“Cageless”, produced/directed by Julia Bahlsen , World World Premiere at the 2018 WCFF in New York, NY. | Screening is October 21, during Film Series 13 at the Cinema Village Theater.
The WCFF informs, engage and inspires wildlife conservation through the power of film. Join us for our eight year anniversary in New York, NY, October 18-28, 2018. Ten days of film screenings, panel discussions, receptions, field trips, networking, wildlife photography exhibit and more.
Join the planning committee. Advertise & promote your brand on the big screen during the festival. Take a page in the full color program book.
Christopher J. Gervais, FRGS
Twitter: @CJGERVAIS
Christopher@WCFF.org
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
October 18-28, 2018 | New York, NY http://www.WCFF.org
Facebook.com/WCFForg
Twitter: @WCFF_org
Instagram: @wcff_org
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“Introducing Physioshark|Baby Sharks and Climate Change” produced by Tom Vierus is an official selection to the 2018 WCFF.
SYNOPSIS: Second only to fishing pressure, climate change threatens shark populations worldwide. Increasing ocean temperatures and decreasing pH and oxygen will impact all marine life, but sharks may be particularly vulnerable. They grow slowly, take a long time to mature, do not produce as many young as other fish species, and therefore may be unable to adapt fast enough to keep pace with climate change.
The physioshark project – primarily based on Moorea, French Polynesia – has been investigating how climate change stressors affect newborn sharks since 2014. Because all 4.7 million km2 of French Polynesian waters comprise a shark sanctuary — the largest in the world – shark fishing/exploitation is banned. This provides a rare opportunity to study resident shark populations without their number one stressor. But, even the best-managed marine sanctuaries are not immune to climate change.
The physioshark team has characterized and been closely monitoring environmental conditions at 11 potential shark nursery areas around the island and have been executing field and laboratory-based experiments on newborn blacktip reef and lemon sharks to understand how they respond to environmental conditions they currently face. This has allowed the team to also model sharks’ responses to conditions predicted with climate change to understand how habitat availability may change over time and the sharks’ capacity to adapt. Beyond the experiments, the team has been committed to communicating about shark biology and conservation with local communities, schools, and via social media.
This short film introduces the physioshark project and documents the team’s efforts toward shark conservation.
The WCFF informs, engage and inspires wildlife conservation through the power of film. Join us for our eight year anniversary in New York, NY, October 18-28, 2018. Ten days of film screenings, panel discussions, receptions, field trips, networking, Virtual Reality and more.
Contact: info@wcff.org to join the planning committee. Sponsor the film festival, advertise on the big screen during the outdoor summer series and the October festival. Take a page in the full color program book to be distributed in Africa, Australia, China, Europe, India, North and South America.
This blacktip shark is being released at the spot it was caught at about a month ago. It underwent a series of trials in a wet lab at a research station, where physiological responses to warming waters were investigated. The results will help understand the impacts of climate change induced changing environmental conditions and if – as the scientists suspect – the baby sharks will become less resilient in future.
Christopher J. Gervais, FRGS
Twitter: @CJGERVAIS
Christopher@WCFF.org
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
October 18-28, 2018 | New York, NY http://www.WCFF.org
Facebook.com/WCFForg
Twitter: @WCFF_org
Instagram: @wcff_org
Vimeo.com/wcff
LinkedIn: Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
Recent study indicates between 88 to 95% of the plastic polluting the world’s oceans pours in from just ten rivers, eight are in Asia and the remaining two in Africa. These rivers account for about five trillion pounds of plastic garbage that is floating in the seas.
The Ganges River in India is responsible for about 1.2 billion pounds, while the Yangtze has been estimated in previous research to dump some 727 million pounds of plastic into the ocean’s each year.
A combination of the Xi, Dong and Zhujiang Rivers (233 million lbs per year) in China as well as four Indonesian rivers: the Brantas (85 million lbs annually), Solo (71 million pounds per year), Serayu (37 million lbs per year) and Progo (28 million lbs per year), are all large contributors.
It is estimated that over 200 million marine mammals, seabirds and sea turtles are killed each year by ingesting plastic garbage in the ocean.
Christopher J. Gervais, FRGS
Twitter: @CJGERVAIS
Christopher@WCFF.org
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
October 18-28, 2018 | New York, NY http://www.WCFF.org
Facebook.com/WCFForg
Twitter: @WCFF_org
Instagram: @wcff_org
Vimeo.com/wcff
LinkedIn: Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
Single-use plastic straws typically cannot be recycled. Instead, they often end up in our oceans, a big part of our growing plastic pollution crisis. At present humans are unloading the equivalent of a dump truck full of plastic into the world’s oceans every minute. One pile of garbage in the Pacific Ocean has reached at least 87,000 tons and covers an area roughly four times the size of California.
The WCFF informs, engage and inspires wildlife conservation through the power of film. Join us for our eight year anniversary in New York, NY, October 18-28, 2018. Ten days of film screenings, panel discussions, receptions, field trips, networking, Virtual Reality and more.
Contact: info@wcff.org to join the planning committee. Sponsor the film festival, advertise on the big screen during the outdoor summer series and the October festival. Take a page in the full color program book to be distributed in USA, China and other countries.
Christopher J. Gervais, FRGS
Twitter: @CJGERVAIS
Christopher@WCFF.org
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
October 18-28, 2018 | New York, NY http://www.WCFF.org
Facebook.com/WCFForg
Twitter: @WCFF_org
Instagram: @wcff_org
Vimeo.com/wcff
LinkedIn: Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
“Seeking Sanctuary” directed by Nick Jones, produced by Louise Heren and Simon Blakeney is an official selection for 2018.
The WCFF informs, engage and inspires wildlife conservation through the power of film. Join us for our eight year anniversary in New York, NY, October 18-28, 2018. Ten days of film screenings, panel discussions, receptions, field trips, networking, Virtual Reality and more.
Contact: info@wcff.org to join the planning committee. Sponsor the film festival, advertise on the big screen during the outdoor summer series and the October festival. Take a page in the full color program book to be distributed in USA and other countries.
Christopher J. Gervais, FRGS
Twitter: @CJGERVAIS
Christopher@WCFF.org
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
October 18-28, 2018 | New York, NY http://www.WCFF.org
Facebook.com/WCFForg
Twitter: @WCFF_org
Instagram: @wcff_org
Vimeo.com/wcff
LinkedIn: Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
The average American throws away approximately 185 pounds of plastic per year.
The USA throws away 35 billion plastic water bottles every year. Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide.
More than one million bags are used every minute.
It takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade.
Plastic constitutes approximately 90 percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.
One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.
New study finds 73% of deep waterfishin the Northwest AtlanticOcean have ingestedmicro plastics.
Some 45% of all seabird species, 25% of cetaceans, all sea turtle species and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies.
The WCFF informs, engage and inspires wildlife conservation through the power of film. Join us for our eight year anniversary in New York, NY, October 18-28, 2018. Ten days of film screenings, panel discussions, receptions, field trips, networking, Virtual Reality and more.
Contact: info@wcff.org to join the planning committee. Sponsor the film festival, advertise on the big screen during the outdoor summer series and the October festival. Take a page in the full color program book to be distributed in USA, China and other countries.
Christopher J. Gervais, FRGS
Twitter: @CJGERVAIS
Christopher@WCFF.org
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
October 18-28, 2018 | New York, NY http://www.WCFF.org
Facebook.com/WCFForg
Twitter: @WCFF_org
Instagram: @wcff_org
Vimeo.com/wcff
LinkedIn: Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
Several weeks back, the Trump administration announced the oceanic whitetip shark will be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, the first shark species to receive these protections in Atlantic continental U.S. waters. Historically considered one of the most abundant shark species, the oceanic whitetip has suffered 80% population decline, mostly due to being caught as bycatch in longline fisheries and the victim of global shark fin trade. Shark finning is illegal in U.S. waters, however fins continue to be bought and sold throughout the United States and often come from unsustainable foreign fisheries in countries that have ineffective or no shark finning bans.
Learn more about protecting sharks and other marine life. The WCFF informs, engages and inspires wildlife conservation and global biodiversity through the power of film. Join us for our eight year anniversary in New York, NY, October 18-28, 2018. Ten days of film screenings, panel discussions, receptions, field trips, networking events, virtual reality programs and more. The WCFF is the ONLY documentary film festival in NewYork, NY and worldwide dedicated to wildlife conservation.
Contact: info@wcff.org to join the planning committee. Sponsor the film festival, advertise on the big screen during the outdoor summer series and the October festival. Take a page in the full color program book to be distributed in USA and other countries.
Christopher J. Gervais, FRGS
Twitter: @CJGERVAIS
Christopher@WCFF.org
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
October 18-28, 2018 | New York, NY http://www.WCFF.org
Facebook.com/WCFForg
Twitter: @WCFF_org
Instagram: @wcff_org
Vimeo.com/wcff
LinkedIn: Wildlife Conservation Film Festiv
“Escaping Extinction: Whale Sharks of the Maldives” produced by Ashley Kelly, will premiere at the 2017 WCFF this October in New York, NY.
For over 60 million years, the mysterious Whale Shark has traversed the open sea, but very little is known about the world’s largest fish, this docile shark. Maldivian communities are proud to celebrate the Whale /Sharks and their marine biodiversity.
These days, Whale Sharks in the Maldives are safe from their number one predator, man…. but this has not always been the case.
Join us for the 7th year anniversary of the WCFF. October 19-29 in New York. Ten days of film screenings, panel discussions, receptions, field trips, conference and weekend retreat with film producers and scientists. WCFF is the only film festival on the planet whose mission is to inform, engage and inspire wildlife conservation and the protection of global biodiversity.
Come to New York, NY October 13-19 for a week of extraordinary films, workshops, international filmmakers, red carpet gala and to meet some of the world’s leading wildlife conservationists. Included are dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Patricia C. Wright, Dr. Birute Galdikas, Nan Hauser, Dr. Mireya Mayor. More than 15 international wildlife documentary filmmakers and from National Geographic filmmakers, Bob Poole and David Hamlin
Elephants in the Room produced by Peter Lamberti of Aquavision TV Productions in South Africa will make its New York debut at the 2014 WCFF
Zebras On The Move Produced by Oscar Portillo of Explora Films in Spain will also make its New York debut
Get your tickets now for all 18 film series held at the NYIT Auditorium on Broadway during the week and the Red Carpet Gala & Awards Ceremony at 583 Park Avenue
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, Inc. Christopher J. Gervais, Founder & CEO Christopher@WCFF.org Facebook.com/WCFForg Twitter: @WCFF_org Instagram: WCFF_org Skype: christopher.j.gervais LinkedIn: Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
Estimates of the overall financial damage of plastics debris in the world’s oceans causing harm to marine ecosystems stands at $13 billion USD each year.
In the polar regions, scientists have recently found tiny pieces of plastic trapped in sea ice. Transported by ocean currents across great distances, these contaminated particles eventually become a source of chemicals in our food.
A large and unquantifiable amount of plastic waste enters the ocean from littering, poorly managed landfills, tourist activities and fisheries. Some of this material sinks to the ocean floor, while some floats and can travel over great distances on ocean currents—polluting shorelines and accumulating in massive mid-ocean gyres.
Communities of microbes have been discovered thriving on microplastics at multiple locations in the North Atlantic. This “plastisphere” can facilitate the transport of harmful microbes, pathogens and algal species. Microplastics have also been identified as a threat to larger organisms, such as the endangered northern right whale, which is potentially exposed to ingestion through filter-feeding.
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, Inc.
Christopher J. Gervais, Founder & CEO Christopher@WCFF.org Facebook.com/WCFForg LinkedIn: Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
Twitter: @WCFF_org
Instagram: WCFF_org
From the Founder: Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
Christopher J. Gervais 