All Too Clear

Yvonne Drebert + Zach Melnick (Dir), 90 minutes, Canada, US Premiere

Special introduction by Research Biologist Alexander J. Gatch of USGS Great Lakes Science Center, Cortland, NY - Tunison Laboratory of Aquatic Science with Q+A to follow the screening.

Sustainable Fisheries Ecologist Philippa Kohn of The Nature Conservancy, Fish Biologist (Fish and Aquatic Conservation) Dimitry Gorsky, PhD of The Lower Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, USFWS, and Senior Program Manager Jeanne Beiter of Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper will also join the Q+A.

Using cutting-edge underwater drones to explore how quadrillions of tiny invasive mussels are re-engineering the ecosystem of North America's Great Lakes at a scale not seen since the glaciers, this film focuses its lens on the lake bottom. The mussels are trapping nutrients, the building blocks of life; and without nutrients, organisms of all kinds - from the tiniest plankton to the largest fish - are vanishing, creating vast biological deserts.

While the consequences for nature and people are severe, the loss of life has had an extraordinary side effect: it’s made the lakes far clearer than they’ve ever been before. Scientists are racing to control the invaders, but have discovered the clearer waters may be an opportunity to restore an ancient ecosystem.