A Fever in Our Oceans: A Chat with Zack Rago of Chasing Coral

[MarineDepot]

By now you probably have seen or heard of Chasing Coral, a Netflix original documentary that was released worldwide on July 14. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix on the same day. Coral bleaching due to rising ocean temperatures is the focus of the film which took over 3 years to make. The film begins as a visual feast for any aquarium hobbyist but is overshadowed by the massive scale coral deaths that were documented with time lapse photography.

Zackery Rago features prominently in the documentary. Zack is a self proclaimed coral nerd from Colorado and built the camera systems that were used in the film. He confesses early on that the opportunity to work on the film given his passion for the hobby was a dream wish. He shares raw emotions throughout the film, often times breaking down at the sheer enormity of the events he is witnessing in that moment. Charlie Veron also makes an appearance and talks about his observations of the reefs past and present.

Also notable was the outreach that was done to ask divers and scientists from all over the world to participate. The film features excepts from global reports of similar events happening in oceans around the world. The film is easily able to communicate their objective of turning up the spotlight on a global problem in a powerful way.

We had a chance to ask Zack Rago some questions.

Read more at
https://blog.marinedepot.com/2017/07/fever-oceans-chat-zack-rago-chasing-coral.html

 

[stevieduk]

Genetically modified algae, able to with stand high water temps and introduced into the corals is the answer to this one

 

[JasPR]

Kooks abound! anyone ever hear of Darwin? change is inevitable-- evolution is another word for change. The idea that we can change the massive seas or stop change from occurring is well--child like. Once there was no oxygen on earth -- then there was, and massive numbers of species of bacterias died back. Once there were dinosaurs and ancient corals and climate changed-- and they died-- all of them. Once there was an un-noticed rodent and it outcompeted the primitive species-- indeed, once there were ancient corals and they were wiped out by modern more adapted species. Enough

 

[Paul Carpenter]

I agree completely. Well stated.

 

[Tristren]

Kooks abound! anyone ever hear of Darwin? change is inevitable-- evolution is another word for change. The idea that we can change the massive seas or stop change from occurring is well--child like. Once there was no oxygen on earth -- then there was, and massive numbers of species of bacterias died back. Once there were dinosaurs and ancient corals and climate changed-- and they died-- all of them. Once there was an un-noticed rodent and it outcompeted the primitive species-- indeed, once there were ancient corals and they were wiped out by modern more adapted species. Enough

It is less the fact that the climate is changing than the pace of change.

All of us here know the difference between gradual and rapid changes in our systems.

Think about what happens when you gradually change a parameter (temp, light, ph) vs when some controller malfunctions and something shoots up overnight. Now scale that out to "the big system" that we live in.

As you say, when there have been rapid changes in the past, species go extinct.

 

[kattz]

I'm just curious - as a hobbyist who has dived on many reefs throughout the world, why is the diver in the picture STANDING on his/her fins in the corals? Don't touch, don't touch, don't touch... And yes, the fins are in the reef.

I've seen bleaching corals on reefs in Puerto Rico, Florida, the Philippines, and Okinawa over 20 years. All of those corals have either completely recovered or are on their way to recovery as of my last dives.

I understand that there are people on both sides of the fence - climate change "supporters" and "deniers". I have my own reasons to believe that we are seeing cyclical climate change that is normal based on data I've studied. When people say "never before" regarding climate, please remember that we have only been studying climate conditions semi-accurately for the last 100-150 years. Our view of the big picture is like a person trying to study the depths of the universe through a crack in the ceiling. Our timeline data is extremely short and narrow; the real data is in core samples, and they show that we have been here before many times, and even hotter with an unbreathable atmosphere.

 

[klp]

I did not see the documentary. I am curious how the temperature changes were documented, over what period of time, local causes etc. 2 degrees Celsius is a huge swing in 3 years for an ocean so I am more than a bit leery of another attempt to cook the global warming books with faulty or misleading information as been the past history.

 

[Oldreefer44]

So many experts......so few facts.

 

[mucky1957]

have downloaded the film..hope to watch it over the weekend

 

[Steve McGlamery]

I did not see the documentary. I am curious how the temperature changes were documented, over what period of time, local causes etc. 2 degrees Celsius is a huge swing in 3 years for an ocean so I am more than a bit leery of another attempt to cook the global warming books with faulty or misleading information as been the past history.

The people in this documentary built these very sophisticated cameras for the film, why didn't they put a thermometer on the camera to measure the "warming" that they said was killing the corals?

 

[lightningreef2690]

It comes as no surprise that the earth has been through stages where the atmosphere was unlivable, but as animals that require a "livable atmosphere" dont you think it is a good idea for us to do whatever we can to A. Preserve the atmosphere as it is now, and B. do whatever it is that we can as a species to prevent any change that would cause a lack of a livable atmosphere?