Movie Review: Chasing Coral (2017)

I’ve only ever seen the ocean once in my life. It was a rocky beach off the coast of Virginia when I was a 10-years-old on vacation with my family. The weather was far from idyllic: it was raining, around 50 degrees and the water was freezing. The most memorable part of this experience was the beached jellyfish my brother and I poked with a stick. I may have grown up watching Blue Planet and other nature documentaries on the Discovery Channel, but I’ve never truly experienced the ocean. My experience, like many others, has created a very “out of sight, out of mind” mentality.

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The 2017 Netflix Original Documentary Chasing Coral sought out to change that. Based on its recognition, this film made a significant impact on the film industry. It was named the official selection for many film festivals in 2017, Sundance, Boulder, Hotdocs, and SFFILM, and won a 2017 Emmy; but has it affected the environmental movement it’s centered around?

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The film follows Richard Vevers, a former London advertising executive who got tired of arguing over toiler paper and decided to follow his long-time passion: the sea. He moved to Australia and became an undersea photographer. After a few years, he was struck by the disappearance of many of his favorite marine animals and realized that many people were unaware, or at least unfazed, by the degradation of the ocean’s ecosystem. Ververs, having worked in advertising for many years, decided to help the oceans the best way he knew how: advertising.

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His first attempt to spread awareness didn’t have the effect he’d hoped for. The project he presented was a stunning collection of photographs depicting a wide range of marine life, but it did little to convey the reality of the situation. Verver’s realized it wasn’t going to be as simple as photographing dead or dying coral: how is the public supposed to know what is or isn’t normal? It’s at this point that we, along with Verver’s, realize the issue wasn’t just dead corals, it’s a fundamental lack of knowledge regarding ocean life. 

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From the start, this film goes beyond just documenting the physical world and weaves a very human element into the story. 

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Corals are animals with plant cells that live inside their tissue and act as the coral’s primary food source. This relationship is very similar to the relationship between humans and our digestive bacteria, without the necessary bacteria we wouldn’t be able to survive. As water temperatures rise (a result of climate change), the plant cells inside the coral tissue aren’t able to function properly and result in the removal of these cells from the tissue, leaving behind the translucent coral and its white skeleton. It’s a stress response similar to a fever in humans when our bodies are attempting to get rid of foreign or improperly functioning cells. This response results in white corals that have lost their primary food source and are facing the first stage of coral death.This response results in white corals that have lost their primary food source and are facing the first stage of coral death. 

It’s easy for people to brush off the idea of ocean temperatures rising by two degrees, but we’ve all had a fever before, and even if that fever is only two degrees above normal, we know from our own experiences that it can be miserable. By comparing coral to humans, we can more easily develop a connection to these creatures. We are much more likely to show empathy for something that they can relate to or feel have human qualities.

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In 2016 26% of the coral on the Great Barrier Reef died as a result of mass bleaching. To bring attention to the extent of this, they transpose the area of the Reef to the west coast of the United States: an area that spans from Oregan to Southern California. It’s with this that these abstract figures and percentages are made much more real for us. 

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To capture this phenomenon, Ververs and his team develop a camera that can be placed permanently underwater to create a timelapse of coral bleaching and death. We follow the team as they install the cameras and witness multiple setbacks. A thunderstorm starts as the team sits in the middle of the ocean carrying electrical equipment, and a separate incident results in a computer being thrown into the ocean and is flooded with water. We can hear the frustration in the voices of the researchers as they try to salvage the flooded computer, and then when the film cuts to a clip of several team members sitting in a hotel room with the computer dismantled and parts strewn across the floor. I can’t imagine having to take apart that equipment and then put it back together again. Unfortunately, these cameras proved useless as the footage they recovered after a month was out of focus and unusable. We watch as the team flips hopelessly through the useless images. After everything they went through, we all wanted it to work. If they wanted to finish what they started they would have to do so manually.

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It’s here that the story properly shifts focus from Richard Ververs to Zack Rago, a recent college graduate with a deep passion for the ocean and specifically for coral. It’s through Zack that the story documents the task of manually capturing the process of coral bleaching. Every day for a month Zack and another researcher would take photos of coral at specific locations and exact placements. Between the two of them, they estimate a total of 60 locations. Two separate groups of research do the same on different reefs. They had to spend a total of 4 hours a day submerged underwater. 

Zack’s youth brings a sense of optimism and naivety to the story and a deep-cutting feeling of sadness as he has to watch the thing he loves most die. He recounts the mental, emotional, and physical toll the experience has taken on him, particularly one of his last dives where he demonstrates the decayed tissue of the coral falling apart and rotting. We watch as he sits in a room, face buried in his hands, and cries. 

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Not only is it sad to watch these animals die, but as the documentary explains, it has severe effects on the ocean’s ecosystem and humans as well. Many societies rely on reefs as a source of food and for economic stability and many pharmaceutical therapies are derived from coral reefs, particularly ones that help fight cancer. It’s easy to ignore an issue when you don’t think it has any effect on you, but as the film explains, many people would be directly harmed by the loss of coral reefs. A study by the United Nations environmental program “found that coral reefs generate up to $1.25 million annually.”

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One of the most impactful scenes of the movie is when coral off the coast began to glow, something none of the researchers or locals had ever seen before. The film presents an overhead shot, panning over a landscape of white and glowing blue, yellow, and purple corals. As it turns out, this glowing is the result of the coral emitting a chemical sunscreen as it attempts to protect itself from the sun and rising temperatures. It is referred to as a “beautiful stage of death” truly encapsulating the tragedy of this film.

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They were able to present the images they captured to a live audience and the film audience. It’s during this there is almost complete silence aside from faint music in the background. Stunning images of bright and vibrant corals are juxtaposed by their dead, algae-covered skeletons. A once bright landscape is dull and devoid of life. The beauty of the cinematography amplifies the tragedy of the events. From the audience, tears are shown and the unfortunate focus of the documentary is brought to fruition. 

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It’s been nearly four years since the release of Chasing Coral on Netflix. To date, ocean temperatures continue to rise above the levels necessary for coral bleaching. The Great Barrier Reef has experienced 3 bleaching events in the past 6 years. Before now, as the documentary presented, there had only been 3 previous bleaching events, one in the ’80s, one in the ’00s, one in 2010, and now 3 from 2015 to 2020. Previously, these were connected to spiked in ocean temperature known as El Nino, but are beginning to occur even without El Nino. This leaves little time for the corals to recover and is beginning to affect areas of reef previously untouched by bleaching events.

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The documentary itself ends on a surprisingly high note. Zack, Vevers, and the other researchers express the hope they have for the future and the fact that it isn’t too late. They’re proud of their work but do know there is a lot more to do to educate people and make a change. We watch as Zack teaches young kids about the ocean and we see their excitement as they experience it through virtual reality. A key takeaway becomes the importance of education for everyone. Not only is the ocean beautiful, but it’s important to many cultures and has significant economic and social impacts that reach farther than the coast.

In 2020 the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program awarded over $10.5 million to support conservation projects and research aimed to benefit coral reefs. Many researchers are seeking ways to restore reefs and maintain the coral population, but the primary cause of this issue remains. That issue being climate change. 

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Chasing Coral remains an active voice in the push for change. They continue to screen the film and raise awareness for many issues surrounding the ocean and climate change. This film is for everyone. There can’t be change until everyone buys in and people can’t do that unless they have a reason. This film provides many reasons why people should care about the state of our oceans. It seeks to appeal to people who love nature and grew up watching the discovery channel, people who care about the economy, people invested in medicine or who know someone suffering from cancer/other medical issues, and those concerned with cultural preservation. A single film won’t be the reason we solve climate change, but it can be the reason more people realize just how important it is.