THE CORAL APOCALYPSE - THE END OF REEFS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

Producer Claudia Schmitt

We've been diving in Indonesia for many years,  filming success stories around coral reef restoration ("We live underwater") and a shark rescue program ("Little Teeth - Saving Sharks on Bali"). But last year during the El Nino event, we encountered severe coral bleaching in Indonesia, in the heart of the  Coral Triangle, home to the world's richest reefs. We were utterly shocked to witness reefs that we'd been diving for years faded and slowly dying. It was this experience that drove us to document the phenomenon of coral bleaching as we witnessed it. If we don't take action on global warming, events like the one we witnessed will increase in frequency and intensity all over the world, devastating reef ecosystems to the extent that they could all disappear by the end of this century. Losing our reefs would have a grave impact on marine biodiversity and fisheries that a billion humans depend on as their main source of protein. It's a cascade effect we cannot afford to see happen.  So the film comes with an emotional and urgent appeal: we still have time to save the reefs – but we have to take action on global warming NOW!