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Racing Extinction

@racingextinction

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Never-before-seen images exposing the issues of endangered species & mass extinction.
A film by @oceanicpreservationsociety
✉️ [email protected]

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Imagine swimming along when all of a sudden you’re shot with a harpoon that gets lodged in your side. You struggle desperately in excruciating pain, blood seeping out of your side.
You have no clue what just happened to you…you try to swim away, but get tugged back. Confused, you writhe your body to try and escape the pain.

Then another explosive blow hits your body…blood now seeping from two locations. Even more scared, and desperate…you try to swim harder.

You fight with all your might…and then another searing pain rips through your side. You have no clue what’s going on. It feels like forever that you’ve been fighting to escape. You’re running out of energy.

Then another painful blow to your body…this one…finally killing you.

That’s what a fin whale experienced this past summer in 2026, and it’s what countless whales experience every year.

Whaling is still happening in Iceland, Japan, and Norway, despite their being a global ban on commercial whaling for over 40 years.

The @oceanicpreservationsociety team is going to the IWC(International Whaling Commission) meeting to fight to expand protections for whales NEXT week, and we need YOUR help.

Comment “Whale” and we will send you the petition to to your inbox. CHECK YOUR “requests” section if you do not see the message in your inbox!!!

We’re trying to get as many signatures as possible before the IWC meeting!!! EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS!

Other ways to help…PLEASE share this video to your story, or repost it to your feed.

Footage provided by the Endangered Species Protection Agency | ESPA

#Endcommercialwhaling by @racingextinction

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a month ago

🎉 Congratulations to the 2026 Jackson Wild x Earth Alliance Impact Pitch finalists! 🎬🌿

This year's submissions brought an inspiring collection of bold ideas, fresh perspectives, and unforgettable stories from filmmakers across the globe. After countless hours of careful consideration from our judging panel, we’re excited to celebrate the films that stood out—not only for the stories they told, but for pairing powerful storytelling with a compelling vision for real-world impact.

Derek vs Derek — The Slate Works and Damer Films

To Hold a Mountain — Directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić, produced by Biljana Tutorov for Wake Up Films, in association with Points North Institute, Catapult Film Fund, and Chicken & Egg Films, with support from InMaat, IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund, Doc Society, Meadow Fund, Secret Sauce Media, Eurimages, Film Centre of Montenegro, Film Center Serbia, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, CNC, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur région, Slovenian Film Centre, Viba Film, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, and UNIQA SEE Future Foundation

The Last Place on Earth — Oceanic Preservation Society

This year's finalists will present their impact vision to industry leaders, funders, and partners, at the Jackson Wild x @hollywoodclimatesummit Joint Event in November for a chance to win up to $30,000 USD in grant funding and strategic support to launch or expand campaigns that drive meaningful change.

Head to the link in our bio to view the full list of finalists! by @racingextinction

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a month ago

The Amazon, A Dream and a nightmare
I’ve just returned from the Amazon, documenting illegal gold mining operations inside Peru’s protected areas, working alongside the Air Force, Navy and Public Prosecutor’s Office, with the support of @globalconservation. Going to the Amazon has been a dream of mine since I was a kid.
I remember reading about it in Volume 5 of my World Book Encyclopedia. Every time I opened that book, my mind would wander into this incredible, mysterious world. The Amazon seemed almost impossible to imagine. It was somewhere I dreamed of seeing one day.
Finally, I reached the Amazon. But it wasn’t what I expected. We touched down in helicopters, running across enormous sand dunes, chasing illegal miners. In the distance, I could hear the calls of macaws flying high over the canopy. But I couldn’t see them.
Instead, I was seeing something I never imagined as a kid. Forest being destroyed. Rivers and wetlands being poisoned. Vast areas of the Amazon being ripped apart in the search for gold. After some time, we caught up with one of the miners. During his interrogation, we talked about the forest and the wildlife that once lived there. He recalled how jaguars used to be everywhere. Now, he said, they are gone. The forest is destroyed. All for gold. Hearing those words hurt.
My world fell apart once again.
So much damage. So much destruction.
The water and ground are now poisoned by the mercury used to extract the gold. From the helicopter, the landscape looked like a network of polluted pools of toxic water, surrounded by fragments of forest stretching into the distance. It’s going to be a huge job to ever clear this up. Before I left, we took one last flight over the Amazon. And there it was.
For miles and miles, I could see untouched forest stretching to the horizon. It was so immense, almost impossible to comprehend.
But so fragile. It was one of those bittersweet moments. Seeing such incredible wilderness still standing, while knowing how quickly it can be destroyed. As I sit at my desk reflecting on everything I witnessed, I’m trying to stay positive. Because what else can we do? We have to remain hopeful. Continued in comments by @racingextinction

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a month ago

This Minke Whale was shot with an explosive harpoon and for 6 minutes and 35 seconds it endured excruciating pain, fighting for its life.

We’re calling on the governments of Japan, Norway and Iceland to end commercial whaling once and for all. Please help us by signing our petition.
 You can sign by clicking the link in our bio and tapping on this post, or viewing our instagram story.

Thank you for helping us gain as many signatures as possible! by @racingextinction

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2 months ago

We’re elated that TWO of our documentaries are finalists for the Jackson Wild Media Awards!! @jacksonwildorg 🎉🙌🏻

Our film “The Plastic Detox” was nominated in the “Planet in Crisis” category. The film follows six couples facing unexplained infertility as they spend three months removing plastic from their homes and daily routines, working with scientists to understand how chemicals like phthalates and BPA may be disrupting their health and fertility.

Our newest film, currently showing in select festivals, “The Last Place on Earth,” was nominated in the “Investigative” category. It’s a nine-year journey into Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem — a 2.6-million-hectare rainforest where tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans still roam free — following wildlife activists who risk everything to protect this last untouched wilderness from the devastation of the illegal palm oil industry.

These documentaries have been years in the making and we couldn’t be more proud.

You can watch “The Plastic Detox” on @netflix, and you can learn more about “The Last Place on Earth” by clicking the link in @racingextinction’s bio.
Winners will be announced Nov 10th in Los Angeles. 🏆🥇
Photo credit in carousel slide 2: @uletifan

#ThePlasticDetox #TheLastPlaceOnEarth by @racingextinction

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2 months ago

Yesterday I learned that Hayden passed away. Most people love and know Hayden from the show “Heroes” but I got to know Hayden as a real hero for risking her own life to save the lives of tens of thousands of small cetaceans.

In 2007 Hayden accomplished something activists had been trying to do for decades, and it’s largely because of her bravery that dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan was put on the map.

The first time I met Hayden was when we filmed her doing a paddle out for our documentary, The Cove.

Hayden was joining @dave_rastovich , one of the most famous ‘free surfers’ in the world, to honor the dolphins whose lives had been lost in Taiji. Dave wanted to hold the paddle out in The Cove itself, because a dolphin had once saved his life from a shark attack - and more dolphins were being killed in that tiny body of water than anywhere else on Earth. I learned that a paddle out is how surfers honor someone who has died, a fellow surfer, a beloved member of the ocean community (if you didn’t know this, dolphins surf waves for fun, just like humans do).

We spent a week waiting for the dolphin hunters to go out so we could film it. They didn’t. Wisely, they stayed docked the entire time we were there. Defeated, we packed up and headed back to Osaka. We were at the airport, bags already tagged and moving down the belt, when we got the call. The moment we’d left, the hunters had gone out and caught a large pod. They were going to kill them the next morning.

My team snatched our bags from the belt and went back to work. Going back to Taiji meant a minimal crew, and Dave didn’t hesitate on who to bring: Hayden. She was one of the biggest young stars in the world at the time and was in the middle of filming “Heroes.” Without hesitation she said yes, knowing that if she was even a few hours late getting back to set, she’d be fined heavily for it. (Continued below) by @racingextinction

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Photo 1: Courtesy of Ulet Ifansasti @uletifan
Photo 2: Courtesy of Nanang Sujana @tunkalai
Photo 3: Courtesy of Ulet Ifansasti @uletifan for Greenpeace

These are a few quotes from Debbie Elias’s review of “The Last Place on Earth” in Behind The Lens that resonated deeply with our team.

Our film “The Last Place on Earth” brings viewers into the emotional journey of activists fighting to protect what’s left of their home. It’s beautiful, devastating, inspiring, heart wrenching, and hopeful all wrapped up in one.

It reminds us what’s important in life…that humans connection to the natural world is not separate. For humans to live healthy lives, the environment that we exist in, also must be healthy.

There cannot be one without the other.

We’re infinitely proud of this film and the team behind it.

To read the whole review, click the link in our bio, and scroll down and tap on this post.
 #TheLastPlaceOnEarth #CutConflictPalmOil taken in Leuser Ecosystem by @racingextinction

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2 months ago

The Leuser Ecosystem took millions of years to become what it is today, a living, breathing ecosystem that keeps this planet functioning.

Sadly, it has not taken nearly as long to destroy it.

This 6.5 million acre ancient rainforest — one of the most biodiverse landscape left on Earth — is being bulldozed and burned in real time by an illegal palm oil industry that has been allowed to operate in the shadows for far too long.

The Last Place on Earth is a nine-year investigation into what's at stake, who's responsible, and the extraordinary people working to protect it.

Help #SaveLeuser by sharing this content, and head to the link in our bio to learn more 🔗

#TheLastPlaceonEarth #Documentary #Indonesia by @racingextinction

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3 months ago

yesterday the @usinterior rescinded the definition of harm to exclude habitat degradation for the endangered species act (the 50 year old law meant to stop extinction and recover populations) ☠️ this comes after granting exemptions to the law for gulf drilling operations, which happened just a few months ago.

I can’t stop thinking about all the animals who can’t speak for themselves, all the ecosystems that underpin earth as we know it, and all our children and their children who may never get to see these species or places – because humans chose profit and oil over harmony and relationship with nature.

@futureswell by @racingextinction

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3 months ago

We’re THRILLED that “The Last Place on Earth” won the grand jury prize for documentary feature at @danceswithfilms!!

It was such an honor to be a part of the Dances With Films film festival. Thank you @jackietepper and Dave Merlino for your support of our film and of this amazing award!!

And a huge congrats to everyone involved with “The Last Place on Earth,” including our amazing film team and activists:

Film Team:

David Booth Gardner, Director
Shayne McGrath, Producer, Impact Coordinator
Nanang Sujana, Director of Photography
Louie Psihoyos, Executive Producer
Samara Stein, Executive Producer

Activists:

Farwiza Farhan
Rudi Putra
Ian Singleton
Panut Hadisiswoyo
Ulet Ifansasti
Syifa Yulinnas
Gemma Tillack
Laurel Sutherlin
Jocelyn Zuckerman

Non Profits:

@socp.official & @yosloic - they rescue and rehabilitate orangutans displaced by deforestation, then release them back into protected wild areas.

@leuserconservationforum — 30 ranger teams that patrol Leuser every month, pulling snares, documenting illegal clearing, standing between the forest and the bulldozers.

@haka.sumatra — they monitor every hectare of Leuser using satellites and drones, turning evidence into accountability

We hope this film will be coming soon to your home screens!! by @racingextinction

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