"Coral reef adventure the south Pacific lagoons that hint paradise magnificent coral reefs that light the dream in corners of minds" "this is the world as we wish and could always be" "in this great corner of life thousands of colorful characters coexist diversities strengthens coral reefs the more species the more survival systems coral reefs be going strong for sixty million years some corals wave like flowers in the breath others masquerade the stones" "but all corals are animals" "this under order playgrounds are built by hard corals which produce lime stone and turn it into homes stack one on top of the other millions of coral homes gradually form a gigantic reef" "how wonderful the largest living structures on earth are built by tiny animals" "coral reefs protect nearly all tropical coast standing between islander's homes and violent seas" "one may injured doctors use calcium carbonate from coral to mend our broken bones when we were sick chemical components from the reef may restore our health no place on earth holds greater potential for medical curers" "reefs feeders over three hundred million people rely on fish from reefs for Pacific islander like me our coral reefs are as necessary as the air we breath" "Russy coral a native of Fiji has always lived close to the sea" "for centuries my ancestors were careful not to overfish so our reef was healthy but this year something happened something terrible" "a blacker death set over the reef" "what was killing our reef?" "I made up my mind to find the answers" "I decide to reach up to some of my death partners around the world" "Howard and Micheal Hall has spent thirty years exploring and filming reefs their underwater photography is world known when Howard and Micheal got Russy's message they voyaged the mountains far from the reefs they loved" "I was drawing that flight I kept wondering what we could do to help Russy then I realized that our friend Richard Pile might know what to do he is a marine biologist across the world red sea east Africa, Maldives, Philippines" "we seeing this kind of problems showing up in unprecedented rate" "Richard showed us how coral reefs to die and the alarming rate all around the world ocean warming is the major cause" "Richard urged just document coral reefs on film for science before they disappear" "we knew the Max camera with a credible clarity was the best way to do this" "our mission was clear bring back images of inside and why Russy's reef was dying we need to compare Russy'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 reef all across the south Pacific was a bit like a dream come true we will make hundreds of dives and some of these would be deeper and more dangerous than anything we have done before" "it would be a most important expedition in our thirty years' diving together" "parts of the Great Barrier Reef had been protected from overfishing for two decades the first goal of this ten-month expedition is 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 fished up by commercial fishmen today we have seen 12 giant clams that's a great sign that means this reef spells its back" "a local marine biologist named Tracy Medway let us to the giant potatocut" "they were called potatocut because they had these patchy potato shape marking on the sides" "throughout most of the Pacific the really large fish had been wiped out by fishmen for life here under because of the laws that protect them" "this vegetarian protect the reef neighboring a wave seaweeds that smudged the coral if too many of this kind of fish are removed corals will die that's why overfishing destroy reefs we often realized how each species benefits each other" "until one of them disappeared just as the fish protect the reef the coral offers homes and hiding place for the fish anything from a simple shark to a custom dream home" "gobies often share a home with shrimp whenever he ventures out of the burrow the shrimp keeps at least one antenna on the goby the goby get a unpackable burrow to live in without lifting a fin and the very near sited shrimp gets a bodyguard" "with flicked its tale the goby warns the shrimp of approaching foes" "this hundred year old coral makes a nice dinner's office for potatocut a small fish a clean arrester swims right into the coral's mouth to feed and parasites" "the coral's gets grunt and arrester gets dinner partnerships like this seem to require mutual trust lots of trust" "Cart Hollerway, a coral researcher joined Michael to study interest species communication" "I was afraid I was going to heaven maybe swollen with but I didn't it just chin and a little bit" "I was studying animal behavior for so many years this was this was different this was a chance for meet it actually be part of it" "cooperation between species sustained lives here but sometimes it is almost invisible the coral's most important partners are tiny microscope alga that actually live inside the coral and most tissues" "this help alga use sunlight to produce sugar the primary food source that give coral the energy to build reefs most corals cannot survive without helper alga but worldwide abnormally warm seawater threaten this partnership time-up photography can show us how" "and just one week that changed two centigrade drives the alga out" "without its main food source the coral bleaches as ghostly white" "if the alga don't return the corals starves" "here in Australia we went to some places that we have been to 22 years before and we are surprise to see that some of the reefs so damaged by ocean warming" "part Australian survey give us a baseline for understanding what was going wrong at Russy's reefs" "2000 miles away in Fiji" "when we got to Fuji it didn't take five minutes to reconnect with Russy" "Howard makes me smile again" "Micheal and I were eager to help Russy but first we have to pay our respect 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 till now" "first I wanted Howard to see village reef as it used to be" "the reef looks great with plenty of small fish but we didn't see many big fish as we did in Australia and that worried me" "but time had come" "I took Howard and Michael further down the reef" "I wonder where all the animals gone" "these reefs are dying and all just makes me very sad" "seeing so much of these reef destroyed we realized that" "Russy's reef may be what all coral reefs look like in thirty years" "our reef was to be home of so many creatures but now they almost all gone" "after seen all these destruction though" "I saw an octopus" "octopus is made like a tent with the body they put up their eight arms and actually traps shrimps and crabs live on the reef" "here octopus figure out how to survive not many reef to do that" "for islander survive by fishing the death of the reef is really hit us hard especially when you have children to feed" "but what kills Russy's reef?" "Foreign fishing fleets have overfished this water and thermometer 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 mile inland when tropical rain forest were cut down the river turn muddy with silt" "two rivers merged one with logging upstream one without" "there was only place for all that settlement to go at the mouth of the river silt block the sun light that the coral needs to growth" "Russy'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 understand the problem better but what could I do" "Howard thought a healthier reef might give us some answers we set quest to another island there we joined up with John Michealgusto who is the son of the legendary explorer" "John Michealgusto comes to Fuji every year to help marine biologists like marine's world read records" "we guild Howard and Michael to a nearby reef where siltation is not a problem thanks to mangrove trees" "their roots traps the silt protecting the reefs" "many fish sees mangroves as nursery to protect the young" "my fellow Fijians have set aside this beneficial as mangroves as part of marine preserve making the reef offshore a wonder land healthy beautiful and strong" "this is the way I want my reef to be" "tropical coral reefs are found worldwide" "Fuji is the soft coral capital of the world" "corals are beautiful but they are also beneficial chemical components from coral reefs have been reproduced in the lab to provide relief from pain ease child birth and even extend the life of AIDS patients" "corals share their foods in fact many of them share the same stomach" "when the current fix up speed time lap photographs shows how these soft corals inflate like balloons to trap passing animals" "on a healthy reef like this you see so many different creatures" "we preferred not to approach these animals it's better of they come to us" "this distant cousin of the cobra can kill a person in a matter of minutes but they rarely bite humans" "Michael is counting on that" "we learned a lot of our reef from its animals and so do the children there is more to the reef than meets the eyes" "observation is the first step in science" "who would notice that yellow fish got their tiny eggs before they hatch all that the sea cucumber eat the waste leaving the reef clean up for all" "some of the finest marine biologists are Fijians we could expect scientists mixed" "we've learned that we don't inherit the earth from our parents we borrow it from our children" "children love this spot fish they've never seen before that same discovery drives many scientist like Richard Pile" "Richard Pile calls himself a fishman he study fish on the deepest parts of coral reefs" "the deeper down we go on the 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 could be really dangerous even using a special breathing devises we could still get a fatal disease" "called "the bangs"" "we nearly lost Howard on a deep dive only two months ago ha had a bad case of "the bangs"" "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 the feelings in my right legs one of the terrify moment for me was actually seeing him stumble" "I just thought it can't be happening" "Michael rushed Howard to the hospital hoping the specially pressurized chamber might hold 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 closest call was on my mind that we prepare for the dive to the 350 feet" "the next day on the deep dive" "Howard and Richard would face pressures nearly 12 times greater than the normal but they are expert divers and there is much to learn by exploring regions where so little was known" "support divers attached safety tanks to a life line every 50 feet" "as we descent 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 deposited the lay down twenty thousand years ago back when this was the top of the reef" "at 350 feet we entered the twilight zones" "it's sort of spooky but wonderful to look around the reef that no one has ever lay eyes on for" "it's starting to get interesting" "it's that we could see fan corals and weed corals this community definitely appeared to be thriving" "in his quest to find out what lives down here" "Richard can only bring a few back to the surface to be documented for science" "looking around I see at least a dozen of new species" "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 told millions of years of genetic engineering for medical research" "then the intense water pressure caused the primary camera to no function" "I was glad that Howard coordinate into the dive we hope that Howard's images would let scientist explore reefs that they might never be able to dive on the rope" "it's not everyday you can witness that a discovery of a new species of fish you see the red one with the long tale that's what I was really excited that's definitely live oh I see those all the time" "until quite recently the deep coral reef was the big dark boy on the map of life but each new discovery leads us to the new connection" "this may seen like just some magnificent red fish but it's very important piece to the biodiversity puzzle as soon as I saw I knew it's something different the months of hard work in Fiji paid off" "Russy have seen first time 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 cut logging operations" "I really want to get started here in Fiji we have seen some amazing reefs but we have also seen a lot of coral damages the siltation we saw in Russy's reef let 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 Michael started with the heavily populated islands of Tahiti and Maria 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 like this but there is still something not quite right about the engine that was fit in my back pack" "Maria is sort of like Russy's island the coral here is very sensitive to siltation and pollution because the corals are great close to the shore after checking out the north side of Maria we crossed the mountain to survey the south coast" "even near towns we didn't spot much reef damages coastal development put reef in jeopardy siltation pollution and the lose of mangroves are all serious risks but resource like this proved that respecting the environment is a good business because tourists avoided damaged reefs" "our flight over Maria just gave us a first impression so was time running out" "I turned to recheck board survey boat the Quicksilver Crossing reef check has over 4000 sport divers in 60 countries the health of coral reef we ask three check voluntaries to check the coral damage here in Maria to find out if the reefs close 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 Maria stands tall these islands have not eroded and subsided much so the coral reefs ringing them is not far offshore" "the volcano has subsided and eroded somewhat and the reefs are farther from shore" "the final stage is this flat and the island called and atop the volcano has completely subsided back into the sea leaving a ring coral which one circled a top mountain" "the team headed for the second largest in the world" "Rangeroa to survey the remotest reef in French Polynesia" "10 years ago a cyclone wiped out most Rangeroa's coral but storms are natural events and coral reef still recovered from them as long as human impacts don't interfere" "here the coral seems small but healthy" "right away we saw two male fish fighting over territory this was a sign of large thriving fish population" "but why haven't we seen the huge sharks in great reef shores Rangeroa so famous for" "their absence is not necessarily a danger sign for corals but it could single and balance the whole reef eco system so finding the shark became our main goal" "we search the shark's favorite hangouts but they didn't see to be home" "we use caution because one thing you don't want to do is catch a great reef shark by surprise" "if the shark louse around the water the quickest way to spot them is from the outer light throughout the Pacific whole population of sharks had been wiped out by commercial fishermen great reef shark are especially vulnerable and that's what worry me" "the airy search for sharks turns out nothing and we are running out of time but there is one last place to look to Puta Pass here the current just screams" "hundreds of starve sharks are hang out like street gang in the canyon we were being swept into them and there is nothing we can do about it" "could they be mating this is when you try very hard not to look like a shark" "I have two friends badly bitten by great reef sharks the most social of all sharks graze tender swimming tight groups" "I've been diving for 35 years but I've never seen the life like 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 ego-system" "we party with the sharks for nearly an hour knowing that on our way home we have a current on our backs so we can go with the float" "for ten exhausting but magical months" "Michael and I explored some of the most magnificent coral reefs on earth during that time our concern for coral grew into a share passion" "my people look at the reef and we don't want to believe such a place could be gone forever" "my friends Howard and Michael have given me new tools to heal my village reef" "Howard's love to the reefs nearly cost 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 alone octopus crawling to 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 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 to 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 great 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 reef 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"