Chasing Coral; the Netflix documentary. (1 Viewer)

[jlanger]

I just finished watching the Netflix doc, Chasing Coral, that premiered last night.
Has anyone else watched it yet?

It's definitely worth sitting down and watching it.
Very short description... It's about coral bleaching.

I found it to be one of the best documentaries produced lately; in that it presents its information in a very straight forward manner. The producers did a good job setting up the foundation of their story by teaching the viewer just what is a coral and the reef; so those not like us can at least understand what this is about. The commentary is written so that the viewer isn't overwhelmed by copious amounts of data or language they wouldn't comprehend. They come at you with a direct approach and present their arguments with research and video evidence. There's no finger-pointing or accusations towards who's to blame; they do briefly mention those countries that are committing to clean energy. And, of course, there's an emotional storyline that makes this hard to ignore.
After watching it, I felt like this was just the very beginning to (what I hope is) ongoing dialogue and presentations that address what is happening to the coral reefs.

There's plenty of doom-and-gloom video footage, but there's also plenty of footage of beautiful reefs and its inhabitants.
(I was somewhat distracted by the sometimes "Stranger Things"-like soundtrack playing during the film.)

It would be perfect timing if Richard Vevers (or others involved) were to speak at MACNA 2017.

If you've watched the documentary, please chime in with your thoughts.

 

[LostUnderwater]

I thought it was fantastic, really well thought out and very thorough in all aspects.

I was aware of coral bleaching events long before I actually got into keeping a salt tank, always been fond of the ocean. I enjoyed this even more so because I recognized names and pictures/videos of different corals. At the same time everything was explained in a way that someone with no knowledge would understand all of their key points and be able to enjoy the documentary.

 

[Lefty]

I watched this last night. I thought it was very well done. They did a great job explaining the issue and used examples that all people can relate to. I liked that the focus was on the coral reef and what is happening to them, not on blame. Seeing the effects of climate change in just such a short amount of time is really eye opening. This is definitely worth watching.
If you go to their website you can download a quick guide of things you can do or setting up a screening event and much more.

 

[Fishfoo]

Will give it a watch today and vote!

 

[agent462]

I voted "I liked it". I just wanted so much more out of it; I felt unfulfilled at the end. It's definitely something everyone should watch.

 

[Fishfoo]

I liked it a lot.Vey Impactful, and as others stated, gets the point across in a way that everyone can understand.

The clam at 1:02:25 was huuuuuge!

 

[jlanger]

The clam at 1:02:25 was huuuuuge!

Duh... it's a giant clam.

There was one spot where I went back and paused the video... 0:39:53.
Why???
There were blennies swimming with the anthias.

 

[Nickz]

I gave an it's OK. I wasn't impressed with the blame solely on water temp yet when they went to where the temp was supposed to be the worst it wasn't happening so they moved around until they found what they wanted to find. I believe there's more to it all than just water temp.

I like the topic but wish there would be more involved to actually attempt to get to all of the causes vs picking one that plays to an agenda certain people want to blame it on.

 

[jlanger]

I voted "I liked it". I just wanted so much more out of it; I felt unfulfilled at the end. It's definitely something everyone should watch.

The ending reminded me a lot of other recent Netflix documentaries; there's no real resolution and it seems to fall flat.
But...
This documentary is based in the current time line and this is just the beginning. My thoughts are that as more people watch this and feel the need to get involved, the story continues and hopefully grows into something that can have a positive impact on the environment and humanity.

 

[Aaron L.]

Thanks for posting wouldn't have seen this if it weren't for you.

 

[coralreefer]

Watched it last night. I thought it was done well but left me depressed I will say :/

 

[KJoFan]

I gave an it's OK. I wasn't impressed with the blame solely on water temp yet when they went to where the temp was supposed to be the worst it wasn't happening so they moved around until they found what they wanted to find. I believe there's more to it all than just water temp.

I like the topic but wish there would be more involved to actually attempt to get to all of the causes vs picking one that plays to an agenda certain people want to blame it on.

Well, as I understood it, the hurricane that came to that area affected the water temp, bringing in cooler water. Hard to control/anticipate something like that I imagine.

But, in the end, it was overall a depressing watch even if we did know it was happening already.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Guido5526]

Was kind of a bittersweet watch for me. Pulled out my photos I took when I visited GBR back in 02 I was a dumb kid just snapping photos Willy nilly and now hind sight 20/20 wishing I had taken better photos as I may not get to see it again at the rate it's going.

 

[fivesmallworlds]

I really enjoyed it. I think it's something that we, coral enthusiasts, can relate to and understand well. But I also feel that the lay person can gain a level of understanding from this that they may have brushed aside before.

I'll say one thing. After it was done, the first thing I did was that water change I've been putting off for a week.

 

[eschulist]

I finally stayed up one night and watched it.

The footage was amazing and the journey was really cool to watch. The final images and video of the massive dead colonies overrun with algae were hard to watch. Knowing that only a few weeks/months before they were beautiful growing healthy corals. The craziest shots were right when the corals started to bleach out and they went nuclear mode on the fluorescence. If that zooxanthellae could be captured and reproduced in home aquariums we'd finally be at Glofish level reefing.

From a photographer point of view, I was a little disappointed in their testing of their underwater rigs. You'd think a fixed focal lens would have been the first thing they would have tried. There were already too many variables they had to deal with and program into the cameras. Why throw zooming and autofocus into the mix? And even when they did, why wouldn't they download the footage 1-2 days after they set it up to see if it was working correctly, instead of waiting a whole month or more to see it was all out of focus. When they finally did get it working I was really surprised they didn't take the rigs with them to the northern GBR locations. The tediousness of rediving the same locations every day looked to be grueling and labor intensive to try to recreate the same shots over and over. A few extra days of taking apart and moving their rigs didn't seem that bad for how long they were there. The one benefit that was captured by doing it manually, was seeing his reaction when he saw the reefs die before his own eyes day after day.

 

[csb123]

Did you guys notice that when the acros were preterminal, they became fluorescent.

It struck me that in that state, they looked like Zeovit corals.

 

[RSnodgrass]

Worth a watch as I finally watched this, it certainly is not without flaw. Unfortunately it will largely be turned a blind eye in my opinion because most of us will stop listening once we hear a single statement we don't agree with (no different then a debate with my spouse).

The challenge is to admit that just because we may not agree with the viewpoint it doesn't mean the end result still isn't true. The statistics of die off and decades of lost growth are undeniably bad regardless of the causes. If my house is flooding I'd rather attempt a fix then sit around debating about how to fix it until it's too late even if the fix is flawed.

 

[csb123]

Amen! Even if there is a 1% chance that our current behavior is going to cause catastrophic collapse of entire ecosystems, it in our best interest to do everything we can to prevent it. Heck, consider how much we pay for our car/home/ life/ and health insurance.

 

[Justin715]

Planet Earth : Blue Planet 2 is amazing! Saturdays on BBC America 8pm Central time. Don't miss it.
Episode 3 was Coral Reefs and towards the end they addressed bleaching then showed a great scene of them all spawning together one night a year under full moon. Very cool.