Last Monday, February 5th, MLEC invited all its science classes during to view a
presentation about Cuban wild life, plants and environment. It was presented by Rich Kern, a nature documentary film director. He created the film called, “Currents from Cuba,” which documented his adventures into Cuba as he focused on the exotic animals and plants he discovered.
“I like nature documentaries, so finding out about Floridian and Cuban wildlife was
cool,” said Madison Batista, a freshman who attended the event.
The film went into depth explaining how there are certain plant and animal species that can only be found in Cuba, such as the Cuban frog and the Cuban alligator.
“He was so brave, I wouldn’t have been able to pick the frog up” said Lilia Gonzalez, another attendee.
The film also discussed how Cuba is home to the smallest bird in the world: the bee hummingbird. Kern also mentioned how, due to the isolation from large tourism, Cuba’s
coral reefs and forests were in pristine condition and unaffected by the human touch, resulting in thriving habitats, unlike ones that have been damaged by the wear of tourism.
One segment of the presentation explained that, besides heavy tourism, there were other factors that contributed to the destruction of habitats – such as littering. Throwing waste in the ocean doesn’t just affect the location where you threw it, it can affect virtually almost any coast in the world.
Kern goes on to explain how if you throw one bottle of water in a beach, due to currents, that bottle can travel thousands of miles and wash up at the coast of another country.
“Overall it was a pretty interesting and fun documentary” said Jeslyne Poveda.
After the film ended, students could ask questions to Kern about it. Some students asked if he ever got homesick during his trips, what film he was making next, and where you could find his film.
Kern is currently working on another project in South America and you could find parts of the film here.
