In the shadow of the climate emergency, the biodiversity crisis on a planetary scale is affecting a growing number of species threatened with extinction, often to general indifference. One of them, the North Atlantic right whale, has seen its population reduced to less than 400 individuals. Documentary filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza has decided to dedicate her most recent film to them.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
It is not as mythical as the blue whale and is not as well known as the fin whale or the humpback whale. In the whale family, Eubalaena glacialis is the most threatened of all. A recent census has established its population at 366 individuals in the North Atlantic.
Filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza knew next to nothing about the right whale until she began to take an interest in them in 2017. That year, 17 whale carcasses were found in the North Atlantic, near the Canadian and American coasts. “It was when I saw all these dead whales in the newspapers that I said to myself that we had to inform the public about the fate of this species,” she confided in an interview with The Press.
Mais la cinéaste s’est vite rendu compte que réaliser un documentaire sur des baleines en voie de disparition représente un défi gigantesque. « Le plus difficile, c’est de pouvoir filmer ces baleines. Il est interdit de s’en approcher, il faut des autorisations pour le faire. Dès le départ, ç’a été le principal enjeu, mais en collaborant avec des scientifiques, on a fini par avoir les autorisations [gouvernementales] “, she explains.
Find right whales
Once the authorizations were in hand, all that remained was… to find right whales. “It’s always difficult to make a film about wildlife and it’s even more so in the ocean. You have to have the right weather conditions and you have to find them, the whales, because there are only a few hundred of them. »
It is that the mathematics are not in favor of this species: the mortalities are indeed higher than the births. The warming of the oceans also pushes whales to venture into areas more frequented by humans in order to feed.
However, half of the deaths are attributable to collisions with a ship and it would seem that females are more likely than males to be struck accidentally.
Not to mention that the vast majority of individuals (80%) also have scars on their bodies, the result of a collision or ropes left by fishermen.
The necessary nuances
It took two and a half years and a lot of patience for Nadine Pequeneza to complete The Last Right Whales. But unlike other more sensationalist documentaries like Seaspiracyreleased in 2021, the director refused to succumb to a Manichean vision pitting the good against the bad.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
Documentary filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza
The documentary nevertheless shows disturbing scenes, such as the necropsy of a whale found dead off Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The images of a young male trying to get rid of several ropes are also particularly shocking.
But despite shocking images, the documentary filmmaker nevertheless offers a film full of nuances, which demonstrates that solutions exist.
One of the most interesting characters is a Quebec crab fisherman, Martin Noël.
Many fishermen are seen as villains in this story, but that’s only part of the story. And Martin [Noël] is not one of those villains and he is not the only one. There are many other anglers like him.
Documentary filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza
In particular, we see the fisherman and his team testing new crab cages, which are not attached by a rope to a buoy floating on the surface. These cages have a system for remotely triggering the opening of the doors, which are equipped with floats. Once on the surface, simply bring the cage back to the boat using the rope attached to the opening system.
An ingenious idea which must however be tested in all conditions to judge its effectiveness. “For me, it was obvious that we had to get involved,” says Martin Noël in the documentary. We are at sea. We are the first to be affected by these closures [de zones de pêche]. So we have to be part of the solution. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
The fisherman Martin Noel
The last year has been particularly favorable for the birth of calves. About twenty births have been recorded, which could suggest that the measures deployed by the Canadian government are having some success in protecting this species.
But Nadine Pequeneza refuses to claim victory. “I think what I learned with this film is that the protection of nature must be constant. You can’t just put a protective measure in place and say OK, it’s over. »
According to the director, the way humans inhabit and use the space at their disposal, “without worrying about ecosystems, it is problematic”. “People will think it’s a movie about whales, but basically it’s mostly a movie about humans. About how we act on our planet. »
The Last Right Whales will be presented at the Cinéma du Musée in English with French subtitles from February 18.
Learn more
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- From 13 to 17 meters
- Length of a North Atlantic right whale, which weighs on average between 30 and 70 tons.
Source: Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM)
- 6 months
- A right whale entangled in fishing ropes takes an average of six months to succumb to its injuries.
Source: documentary The Last Right Whales