Expedition Mittelmeer

The Mediterranean Region is still a paradise regarding biodiversity. More than 16,000 endemic species live in this geographic area. But there is strong pressure and more and more species are threatened by extinction, not only on land but especially in the sea. Giants like the up to 6-metres-long sawfish are gone forever. Seals, Whales and Dolphins are truggeling to survive. In the Ionian Sea, between Italy and Greece our team around the director Florian Guthknecht is looking for the last of their kind. With their research ship they pass patches of floating plastic debris and beaches full of junk. Nevertheless, on the Island of Zakynthos the team succeeds in observing sea turtles laying their eggs on crowded beaches - amidst drunken party people. But the search for sperm whales becomes a dramatic disaster. So the team gives up and tries to find out more about the rarest mammal in the Mediterranean Sea, the Monk Seal. After weeks of search the filmmakers find a hitherto unknown seal colony on a desolate prison island- with nearly 40 animals the biggest ever found. A happy end or just a breather? After two years of filming there is still no answer to this question. (Mezinárodní festival outdoorových filmů)