On November 19th, 2018, in the Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering building, I attended one of the showings in the Environmental Film Series, called “A River Below”. This documentary tells of the ethics and morals to be considered when being an active conservationist and the measures to be taken. The film is immensely controversial in nature and brought up great discussion afterwards.
Specifically, the issue at play was the endangerment of the pink river dolphins in the Amazon via their use as bait for Capaz/Mota fish. This was a topic I previously had no interest in delving into, but I am so glad I did. I was never one to be active in the conservationist movement, as I never had a drive for it. This film, however, opened my eyes to the real problems at hand and how immense they are in size and severity. I think its connection to the Latin American world was what peaked my initial interest in the film, then the rest followed. Many countries (United States, Brazil, Peru, Columbia, etc.) all were portrayed in this issue as key players. Shown was conflict between Latin American river people, who rely on the dolphins as a source of their income, Latin American activists, who see the animals as more important than income, and the US, who intervene whenever deemed beneficial.

From this experience, I gained a lot of knowledge on a topic I was previously ignorant to, but I also gained interpersonal and network skills. About 30 minutes before the showing, there was time to talk with others (faculty and students alike) and their field of interest. I gained a lot of perspective on different areas that find this topic important, not just environmental areas. The issues discussed in this film applied relevantly to both Latin American Studies and Psychology concepts. In Psychology, we learn a lot about the way people interact and how crucial that is to determine what outcome will come out of a situation. Things can be very predictable if time is taken to analyze the current situation. In this case, the river people were paid by an activist to be filmed while killing dolphins, and they were supposedly “promised” it would not be broadcasted, just shown to the government. However, when the footage rights were handed over to the film company, the footage was released on a very popular news network. With the negative exposure, it became illegal to fish the way they were, and their income tanked. This obviously stirred up a lot of hatred towards this activist and it all spiraled. If this were handled in a more psychologically appropriate way, a lot of conflict would have been avoided.

Overall, this experience was one that I never thought I would expose myself to, but I am glad I did. Now, I guess the question is, what is the solution to the new problem created? How do these fisherman, in a community based solely on fishing, make a living now? That is what is being sorted out right now, and I assume it will require a lot of patience and cooperation.