After six films and 71 international awards, brothers Joaquin and Julian Azulay—known collectively as the Gauchos del Mar—released their seventh feature on May 14. Antarctica – Domain One is available for free on their YouTube channel. The choice was deliberate: for the Azulays, reach matters more than revenue.
The documentary runs 94 minutes and was filmed in the South Shetland Islands and along the Antarctic Peninsula. The Spanish narration was recorded by Ricardo Darin; the English version by eleven-time world surf champion Kelly Slater — two names with enough pull to carry the film well beyond the festival circuit, where it had already made its mark.
Surfing Where Almost No One Has
The Azulay brothers set out to ride the southernmost wave on Earth—though the expedition’s ambitions went far beyond a mere extreme-sports adventure.
The journey required navigating frozen waters, crossing storms in the Southern Ocean, and surfing in conditions that almost no film crew has ever documented. The region they explored, known as Domain 1, is currently being championed internationally for designation as a Marine Protected Area.
The Azulays are more than adventure tourists with surfboards. Julian is an architect; Joaquin holds a business degree and played professional football for Cádiz B. Both came to filmmaking through the journey that would reshape their lives.
What began as a personal record of a journey—surfing from California to the southern tip of Argentina—eventually grew into a production company whose work has screened at festivals across Europe, the Americas, and Australia.
The Invisible Protagonist: Krill
Surfing is the narrative hook. But the documentary’s true subject is something else entirely.
The film makes the case for protecting Antarctica by documenting the dire consequences of climate change on a fragile ecosystem, the mounting pressure from fishing fleets targeting krill populations, and the urgent need for a network of Marine Protected Areas.
Antarctic krill — a crustacean just a few centimeters long — forms the foundation of the Southern Ocean‘s food web. Whales, penguins, seals, and dozens of other species depend on it. It faces pressure from two directions: climate change is shrinking the sea ice that is essential to its life cycle, while industrial fishing is depleting stocks faster than they can recover.
The numbers speak for themselves. In the first seven months of the 2024–2025 season, 518,568 metric tons of krill were caught—84% of the annual limit of 620,000 metric tons set by the CCAMLR. That limit was reached so quickly that the fishery had to close early for the first time in history.
Political Deadlock and a Critical Meeting in 2026
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is the body responsible for regulating fishing activity in the region. Its decisions, however, require unanimous agreement among all 26 members—25 countries and the European Union.
China, with consistent backing from Russia, has blocked proposals for new marine protected areas and voted down measures such as CCAMLR Resolution 51-07/2023, which sought to restrict fishing in sensitive zones.
At the 2025 meeting, the proposed Marine Protected Area for the Antarctic Peninsula failed to gain approval. Separately, a small group of members attempted to expand krill fishing without adding new protections for the region—a move that drew strong opposition from Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, South Korea, and the European Union.
The next opportunity to revisit these questions comes in 2026. The documentary’s release was timed with that deadline firmly in mind.
The film includes a call to action, directing viewers to sign a public petition urging the countries blocking the Marine Protected Area designation for Domain 1—covering the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands—to change course before that meeting.
The Premiere and the Surfboard in the Ice
The May 14 digital release was marked by a public installation in front of the Obelisco de Buenos Aires. A nearly seven-foot block of ice encased one of the surfboards used during the expedition—a visual statement about glacial melting and the fragility of the Antarctic ecosystem. Beside it, a QR code let passersby access the documentary and sign the petition directly.
The film also features prominent voices in marine conservation, including Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, alongside biologist Rodolfo Werner and researcher Manuel Novillo, whose work spans krill, fish, and glaciers.
The combination of activism, science, and extreme adventure filmmaking is a signature style the Azulays have been honing since their earliest films.
Antarctica – Domain One is free to watch in full on the official Gauchos del Mar YouTube channel.
To join the petition, you can do so through their website.
