New film featuring SDSU’s Eunah Hoh exposes underwater toxic dump near Catalina Island

Not far from San Diego, under the pristine waters off the coast of Catalina Island, lurks a dirty secret. A toxic graveyard of half a million barrels filled with decades-old manufacturing waste, are rusting into the sea. 

The new documentary Out of Plain Sight exposes the underwater hazardous site. It features SDSU’s School of Public Health professor Eunha Hoh for her groundbreaking research, which reveals alarming data about the persistence of DDT in the ecosystem and marine animals. 

“These chemicals have entered and biomagnified through the marine food web,” Hoh explained. “We are seeing impacts not only in marine mammals but also in endangered species like the California condor, which feeds on marine mammal carcasses along the coast. Our findings strongly suggest there is an ongoing source of DDT contamination linked to offshore dumping.”

Despite DDT being banned 50 years ago, Hoh’s team identified some of the highest levels of DDT ever detected in marine mammals and found previously unknown DDT-related contaminants in wildlife along California's coastline. 

The award-winning Out of Plain Sight documentary can be watched at the San Diego Asian Film Festival opening night on Friday, April 25, at 7 p.m. at Mission Valley’s AMC.  

San Diego State University’s School of Public Health and the SDSU APIDA Center are among SDAFF sponsors.