the heart of the totoaba cartel.

Very weird...vibe.

MARC: Now are they off‐loading a panga to our right?

Andrea, can you tell?

ANDREA: They're launching, I think they're launching now.

MARC: Yeah, they're launching man.

ANDREA: You can see exactly how they do it.

MARC: There is a bunch of police to your left.

ANDREA: Oh yeah there's marines.

Okay they are in front of the marines.

Two trucks of marines behind us.

In theory patrolling and I guess they're here to control the pangas.

There's no other reason why, but all this is supposed to be illegal.

And we saw with our own eyes, you see here another panga

going to the water so, we saw with our own eyes,

all those illegal pangas, they escaped back here like a safe

haven for a totoaba poachers.

But the safe haven is also full of police and marines,

so you don't understand why they're here,

what they're doing here.

It smells. The whole thing stinks.

(speaking Spanish).

ANDREA: You're you're clearly not using your gears.

ANDREA: But did you see marines or police working with

the illegal fisherman?

ANDREA: Mmm. You saw it.

ANDREA: So you have a very big problem if the government works like this.

ANDREA: This illegal fisherman they work very close with

Chinese traffickers.

Did you ever see a Chinese trafficker here?

MARC: Somebody is looking at us.

ANDREA: At us?

MARC: Yes. They're under those...

Do you have any idea who that drone would be,

the one that's...

MAN: What those drones?

ANDREA: That white drone?

MAN: They have those drones here because like when...

ANDREA: Who is they? MAN: I don't know.

ANDREA: Military? Police?

MAN: No, no. ANDREA: Fishermen?

MAN: No, no these drones, like when people like you guys

come here, like they film.

They film everybody.

ANDREA: Who? Who?

MAN: Oh people from the town.

ANDREA: No, I understand, but I want to know if they are the...

You know, I understand here in the town there are good

fishermen like you that play by the rules,

and there are also fishermen who do not play by the rules,

and are actually getting more and more dangerous.

I wanna know it belongs to them?

MAN: I'm not sure, I just don't know, I don't know.

MARC: Yeah. I see.

MAN: That's the truth.

ANDREA: Let's get out of here.

CYNTHIA: If we can save the vaquita,

and we shine a light on this gorgeous little animal,

and we can show people this animal is about to

disappear off the planet, because of human activity.

We can't keep killing the planet.

We have to change what we're doing.

Not just for the vaquita, but for all animals in the Gulf.

CYNTHIA: You know you'd have to be out this way any way or...

MAN: There are no firearms with those people, are there?

CYNTHIA: I don't know. There might be. Yeah.

Matt's, I'm gonna grab your binoculars.

MAN: I think there are firearms.

MAN: They do have firearms? Let's not slow down.

CYNTHIA: The guy in the blue has one.

MAN: Are they military or civilian?

CYNTHIA: They look like military.

Wait a minute no they don't.

There's some really bad guys here,

they don't wanna see us succeed so...

this is real and there are a lot of risks.

We have to hold on to the hope that it's gonna work because

there is no good ending if we don't try.

CYNTHIA (over radio): Wanderlust, you're getting awfully close

to the fog bank there.

We could have a problem moving forward if you

come any further forward.

MAN (over radio): Fly bridge to bridge,

I've got a positive sighting right off our bow.

CYNTHIA (over radio): Wanderlust we also just had what looked like a

little blow from our perspective about half way

between the slick that's directly in front of us,

and the fog bank.

MAN: Are we sure it was a vaquita?

MAN: We're not even sure it was a vaquita.

CYNTHIA: It seems like the vaquita‐like behavior though.

MAN (over radio): Bridge, I've got a positive sighting.

CYNTHIA (over radio): How far out?

MAN (over radio): 200 feet.

CYNTHIA (over radio): We are now pointing in the direction of the sighting,

approximately one mile out from us.

CYNTHIA: Oh, yeah, what is that right there.

You guys see those animals?

MAN: Oh yeah. There.

MAN (over radio): I have the vaquita in sight.

(cheering).

CYNTHIA: I'm gonna stay with the net in case we get an animal.

MAN (over radio): Extender, set the net now.

MAN: Right there. Right there. Right there.

Turn hard, hit it straight! Hard, hard, hard.

Cut him off here.

MAN (over radio): It's moving in the right direction, toward the net.

25 meters in front of the net.

The net is out!

It's going right towards the net.

CYNTHIA: Keep going. Another 20.

That's good right there.

MAN: See if we can keep our eyes on the animal though.

MAN: Here. Here. Here.

CYNTHIA: These are sophisticated creatures.

They're thinking through problems.

There's a net over here, there's a net over there,

and I don't wanna get in that net,

I wanna get out of here and so they took a minute,

and evaluated the situation and then they beat the net.

And then they swam under it.

That's amazing.

There is something very special about those animals.

And the hardest thing is going to be if they don't accept our care.

Some species just don't tolerate that,

and then we have to put 'em back.

So we're gonna have to choose between possible death in our care,

or certain death in the ocean.

So what do you do?

You know, how do you make that decision?

CARLOS: The authorities just told us Oscar Parra,

the top one of the cartel.

They are accusing him of killing one soldier.

What we see now is worse than ever.

CARLOS: Once the piece aired, there was a huge outcry in the area.

I received death threats, many of them.

Perhaps illegals, perhaps the government,

we hit some nerves, so we are on the right track.

(speaking Spanish).

ANDREA: I will wear a camera as well, and so...

OONA: He's there. ANDREA: He's there?

OONA: Yeah.

ANDREA: Let's do that quickly and then let's go.

Okay.

OONA: I said ten minutes. ANDREA: Good.

Oscar Parra is just a tool.

The Chinese traders need people like Parra to keep the trade on.

We've recruited Mexican sources,

in contact with the Chinese traffickers.

Our goal is to extract as much information as possible

and come back safe.

We met him already several times.

So this time is the real (bleep), and now he has to give us stuff.

OONA: Yeah.

ANDREA: 'Cause we have been talking with him for months, huh.

So let's finish it up with this.

MARC: Yeah.

OONA: What if he checks us, and wants to look underneath the shirt?

ANDREA: You stop him. MARC: Yeah.

ANDREA: You stop him also in a very violent way,

and you say, "Hey if you wanna go, the deal is off."

MARC: Correct. ANDREA: We have to trust you.

Pedro, he's from San Felipe.

He's a butcher himself, he has been dealing with totoaba for

a long time, and also other crimes.

These people do not help you because they have a good heart,

they help you because they want money.

Be careful. Be careful.

They're coming. They're coming.

Just got in.

MARC: Hey, sorry about the lateness.

Yeah sorry.

ANDREA: So they just got out, and we can follow them.

OONA: This is the restaurant.

ANDREA: So here you are in front of the restaurant.

OONA: And then to show us that it was a real number he actually called...

ANDREA: Oh he called the owner of the restaurant?

MARC: In real time.

ANDREA: And you have the name of this guy, right?

OONA: Yeah, so that's Lee. David Lee.

ANDREA: Oh that's Lee. Okay. Interesting.

That's very good information, huh.

So this is...

Now we have to find a way to connect David to totoaba traffic.

Our Asian undercover teams, they're gonna engage this

David either directly, or find people who work with him,

but we need evidence.

And evidence that can hold in court.

(phone ringing).

ANA‐LUCIA (over phone): Hello.

CARLOS: No wonder why nobody is arresting this guy,

I mean Oscar Parra is paying off the police,

it is corruption all the way,

and nobody is doing anything about it.

We are so used to this,

so used of listening to promises that are

not ever fulfilled, to see the authorities being weak,

when it comes to fight organized crime.

It is like everything is like paused.

Waiting for what?

I mean clocks ticking.

If they don't do something, this is gonna be the year of

the end of the vaquita.

MAN (over radio): Course right now is 097.

097 over.

CYNTHIA (over radio): Copy. Thanks.

Flying Bridge this is the Wanderlust,

we have a possible sighting.

CYNTHIA: As soon as we hear those words,

we see a vaquita.

There is this, you know, nervous energy on the boat

and we're excited for the possibility of success.

But we are terrified by the possibility of failure.

CYNTHIA (over radio): How many animals?

MAN (over radio): Two maybe three.

I have vaquita 8:00 from the Wanderlust.

CYNTHIA: 400 meters, 8:00.

Yeah. Between us and the Wanderlust.

MAN: Hold on.

CYNTHIA: Net out.

MAN (over radio): Net out. Net out.

MAN: Our net's out. MAN: 100 meters in front of extender.

MAN: Okay. Hold on.

CYNTHIA: Right there guys. Right there.

MAN (over radio): 12:00 from the Wanderlust.

CYNTHIA: Right here.

MAN (over radio): Going to the right. So kind of headed to the net.

CYNTHIA: It might be...

MAN: Turn. Turn. Turn. Turn. Turn. Turn.

Cut them off! Go that way!

The net's right there!

MAN (over radio): Lucky you are right on it.

MAN: Yeah, they're heading straight for the net.

Turn down the pace. Turn.

They might be in the net.

CYNTHIA: They're in the net.

MAN: What?

MAN (over radio): They are loose.

MAN: They're in the net right in front of.

CYNTHIA: Alright guys, everybody calm down.

They're fine.

We have one hook in the stretcher.

MAN: Oh no pulling.

CYNTHIA: Are we okay guys?

MAN (over radio): We have a Vaquita.

CYNTHIA: Woo!

MAN (over radio): It's alive and well.

MAN: Excellent. MAN: Oh my god I can't believe it.

WOMAN: Breath...

CYNTHIA: Hey we okay?

MAN: Her teeth are fully erupted and she is a girl.

Okay.

CYNTHIA: Hey. Just wanted to let you know we're doing good still.

She likes it over on the side, she's pretty relaxed.

Her respiration has calmed down a little bit.

And occasionally she's a little feisty,

which we like, so I think we're in good shape.

MAN: Ready? Three, two one...

LORENZO: This is a female, a mature female,

lovely mature female.

As beautiful as it can get.

CYNTHIA: Hey, Lorenzo.

I just checked she doesn't seem to be pregnant right now.

She's got a prominent uterus, so I'll have to check when

we get home, but I don't think we need to.

We're good.

LORENZO: I'm good, let's go.

CYNTHIA: Okay, so keep her. You think to keep her?

LORENZO: To keep her and go to El Nieto.

CYNTHIA: Okay. Okay. Alright. LORENZO: Yeah.

CYNTHIA: Okay we're gonna keep her and go to El Nieto.

There's a tremendous amount of excitement, anxiety.

I mean all these emotions are packed up tight together.

And there's so many unknowns.

No one's actually ever held a live vaquita.

It'll be the first time anyone listens to the heart of a vaquita.

There are so many firsts that are gonna be happening.

(speaking Spanish).

CYNTHIA: Awesome. Just go nice and slow.

Good good good.

Okay. It's okay.

Just let her go.

Yeah yeah, see, see.

She just needs to learn... It's okay.

She needs to learn about the perimeter so just let her go.

And when she hits just gently let her...

just push her gently away from the wall.

Yeah she looks great.

Okay.

CYNTHIA: You could see her learning to turn,

and you could see her starting to navigate the area.

And that was encouraging.

We could be starting to think about, okay,

when do we start offering her live fish?

Who's going home right now to go to sleep,

so that they can come back in a few hours to,

you know, take on watch?

And then things started to change.

LORENZO: She hasn't breathed. CYNTHIA: What?

LORENZO: She hasn't taken a breath.

CYNTHIA: When was the last time she took a breath?

WOMAN: It was over two minutes...

LORENZO: Just before... CYNTHIA: Is her heart beating?

LORENZO: Just before... CYNTHIA: Okay check her heart.

WOMAN: She's beating.

CYNTHIA: She's unstable. We need to let her go.

Go ahead and get in people. And you guys grab her.

Alright. Let's go. Just go fast.

Okay, Grant. Are you okay? You okay?

MAN: Run...

CYNTHIA: Make sure she's taking a breath.

MAN: She won't...

CYNTHIA: Which way guys?

Okay one two three. Go. Let her go.

Go girl, go.

She's circling back.

Alright, she's coming back.

Let's get ready. Let's get back in.

You guys be careful.

Is she breathing? I hear breathing.

MAN: Her breathes like... can you hear the breath?

She's gone. She's gone.

CYNTHIA: No she's not, she's not gone.

Let's do emergency medicine.

Okay. There's a heartbeat guys.

Come on. Come on sweetie.

Okay. Oh, there you go.

Good girl. Good girl.

Take a breath. Come on.

You can do it. Come on.

We can bring her up on board. Push up from underneath.

Oh, mama.

Alright give me a trach tube and an oxygen kit.

And if someone else... Francis and Jake can do drugs.

I'm gonna start my intubation.

Okay. Hold her upright.

Who are you? Stay here.

Hold her right there.

Yes please. Just get me the oxygen.

Come on sweetie. Please come on pumpkin.

Okay, let's see...

Come on, come back to me. Come on mama.

MAN: Give me a heart reading. Still...

CYNTHIA: No, we got no heart.

MAN: Huh? CYNTHIA: No. We don't.

MAN: She's dead. She's dead.

CYNTHIA: Hold on. MAN: No heart rate?

CYNTHIA: Yeah, I don't have a heart rate.

CYNTHIA: I remember Grant looking up and saying,

"She's not okay." And that was the hard moment.

But, you know, so, as soon as he looked up,

and said that and I realized, you know,

this is like, this is, this is the time like,

we gotta start getting ready to release her.

And I was really hoping that that was gonna be enough for her.

That just seeing the ocean in front of her was gonna be

enough to have her snap out of it.

You know, and come back and start to recover.

But then she circled back and she wasn't breathing at that point.

My heart is broke wide open.

Because, not just for her, and not just for the team,

but for the species and what that meant, you know.

It was, that...

It hit me then, like I knew in that moment,

that damn it, you know, these animals as hard as

we're trying it's not right for them, you know.

This isn't a solution.

They are a species that just can't adapt to being in the

care of humans.

And there can only be 15 animals left.

We tried to buy them more time,

but it just didn't work.

Our only hope now is to eradicate the threat,

and if we don't, it will not only be the end of the vaquita,

but the entire Sea of Cortez.

(whales singing).

(inaudible chatter).

CARLOS: This, this hasn't finished.

The fact that the vaquita CPR project didn't go well at all,

doesn't mean that the problem is solved.

CARLOS: The navy went to my show and said we're doubling our bet,

we're sending more boots on the ground in order to get the bad guys.

A huge operation was put together that also involved

Sea Shepherd, military, police.

So this is the time.

If they wanna save the vaquita,

now is the time for law enforcement.

JACK: Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis.

Tonight looks like a good night.

I can currently see six pangas within three miles of us.

Fonj, Fonj, we've a panga stopped just ahead of us.

We're coming into drone range now.

MAN (over radio): Okay, we're coming up.

JACK: Thank you sir.

The military they need our help in locating the poachers.

Sea Shepherd's drone, we can fly at 5 meters,

and I can confirm if there's swim bladders on board.

I can confirm if there's weapons on board.

And then tell the military where to make an arrest.

MAN (over radio): You're almost ahead of us. 0.79.

JACK: Copy that. I can see them.

I have visual on their ship now.

What the hell's that?

There's certainly something on board there,

something that they're throwing in a box.

They're heading towards the beach.

(siren).

JACK: Bridge. They've just landed at the marina.

They've just landed.

I don't know what the hell's going on here.

So what I see currently is lots of people on dock,

but I don't see any military there,

just lots of people on dock on the northern dock.

MAN (over radio): No they are on the beach.

JACK: Are they planning to move to the marina?

Because it doesn't seem to be happening on the beach.

It's happening right in front of us.

JACK: The box is now going up the ramp towards a car.

I'm pretty sure that is the same box that they

put whatever they put in, and they seem to be treating

that as quite important.

A bunch of lads are currently getting into a car and leaving.

If there's any way for you to tell the military,

they're now going.

JACK: These guys are really rushing into their panga.

And like running.

MAN (over radio): Do you want me to follow them?

JACK: Yeah. Let's chase them the whole way frickin home.

Coming on top of them now.

They are stopping.

MAN (over radio): Copy that.

They are down to zero knots now.

JACK: They're doing something at the side of their boat.

That's a rifle.

(gunshots).

JACK: I heard gun shots.

(bleep)! They frickin...

(explosion).

Son of a (bleep)!

WOMAN (over radio): They shot the drone down.

(sirens, shouting).

ANDREA: Apparently there's a big riot at the marina.

You see this is Facebook Live.

The fishermen, literally fighting...

with the navy you see.

They're fighting.

(horn honking).

ANDREA: So what I hear is they finally arrested three fisherman with totoaba.

And then now these people want to force the navy to release them.

Stay on the left, it's safer.

More police.

(shouting).

ANDREA: It appears that the fishermen took control

of one of the navy boats.

Look it's full of fishermen walking all over.

(siren).

MAN: Oh, (bleep)!

(glass breaking).

MAN: Fight back.

(car alarm).

(helicopter whirring).

ANDREA: Shots were fired and the stones keep coming.

Crazy. Frickin crazy.

ANDREA: After what I saw, I believe that the war

cannot be won in the front lines.

We have to acknowledge that to stop the totoaba trafficking,

so we can stop the use of illegal gill nets in the sea,

and hopefully stop the killing of the vaquita,

we have to take down those Chinese traders.

They are the enablers,

and drivers of the whole illegal supply chain.

MARC: Yeah you can make a right turn and that drops us

into another parking lot in the front of it.

ANDREA: The Chinese we found in Mexicali,

this David is now our main target.

They are not here yet.

So we just pass it, we'll go through very slowly.

I brought in our Asian undercovers to get close to him,

and they were successful.

They already had a bunch of meetings

and David doesn't suspect anything.

(phone ringing).

MARC: Kevin. No we're in the area.

Of course, yeah. And this is confirmed huh?

Okay.

No Andrea and I are already in the area,

don't worry about that, yeah.

Okay. Sounds good, yeah.

Good luck.

Okay so they are there.

They're getting ready to walk in in like seconds.

So I'm gonna get the camera ready.

ANDREA: Alright. We give them five minutes.

MARC: Mm‐hmm

ANDREA: And then after five minutes you get in.

MARC: I'll get in. Yep.

ANDREA: And then you will follow from inside.

MARC: Okay.

ANDREA: We have now reached the point when we think we've

got enough trust that we can finally ask about totoaba.

He's here on the left.

But keep going, let's not attract too much attention.

ANDREA: They look like legit, they look like business men,

when in fact they are criminals.

They have been trafficking totoaba for years.

MARC: Good to see you. Kevin.

KEVIN: Mmm.

MARC: Yeah, we're just going through the videos.

ANDREA: This is David? MARC: Yeah.

ANDREA: Good. It is really really good stuff, eh?

ANDREA: Oh wow.

ANDREA: The video evidence that we gathered was enormous.

Now where do we go from here?

The situation in Mexico is so screwed up,

I'm not sure how much law enforcement is willing to do.

So I thought, okay, let's go public.

Let's get in touch with the most important journalist

here in Mexico, Carlos Loret De Mola,

let's attack them with the power of the media.

CARLOS: Andrea. ANDREA: Nice to meet you.

CARLOS: How's everything so far?

ANDREA: Good. Very busy. Very hectic.

CARLOS: I'm gonna ask you about that in a minute.

ANDREA: Yeah. Absolutely.

CARLOS: Welcome.

CARLOS: Thank you very much for being here.

ANDREA: Gracias, thank you.

CARLOS: How is the situation now in the vaquita area?

ANDREA: It is completely out of control.

I would call it a real totoaba cartel, we have now.

They do a lot of illegal stuff.

We recorded conversation, they were talking about

money laundering, around totoaba.

They were talking about human trafficking.

So there are many different illegal businesses.

And that's why it's very very important to stop them,

because they are committing all those crimes,

under the nose of Mexican government so,

they have to be stopped.

CARLOS: Is the Government aware of this?

ANDREA: As we speak we are providing the Chinese Government,

the Mexican Government and the US government

a confidential intel brief with all the information that we have.

Names, numbers, pictures, undercover footage.

CARLOS: So you're gonna give all this to the Mexican, US...

ANDREA: Absolutely. CARLOS: ...and Chinese authorities.

ANDREA: And China. Yeah.

Because we also want the Chinese authorities to act

on their nationals, because without them it'll be

impossible for the totoaberos and the the bucheros to

export, to smuggle, the product back to China.

The public should know that we gave them a lot of information,

more than enough to start an investigation and

act upon these people.

Because if I just give it to the government agencies

without telling anyone else,

they can put it under the carpet and... never happened.

ANDREA: The vaquita is getting extinct,

five hours drive from Los Angeles, in the 21st Century,

is the global symbol of how we are destroying this planet

and that's why everyone should root for the vaquita right now.

Because if we can save the vaquita,

then maybe we know how to save the rest of the planet.

If we lose the vaquita, in front of our eyes,

with all our money, and you know, power...

then we're done.

Then it's the beginning of the end.

It's the beginning of many other animals going extinct

in front of our eyes.

(speaking Spanish).

(radio chatter).

CARLOS: We'll keep putting pressure on them.

All the way. All the way.

Until it happens.

(music plays through credits).

Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.