Aguas de Cabrera, 2019. The camera of underwater documentarian Fernando Garfella films a unique moment. A family of sperm whales is grouped in star formation, emitting loud clicks. The mother protects the young. Suddenly, in a defensive attitude, a male stands in the way and opens his gigantic jaws in front of the young diver's gaze. It is a time of maximum tension.
In spite of everything, true to his style, Garfella does not tremble his pulse. With his innate gift for catching the most untamed of marine life, like a shadow suspended in the current, he continues to record the scene, one of the most shocking that have been recorded in Balearic waters.
It is one of the hitherto unpublished imagesthat make up the valuable archive of the most talented documentary filmmaker of his generation, sadly deceased with just 31 years of age in a dive on the north coast of Mallorca in 2020. His legacy, his great audiovisual heritage, is a treasure for the collective and ecological memory of the Islands.
EL MUNDO has had access to part of that posthumous archive of Garfella, of incalculable value and that is part of the conservationist legacy that his family currently manages with an altruistic vocation.
Included in that archive is the shocking scene of Cabrera's sperm whales. Or that of the underwater dance of dolphins (mother and calf) that the diver himself had rescued after seeing them entangled in a fishing net and that, as a sign of gratitude, accompanied him on his dive after being released.
All this unique material can now be enjoyed by the general public.
Trailer of Arxipèlag BlauIB3
Not surprisingly, these images are part of an ambitious documentary that the Balearic regional television IB3 has produced during the last three years and that premieres this week under the title Arxipèlag Blau (Blue Archipelago).
It is an inspiring work co-produced by IB3 and the Marilles Foundation, with the production company Miraprim, which has brought together the best cameramen of the Islands. All of them experts in immortalizing the hidden treasures of the sea, such as Garfella himself, Sergi Escandell, Agustí Torres, Miquel Vives, Nando Darder or Carmelo Sirera, the father and promoter of the series. Along with them, CSIC scientists such as Emma Cebrián, marine biologist Gádor Muntaner or meteorologist Miquel Salamanca.
Carmelo Sirera is the creator of the series. Originally from Madrid, he moved to Mallorca years ago. At one stage of his life, he sought spiritual refuge at sea. He learned to dive and freeden. He was captivated by the great blue, swept away by its hypnotic currents. In 2019 he began to forge the idea of creating a documentary to show the richness of that Balearic sea that had welcomed him in a vital trance. "I wanted to give back some of what the sea had given me and spread that amazing world that is still so unknown to people."
A great lover of nature (he came to register bears on the Cantabrian coast), he then launched a personal project, "an odyssey" that now sees the light and in which dozens of people have collaborated. Many of them in a disinterested way, achieving that with a budget of 200,000 euros six episodes are deployed that portray the life of the Balearic Sea in all its habitats.
From the large cetaceans of the deep sea to the brackish water species, eels that arrive in the archipelago from the distant Sargasso Sea. Passing by the small inhabitants of these crowded beaches in summer, surprising species that live inches from the surface and swim unnoticed between the calves of bathers, capable of mimicking themselves among the sand.
In these diverse habitats, each species manages to live and survive. Fooling their predators with "surprising tricks," explains Sirera.
This is the case of pedaç (bothus podas prunas), a species of sole that has been filmed for the first time in its role as an expert escapist. Like a Houdini of the sandy bottom, he misleads his pursuers by raising a cloud of sand and then retracing his steps taking advantage of the confusion and turbidity of the waters, making believe that he has followed his zigzagging course when in reality he has retraced his path. A sophisticated maneuver of confusion.
IB3
"We have also shown that the sea and its different environments are interconnected spaces, managing to record for the first time in the open sea and adrift fry of species that, being adults, live at the bottom of the sea, such as red mullet." They are scenes never before filmed and now disseminated and explained under the scientific direction of Xisco Riera.
For Aniol Esteban, director of the Marilles Foundation, the documentary, which includes Garfella's films, has the vocation and potential to be "one of the foundations of long-term change". A scientific but also "pedagogical" action to help turn the Balearic Islands into a benchmark for marine conservation. "It's a celebration of life but also a wake-up call about what we need to recover."
Defunct species
The series addresses the past of species that swam in the waters of the archipelago but ended up disappearing from its coasts, such as the monk seal, the guitar fish or the angelshark. "We have a great treasure, it has lost its luster over the years but it is still invaluable and must be preserved," Esteban adds.
The Balearic Islands received a whopping 2022.16 million tourists in 4. They are almost 16 times the local population. Many of them, explains Sirera, swam on the beaches, near the sand, oblivious to the fact that next to them live small natural wonders, "fish that make nests underwater or that are able to blend in and change color ... or underwater plants more than 2,000 years old", such as the posidonia meadows of Illetes, a small cove in the vicinity of Palma that is always crowded in summer.
With that pressure, the balance is complex. But nature persists. "Life in the Balearic Sea is incredible, it is a great unknown and you have to look at it with the eyes of a small child, discover it, preserve it, educate the new generations in its knowledge", ditches Sirera, the creator of ArxipèlagBlau, who admits his obvious inspiration in the great documentaries of the BBC.
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