Domain One ends with a Marine Protected Area proposal failing before a regulatory board, with Russia and China among the nations blocking it. The film follows brothers Joaquin and Julian Azulay, the Gauchos Del Mar, or sea cowboys, on a surfing expedition to the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula region.
The brothers have made film expeditions together since 2010. This is their first Antarctic expedition. The film begins with preparation: physical training, packing supplies, managing their sailboat, and working through permit requirements. Then comes the Drake Passage. To reach Antarctica, their sailboat has to cross the seas around Cape Horn. Joaquin had a cancerous thyroid removed and had improved, but the rough passage leaves him sick and weak.
Marine biologist Rodolfo Werner appears as the boat heads toward the South Shetlands. Werner discusses the Antarctic Treaty. The film also introduces more researchers involved in Antarctic marine biology. Even in relatively calm water, the small sailboat looks dwarfed by the sea. The film cuts between the sailing and the science, using the brothers' route to show the coast and the researchers' work to explain why it matters.
Deception Island lives up to its name
The first stop in the Domain One zone is Deception Island. The brothers find waves there. Then a fur seal arrives, curiosity turning quickly to territoriality, and chases them out of the water. Miguelito sustains a deep bite while filming. The group hikes over the island's active volcano to find safer waves on the other side. The film also shows a leopard seal.
Nearby, Manuel Novillo and fellow scientists are investigating a krill fishery. Krill fishing is regulated under the Antarctic Treaty, the film explains, but intensive fishing could still destroy the ecosystem.
The brothers navigate with satellite images and soon face impassable cliffs. Deception Island has deceived them. They leave for Trinity Island, where penguin rookeries and lounging seals wait. They look for swells and instead find melting sea ice and crumbling glaciers. The closer they get to the continent, the more dangerous the ice is to navigate. They keep island hopping in search of waves. Each island brings a new version of the same challenge: navigating ice, encountering wildlife, and operating under Antarctic rules.
The proposal fails, and the film ends with a southern wave
The separate threads come together at Snow Island. The brothers meet Novillo there. Werner prepares to argue for making Domain One a protected reserve, using Novillo's data. He presents the case before the regulatory board. The brothers finish their expedition off the Antarctic coast.
The proposal does not pass. The film shows Russia and China, with commercial fishing interests in the region, among the nations blocking it. Werner remains optimistic about the future. The brothers finally get the right conditions and surf what the film calls the southernmost wave on Earth.
For a traveller planning a Peninsula voyage, Domain One is a useful record of the regulatory fight behind the scenery. The question worth putting to an operator is how its expedition supports the science that Marine Protected Area proposals depend on.