The vaquita, the world's smallest whale, is near extinction as its habitat is destroyed by Mexican cartels and Chinese mafia, who harvest the swim bladder of the totoaba fish, the "cocaine of the sea." Environmental activists, Mexican navy and undercover investigators are fighting back against this illegal multi-million-dollar business.... (Full plot summary below)
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The vaquita, the world's smallest whale, is near extinction as its habitat is destroyed by Mexican cartels and Chinese mafia, who harvest the swim bladder of the totoaba fish, the "cocaine of the sea." Environmental activists, Mexican navy and undercover investigators are fighting back against this illegal multi-million-dollar business.
Leave your thoughts about Sea of Shadows.
| The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenLadkani's Sea of Shadows is a stirring adventure — inspiring and heartbreaking in equal measure. |
| Slant MagazineChris BarsantiRichard Ladkani’s Sea of Shadows, which bristles with drama and a panicky sense of righteous anger, uses the potential extinction of one little-known species of whale to symbolize a far larger and potentially globe-spanning problem. |
| RogerEbert.comMatt FagerholmWhat they tell us is inherently alarming, yet it’s a shame that such crimes aren’t conveyed in a more visually compelling way. |
| The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe plot twists are so spot on that a screenwriter might have rejected them. |
| Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranWhile success is not guaranteed, Sea of Shadows dramatically demonstrates how and why the battle continues to be fought. |
| Paste MagazineAmy GlynnLadkani’s camerawork is agile and sleek, and the editing is super-sound, so even with a complicated web of crime, corruption, socioeconomic tension, multiple languages, blurred-out faces and folks who operate in the dark, it’s easy to follow. |
| VarietyGuy LodgeTold with straightforward investigative nous and a judicious teardrop of anguished sentimentality, the film makes a virtue of its many clashing participants: journalists, scientists, activists, navy officials and fishermen, each with a slightly different stance on the matter. |
| Austin ChronicleSam RussekParadoxical as it might seem, this planet suffering from human activity requires even more human activity if there’s any hope of saving it. National Geographic documentary Sea of Shadows is hell-bent on reminding us of that fact. |
| Film ThreatHunter LanierIt’s the investigative portion of the movie that is most engaging. |
| The GuardianPeter BradshawIt is heartfelt, but its periodic attempts at thriller-style bouts of excitement are redundant, and I wondered sometimes if the film-makers were sure what exactly their story was. |
