ILLUMINATE Screening Room

Saving Sea Turtles: Preventing Extinction

Unlock to stream instantly
Already unlocked? for access
$3.99After unlocking, you'll have 7 days to start watching. Once you begin, you'll have 48 hours to finish watching. Need help?

Narrated by renowned scientist Dr. Sylvia Earle, SAVING SEA TURTLES: PREVENTING EXTINCTION focuses on a record-breaking sea turtle stranding season on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where over 1,200 cold-stunned sea turtles washed ashore in 2014. Over 90 percent of the stranded sea turtles were Kemp's Ridleys, the world's most critically endangered sea turtle. This massive wildlife emergency marshaled an inspiring response, involving people from over 10 states and 21 institutions and even showcases "the largest airlift of an endangered species probably anywhere in the United States, quite possibly the world."


This documentary also tells the larger natural history story of the Kemp's Ridley and how humans pushed a healthy population to the precipice of extinction and are now slowly helping it to recover. The Kemp's Ridley was once heralded as an endangered species success story in the making, but that all changed in 2010 after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, making the work of the conservationists, marine biologists and volunteers critical to the survival of the species.

  • Year
    2016
  • Runtime
    60 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Director
    Michele Gomes and Jennifer Ting
  • Producer
    Michele Gomes and Jennifer Ting