This question from a nine-year-old audience member, her voice laced with hope and trepidation, captured perfectly the weight of the story we’d all just watched—acclaimed filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza’s Last of the Right Whales. 

The powerful documentary tells the plight of the North Atlantic right whale—so named because the majestic, docile creature’s curious nature brought it so close to the hull of whaling ships it was an easy target, the ‘right whale’ for hunting.

By the early 1900s, commercial whaling brought the species to the brink of extinction, and it hasn’t fared much better since. Today, right whales don’t die by harpoons, but they rarely die of natural causes, either. Instead, they are run over by large vessels in the shipping industry or suffer lethal injuries from getting tangled up in rope fishing gear or other sources. 

Scientists estimate there are only about 350 of the critically-endangered whales still alive.

Which brings us to Last of the Right Whales, which follows the whales from their only known calving grounds to their shifting feeding grounds while telling the story of a disparate group of people—a wildlife photographer, a marine biologist, a whale rescuer, and a crab fisher—united in their cause to save the majestic mammal. 

I had the opportunity to watch this powerful documentary in St. Andrews earlier this month. The plight of the right whale is emblematic of the challenges we will continue to face in a busy and changing ocean. 

The film does a good job of laying out the situation since 2017, when unsettling numbers of dead right whales began turning up in Canadian and U.S. waters. 

In the film we see right whales in all their glory, living their lives, but we also see, in stark and grim detail, the impact of vessel strikes and entanglements in fishing gear on the bodies of whales, both those that may survive these encounters and those that don’t. 

While the film makes it clear that the situation is dire, we also see the many people working very hard to live alongside these whales without causing further damage.

Since that heart-wrenching summer in 2017 I have been impressed and encouraged by the efforts I’ve seen from the fishing industry to prevent whales from coming into contact with fishing gear. I was glad to see that the film showed how the fishing industry is putting in the work. 

While the film gives us the science and the role these whales play in our oceans, it also explores the impact these whales can have on individuals and communities. 

I found interviews with two recreational fishers, who enjoyed chance encounters with a mother and calf pair of right whales in the Gulf of Mexico (the mother being Snowcone, who, spoiler alert, is still alive as best we know)— particularly compelling. 

These people were moved by their encounters, and moved by the struggle of the right whales—just like the nine-year-old girl and, truthfully, all of us were at the St. Andrews screening earlier this month.

This is an important film. I encourage you to watch it if and when you get the chance.

For those in the Shediac region (or those itching for a reason to visit the lovely community), that chance will come soon. The Conservation Council is pleased to partner on a screening of the film on Friday, July 22 at the Shediac Multipurpose Centre (58 Rue Festival) from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.  A Q&A session will be held following the film with local fishers and guest whale experts. Register for your ticket to the screening here.

Future screening will be posted here.