Journal 6: Chasing Coral

I was delighted to find out that Netflix added a new documentary about the destruction of the Coral Reef and what is being done to protect it. As this perfectly ties into my study of the ocean, I decided to elaborate on some initial thoughts I had while watching "Chasing Coral."

Some things I like already within the opening scenes are the gorgeous shots of the sea turtles and divers photographing them. This is something I could most definitely see myself doing for a career. The narration is also almost as grabbing as the cinematography. A particular line that stood out to me was "most people stare up into space with wonder...yet we have this almost alien world on our own planet just teeming with life." Did someone say mic drop?

The main project being talked about in this documentary is a mapping of the ocean floor- much like google maps, but underwater. I love this because so much of the population are visual learners and not everyone has the resources to go scuba diving and see for themselves what has happened to our coral reef. Because of this project, anyone with internet access can see what lies below the ocean surface. This is the kind of tangible project I'd love to put my name on as a marine biologist or oceanographer someday. These aren't people just tweeting #PrayForOceans...these are people actually doing something.

I'm only about five minutes into this documentary and I have already learned so much about coral reefs and the ocean itself- if someone were to ask me why I wanted to go into marine biology, I would tell them to watch this.