Coral Reef Adventure
The South Pacific.
Lagoons that hint at paradise.
Magnificent coral reefs that tease and
delight the dreaming corners of our minds.
This is the world as we wish it could always be.
In this great carnival of life
thousands of colorful characters coexist.
Diversity strengthens the coral reefs,
the more species,
the more survival systems.
Coral reefs have been going strong for sixty million years.
Some corals sway like flowers in the breeze.
Others masquerade as stones.
But all corals are animals.
These underworld playgrounds are built by hard corals
which produce lime stone and turn it into homes.
Stacked one on top of the other
millions of coral homes
gradually form a gigantic reef.
How wonderful that the largest living structures on earth
are built by tiny animals.
Coral reefs protect nearly all tropical coasts,
standing between islander's homes and violent seas.
When we're injured
doctors use calcium carbonate from coral
to mend our broken bones.
When we're sick
chemical components from the reef
may restore our health.
No place on earth
holds greater potential for medical cures.
Reefs
Feeders
Over three hundred million people
rely on fish from reefs.
For Pacific islanders like me
our coral reefs are as necessary as the air we breath.
Rusi Vulakoro, a native of Fiji
has always lived close to the sea.
For centuries
my ancestors were careful not to over fish.
So our reef was healthy.
But this year
something happened,
something terrible.
A blanket of death set over the reef
What was killing our reef?
I made up my mind to find some answers.
I decided to reach out to
some of my dive partners around the world.
Howard and Michele Hall
have spent thirty years exploring and filming reefs.
Their underwater photography is world renowned
When Howard and Michele got Rusi's message
They were in the mountains,
far from the reefs they loved.
All during that flight I kept wondering
what we could do to help Rusi.
Then I realized that
our friend Richard Pyle might know what to do.
He is a marine biologist
All across the world
Red Sea, East Africa, Maldives, Philippines,
We're seeing these kind of problems showing up
at unprecedented rates.
Richard showed us how coral reefs are dying
at an alarming rate all around the world.
Ocean warming is the major cause.
Richard urged us to document the coral reefs
on film for science
before they disappear.
We knew that the IMAX camera with it's incredible clarity
was the best way to do this.
Our mission was clear.
Bring back images that would give scientists
insights into why Rusi's reef was dying.
We needed to compare Rusi's reef
to other reefs all across the South Pacific.
Starting with the largest of them all,
the Great Barrier Reef.
The prospect of diving coral reefs
all across the South Pacific
was a bit like a dream come true.
We would make hundreds of dives,
and some of these would be deeper and more dangerous
than anything we have done before.
It would be our most important expedition
in our thirty years of diving together.
Parts of the Great Barrier Reef
had been protected from overfishing for two decades.
The first goal of this ten-month expedition
was to see how well that protection really worked.
When I first dove here 22 years ago,
these giant clams were not here.
They had been long fished out by commercial fishermen.
Today we have seen 12 giant clams.
That's a great sign
that means this reef is bouncing back.
A local marine biologist named Tracey Medway
led us to the giant potato cod.
They are called potato cod
because they have these splotchy potato shaped
markings on their sides.
Throughout most of the South Pacific,
the really large fish have been wiped out by fishermen
Potato cod thrive here only because of the laws that protect them.
These vegetarian convict tangs protect the reef
Nibbling away seaweeds that smother corals.
If too many of these kinds of fish are removed
corals will die.
That's why overfishing destroys reefs.
We often don't realize
how two species benefit from each other
until one of them disappears.
Just as fish protect the reef,
the coral offers homes and hiding places for the fish.
Anything from a simple shark
to a custom dream home.
Gobies often share a home with bulldozer shrimp.
Whenever he ventures out of the burrow
the shrimp keeps at least one antenna on the goby.
The goby gets an impeccable burrow to live in
without lifting a fin.
And the very nearsighted shrimp gets a bodyguard.
With a flick of it's tale,
The goby warns the shrimp of approaching predators.
This hundred year old coral
makes a nice dentist's office
for potato cod.
A small fish,
a cleaner wrasse,
swims right into the cod's mouth
to feed on parasites.
The cod gets groomed
and the wrasse gets dinner.
Partnerships like this seem to require mutual trust.
Lots of trust.
Cat Hollerway, a coral researcher
joined Michele to study intersperses communication.
I was afraid I was going to inhale it,
maybe swallow it.
But I didn't.
It just tickled and pinched a little bit.
I studied animal behavior for so many years.
This was...
This was different.
This was a chance for me to
actually be part of it.
Cooperation between species sustains life here.
But sometimes it's almost invisible.
The coral's most important partners
are tiny microscope algae
that actually live inside the coral animals tissues.
These helper algae use sunlight to produce sugar,
the primary food source
that gives corals the energy to build reefs.
Most corals cannot survive without helper algae.
But worldwide,
abnormally warm seawater
threatens this partnership.
Time lapsed photography can show us how
in just one week
that change of two degrees centigrade drives the algae out.
Without its primary food source
the coral bleaches a ghostly white.
If the algae don't return,
the coral starves.
Here in Australia we went to some places that
we've been to 22 years before
and I was surprise to see that
some of the reefs were so damaged because of ocean warming.
Our Australian survey gave us a baseline
for understanding what was going wrong
at Rusi's reef
2000 miles away in Fiji
when we got to Fiji,
it didn't take five minutes to reconnect with Rusi.
Howard made me smile again.
Michele and I were eager to help Rusi.
But first
we had to pay our respects to local tradition.
Before outsiders can direct my home island
the elders must grant permission.
My people have always limited fishing.
This tradition of reef conservation
has worked well for centuries.
'Til now.
First I wanted Howard to see my village reef
as it used to be.
The reef looked great with plenty of small fish.
But we didn't see nearly as many big fish
as we did in Australia.
And that worried me.
But time had come.
I took Howard and Michele further down the reef.
I wondered where all the animals had gone.
These reefs are dying.
And it all just makes me very sad.
Seeing so much of this reef destroyed
we realized that
Rusi's reef may be what all coral reefs look like
in thirty years.
Our reef used to be home to so many creatures
but now they are almost all gone.
After seen all these destruction though
I saw an octopus.
Octopus make like a tent with their body.
They put up their eight arms and
actually trap shrimps and crabs that live on the reef.
He had obviously figured out
how to survive.
Not many reef dwellers are able to do that.
For islanders who survive by fishing,
the death of the reef has really hit us hard.
Especially when you have children to feed.
But what killed Rusi's reef?
Foreign fishing fleets have over fished this water.
And thermometers tells us that the ocean is two degrees warmer than normal.
I found more bleached coral and no big fish.
But I had a hunch that
ocean warming and overfishing
were not the only problems.
Ten miles inland,
when tropical rain forests were cut down,
the river turned muddy with silt.
Two rivers merge,
one with logging upstream,
one without.
There's only one place for all of that settlement to go.
At the mouth of the river
silt blocks the sun light that the coral needs for growth.
Rusi's reef had been hit by a combination of stresses.
Ocean warming, overfishing and siltation.
Corals may fight off one threat
but three at once proved too much.
Now I understood the problem better
but what could I do?
Howard thought a healthier reef
might give us some answers.
We set quest for another island.
There we joined up with Jean-Michele Cousteau
who is the son of the legendary explorer.
Jean-Michele comes to Fuji every year to help marine biologists
like Maria Joao Rodriguez, monitor coral reefs.
We guided Howard and Michele to a nearby reef
where siltation is not a problem,
thanks to mangrove trees.
Their roots trap silt,
protecting the reefs.
Many fish use mangroves as a nursery to protect their young.
My fellow Fijians
have set aside the beneficial mangroves
as part of a marine preserve.
Making the reef offshore a wonderland,
healthy, beautiful and strong.
This is the way I want my reef to be.
Tropical coral reefs are found worldwide.
Fiji is the soft coral capital of the world.
Corals are beautiful,
but they are also beneficial.
Chemical compounds from coral reefs
have been reproduced in the lab
to provide relief from chronic pain,
ease child birth
and even extend the life of AIDS patients.
Corals share their food.
In fact many of them share the same stomach.
When the current picks up speed
time lapse photography shows
how these soft corals inflate like balloons
to trap passing morsels.
On a healthy reef like this,
you see so many different creatures.
We preferred not to approach the animals.
It's better if they come to us.
This distant cousin of the cobra
can kill a person with its venom in a matter of minutes,
but they rarely bite humans.
Michele is counting on that.
We learn a lot about a reef from its animals,
and so do the children.
There is more to the reef than meets the eye.
Observation is the first step in science.
Who would notice
that yellow damselfish guard their tiny eggs
before they hatch.
Or that the sea cucumber filters waste
leaving the reef cleaner for all.
Some of the finest marine biologists are Fijians.
We could have a budding scientist in our midst.
We've learned that we don't inherit the earth
from our parents.
We borrow it from our children.
Children love to spot fish they've never seen before.
That same thrill of discovery drives many scientists
like Richard Pyle.
Richard Pyle calls himself a fish nerd.
He studies fish on the deepest parts of coral reefs.
The deeper down we go on a coral reef
the less we know.
I want to find out who lives there.
You can't get a true picture of coral reef
if you only look at part of it.
But deep dives can be really dangerous.
Even using special breathing devises
we could still get a fatal disease
called "the bends".
I nearly lost Howard on a deep dive
only two months ago.
He had a bad case of "the bends"
It could have killed him.
To stop the progression of the illness,
I began breathing pure oxygen
but it didn't seen to help.
I was losing all feeling in my right leg.
One of the terrifying moments for me
was actually seeing him stumble.
I just thought this can't be happening.
Michele rushed Howard to the hospital
hoping that a specially pressurized chamber
might halt the illness
and save his life.
Thank god for the communication system
because at least then I could talk to him.
Howard survived.
But his close call was on my mind when
we prepare for a dive to 350 feet.
The next day on the deep dive
Howard and Richard would face pressures
nearly 12 times greater than normal.
But they are expert divers
and there is much to learn by exploring regions
where so little is known.
Support divers attached safety tanks to a life line
every 50 feet.
As we descend,
too much oxygen is bad.
Too little is worse.
Both can kill you.
The safety divers go down as far as he can and stop.
After that
we are on our own
As we drop down the reef wall
it gets darker and colder.
And in a way we are going back in time.
At 200 feet,
we pass lime stone deposits that were laid down
twenty thousand years ago,
back when this was the top of the reef.
At 350 feet,
we entered the twilight zone.
It's sort of spooky but wonderful
to look around at a reef that
no one has ever lay eyes on before.
It's starting to get interesting.
We don't see any of the corals that rely on sunlight.
Instead we see fan corals and whip corals.
This reef community definitely appears to be thriving.
In his quest to find out what lives down here,
Richard can only bring a few specimens back to the surface
to be documented for science.
Looking around I see at least a dozen new fish species
that I have never seen before.
I doubt that anyone has seen them before.
Scientists like Richard
are mapping the web of life that
we are all part of.
Each new fish Richard finds
holds millions of years of genetic engineering
for medical research.
Then the intense water pressure
caused the primary camera
to malfunction.
I was glad that Howard called an end to the dive.
We hope that Howard's images
will let scientist explore a reef
that they might never be able to dive on their own.
It's not everyday you get to witness
the discovery of a new species of fish
You see that red one with the long tale
that's the one I'm really excited about.
That's definitely new.
Oh, I see those all the time.
Until quite recently,
the deep coral reefs were
this big dark void on our map of life.
But each new discovery
leads us to new connections.
This may seen like just some insignificant little red fish,
But it's a very important piece
to the biodiversity puzzle.
As soon as I saw I knew it was something different
the months of hard work in Fiji paid off
Russy has seen first hand
how corals can thrive when reefs are protected
he is now ready to return to his home island
my fellow Fijians have shown me
how to set up a marine preserve
protect the mangroves
and even curb logging operations
I really want to get started.
Here in Fiji we've seen some amazing reefs.
But we have also seen a lot of coral damage.
The siltation we saw in Rusi's reef
led us to a next question.
Is closeness to shore
a major risk factor for corals?
French Polynesia is a perfect place
for answering this question.
In French Polynesia
Howard and Michele started with
The heavily populated islands of Tahiti and Mo'orea
where the reefs are close to shore.
But with only six weeks left in the whole expedition
Howard had to get the big picture fast.
I'm used to hang gliders.
I'm used to fly around in contraptions like this.
But there is still something not quite right
about an engine that can fit in my back pack.
Mo'orea is sort of like Rusi's island.
The coral here is very sensitive
to siltation and pollution
because the reefs are very close to shore.
After checking out the north side of Mo'orea
we head across the mountains to survey the south coast.
Even near towns
we didn't spot much reef damage.
Coastal development puts reefs in jeopardy.
Siltation pollution, and the loss of mangroves
are all serious risks
But resorts like this prove that
respecting the environment is a good business.
Because tourists avoid damaged reefs.
Our flight over Mo'orea
just gave us a first impression.
So with time running out
I turned to Reef Check aboard survey boat
the Quicksilver Crossing
Reef Check has over 4000 sport divers in 60 countries
monitoring the health of coral reefs.
We asked Reef Check volunteers
to check the coral damage here in Mo'orea.
to find out if the reefs closest to shore
are the most severely damaged.
From the air
it's clear how these volcano islands formed
and how coral reefs formed around them.
The steepest youngest islands Tahiti and Mo'orea
stand tall.
These islands have not eroded and subsided much
so the coral reef ringing them is not far offshore.
Bora Bora is middle aged, so the volcano
has subsided and eroded somewhat
and the reefs are farther from shore.
The final stage
is this flat donut of an island called and atoll
The volcano has completely subsided back into the sea
leaving a ring of coral which one circled a tall mountain.
The team headed for the second largest atoll in the world.
Rangiroa
to survey the remotest reefs in French Polynesia.
10 years ago
a cyclone wiped out most of Rangiroa's coral
But storms are natural events
and coral reef do recover from them
as long as human impacts don't interfere.
Here the coral seems small but healthy.
Right away we saw two male parrot fish
fighting over territory.
This was a sign of a large and thriving fish population.
But why haven't we seen the huge schools of grey reef sharks
Rangiroa so famous for?
Their absence is not necessarily a danger sign for corals
but it could single an imbalance in the whole reef ecosystem.
So finding the sharks became our main goal.
We search the shark's favorite hangouts
but they didn't see to be home.
We used caution because
one thing you don't want to do
is catch a grey reef shark by surprise
if the sharks are out roaming the reef in shallow water
the quickest way to spot them
is from the ultralight.
Throughout the Pacific
whole populations of sharks have been wiped out
by commercial fishermen.
Grey reef sharks are especially vulnerable
and that's what worry me.
The aerial search for sharks turns up nothing.
And we're running out of time
but there is one last place to look.
Tiputa Pass
Here the current just screams.
Hundreds of startled sharks are hanging out
like a street gang in this little canyon.
We're being swept into them
and there's nothing we can do about it.
Could they be mating?
This is when you try very hard
not to look like a shark.
I've had two friends badly bitten by grey reef sharks
The most social of all sharks,
greys tend to swim in tight groups.
I've been diving for 35 years
but I've never seen the likes of this.
There must be 300 sharks in this school
and that's a healthy number.
This big school doesn't close the book
but it is a favorable sign
for the health of this reef ecosystem.
We party with the sharks for nearly an hour
knowing that on their way home
we'll have the current at our backs
so we can go with the flow.
For ten exhausting but magical months
Michele and I explored
some of the most magnificent coral reefs on earth.
During that time
our concern for corals grew into a shared passion.
My people look at the reef
and we don't want to believe that such a place
could be gone forever.
My friends Howard and Michele
have given me new tools to heal my village reef.
Howard's love to the reefs nearly cost him his life.
But after making more than 500 dives
we came back with some really powerful images.
One image I can't get out of my mind
is that lone octopus crawling through the rubble.
Soon it may not have a home.
No one set out to kill a beautiful thing.
But when a reef dies
billions of living things die.
Corals appears to be dying faster than normal
and the trend is rapidly accelerating.
Most living coral reefs as we know them today
could be gone in 30 years.
If that happens
then something inside of me will die too.
After all the coral reefs have given us
more and more people are now returning the favor.
Their supporting leaders who fight global warming
joining teams like Reef Check
getting involved.
We may have greater potential
of finding new medicines on
coral reefs than any other environment on earth.
To save them is really saving ourselves.
It take a long, long time to build a coral reef
step by step
the reefs survive on partnerships.
And the most important partners
that the corals have are you and I.
What we must to do is
encourage a sea change in attitude
one that acknowledges
we are a part of the living world
not apart from it.