Avast, mateys! 'Tis been too long since me last post. The good ship Something Fishy, she been a'travelin' far and wide to find ye the juiciest sea-worthy stories yet untold. This week, I introduce you to Alan De Herrera, a documentary filmmaker whose latest work, Sea Lions: An Unforgettable Encounter, delves deep into the lives of California sea lions.
Circus veterans for more than a century, California sea lions are entertaining animals, and as a result, are one of the most widely recognized marine mammals in the world. But De Herrera's more worried about their reputation as pests -- venturing into marinas and climbing aboard boats; following commercial vessels to all the best fishing holes and then pilfering the catch; even maneuvering onto fish ladders to trap salmon on their way upstream.
"[People] just think they're stinky, dumb dogs with flippers that want to go rape and pillage all the fish out there, and that's simply not the case," De Herrera says. His 45-minute film, narrated by former hobbit Sean Astin, aims to show the public how intelligent and playful the animals are and illuminate the threats they face from humans. (One in five sea lions rescued by the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., have carcinoma -- a cancer linked to chemical exposure -- and another 20 percent suffer from gunshot wounds likely caused by angry fishermen.) "It's not in any way going to be beneficial for human society to eradicate these animals," De Herrera asserts.
I caught up with the impassioned filmmaker between promotional screenings at the Seattle Aquarium earlier this summer to chat about de-villainizing the charismatic mammals, protecting their West Coast habitat, and educating the next generation of fishermen.