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Narrated by renowned scientist Dr. Sylvia Earle, this 70-minute feature length documentary tells the larger natural history story of the world's rarest sea turtle, the Kemp's Ridley and how humans pushed a healthy population to the precipice of extinction and are now slowly helping it to recover. From the beaches of Massachusetts to Mexico, Texas and Georgia, this documentary highlights the collaborative work that is being done to save a species from going extinct.
Late each autumn, hundreds of sea turtles strand on Cape Cod, Massachusetts due to hypothermia. For more than 25 years, the New England Aquarium and the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary have worked together to rescue, rehabilitate and release thousands of these sea turtles, mostly Kemp's Ridleys, the world’s most endangered sea turtle.
Over the last decade, the number of stranded turtles has steadily increased, but the late autumn of 2014 saw an unprecedented event as more than 1,200 cold-stunned sea turtles washed ashore. This massive wildlife emergency marshaled an inspiring response within and beyond Massachusetts, that reached from individuals to the federal government, involving over 10 states and 21 institutions. It even showcases "the largest airlift of an endangered species probably anywhere in the United States, quite possibly the world.”
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Saving Sea Turtles: Preventing Extinction Documentary Trailer