Chasing Coral

This is a 2017 Netflix documentary I viewed last night: 

“Watching documentaries” is one way I’ll be using Netflix this month. In the past I’ve reviewed several related to nature which is why this was selected. Unlike those, a message about the threat of global warming was at the forefront. At least in the United States this is a hot-button controversial topic-which I wish wasn’t the case. Being concerned about the world that we’ve leaving for future generations should be of paramount importance and I’d like to think there isn’t some bonkers conspiracy where all those scientists for so many years have concocted a hoax for who knows what endgame.

Moving along from those inflammatory statements, the film follows various scientists and divers as they chronicle how since the late 80’s, half of the world’s corals have died. It is alarming that global warming is believed to be the main cause-and among the other issues that arise from rising temperature, it impacts the world’s oceans, which is a keystone component of the planet’s health as it’s all a symbiotic relationship which includes humanity… I don’t always watch programs like this as it’s a stone-cold bummer.

It is still an important message to convey to the public. Aside from the educational value, all the underwater footage and views of ocean life (not just the stunning coral but also fish and a giant tortoise) was just delightful. Some of the crew responsible for filming this footage are also spotlighted; that is OK when “Zack the Coral Nerd” was shown. As many other reviews have noted, this nerd was an enthusiastic dork and thus provided passion, whether it is happiness or sadness. Their attempts at filming at times seemed cursed-eventually, they succeeded.

Nitpicks could be made—but when an important message was delivered, plenty of lovely footage was shown, the importance of coral was stressed, and there are memorable characters like Zach & another known as “The Coral Guru” … as I hope to see a wide variety of film in July, it was a wise choice for this to be among one of those films.