Silent Sentinels and Reefs: Rainforests of the Ocean

Silent Sentinels
Directed by Richard Smith
Australia 2000 57 min.

Coral reefs are the jewels of the sea, but the "International Year of the Oceans" (in 1998) turned out to be the year that coral reefs around the world began to die. Unprecedented mass bleaching left hundreds of miles of coral coastline severely damaged. It was touted at the time as unequivocal proof that global warming had begun, and that it will have a greater impact than many think.

This program reveals disturbing evidence that even if coral can survive continually rising temperatures, they won't be able to escape the chemical effects of high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It examines these claims and takes a broader look at the corals that have coped with climate change over time—one of the most successful biological relationships in the history of the earth. Filmed on Australia's Great Barrier Reef and remote Scott Reef in the Indian Ocean; in the Maldives; the Red Sea; the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Reefs: Rainforests of the Ocean
Directed by Kat Baulu
Canada 2004 45 min.

Global warming, tsunamis and, el Niño all wreak havoc on slow-growing coral reefs, home to countless marine species. Heavy anchors, pollution and wanton collecting also take their toll. Today, reefs are receiving some much-needed care from Quatar in the Persian Gulf to the Bahamas and Barbados.

Event Sponsor
Oceanography

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956-7633, ocean@soest.hawaii.edu

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