Earlier in August, two funds connected to actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $200 million to the Phoenix Species Project.
The goal of the Project is to give sustained funding to conservation groups working to help 100 of the world's most threatened species. Their hope is to expand the project with more money to protect more species.
One of the animals on the list is the vaquita, a small porpoise that lives off the coast of Mexico, which is critically endangered. You may remember the vaquita. A few years ago, we talked to Boise filmmaker Matthew Podolsky about how fishermen accidentally kill vaquitas as they illegally fish for another sea creature, the totoaba, which brings a huge price in Asia.
With fewer than 15 vaquita left in the world, Idaho Matters wanted to go back and find out how they became so rare so here’s that conversation with Podolsky and Gemma Gaudette, just before he was about to take his film to the Sundance Film Festival.
