For those who feel a deep connection to the ocean from sport divers to Native cultural traditions, the loss of red abalone is deeply felt. As ecosystems change, so do the relationships people have carried for generations.

How best to preserve the values inherited from generations, when nature and time continue to change? Arubara is a village where life has long moved to the rhythm of the tides. Facing dwindling fish populations and with a vision to restore marine ecosystem diversity, the community decides to close the fishing grounds for several months despite depending on it for their livelihood. Will the gamble pay off?

“Hello Whale” delves into southeast Alaska’s remote ocean ecosystems and threatened humpback whale community through the artistic lens of Michele Oka Doner. This ecopoetic documentary explores the relationships between vulnerable wildlife and conservation researchers fighting to protect them, using creative science-driven storytelling to inspire this vital waterscape’s safeguarding.

Yup’ik Indigenous leader Alannah Acaq Hurley led a campaign that stopped the proposed Pebble Mine megaproject in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Alannah and a broad-based coalition won a historic EPA veto of the copper mining project. The victory safeguards Bristol Bay and its greater watershed—encompassing 25 million acres of wilderness, rivers, and wetlands and home to the largest wild salmon run in the world—from construction of what would have been North America’s largest open-pit mine.