Coral Reef Adventure Page #2

actually traps shrimps and crabs live on the reef

here octopus figure out

how to survive

not many reef to do that

for islander survive by fishing

the death of the reef is really hit us hard

especially when you have children to feed

but what kills Russy's reef?

Foreign fishing fleets have overfished this water

and thermometer tells us that

the ocean is two degrees warmer than normal

I found more bleached coral and no big fish

but I had a hunch that

ocean warming and overfishing

were not the only problems

ten mile inland

when tropical rain forest were cut down

the river turn muddy with silt

two rivers merged

one with logging upstream

one without

there was only place for all that settlement to go

at the mouth of the river

silt block the sun light that the coral needs to growth

Russy's reef had been hit

by a combination of stresses

ocean warming overfishing and siltation

corals may fight off one threat

but three at once proved too much

now I understand the problem better

but what could I do

Howard thought a healthier reef

might give us some answers

we set quest to another island

there we joined up with John Michealgusto

who is the son of the legendary explorer

John Michealgusto comes to Fuji every year

to help marine biologists

like marine's world read records

we guild Howard and Michael to a nearby reef

where siltation is not a problem

thanks to mangrove trees

their roots traps the silt

protecting the reefs

many fish sees mangroves as nursery

to protect the young

my fellow Fijians

have set aside this beneficial as mangroves

as part of marine preserve

making the reef offshore a wonder land

healthy beautiful and strong

this is the way I want my reef to be

tropical coral reefs are found worldwide

Fuji is the soft coral capital of the world

corals are beautiful

but they are also beneficial

chemical components from coral reefs

have been reproduced in the lab

to provide relief from pain

ease child birth

and even extend the life of AIDS patients

corals share their foods

in fact many of them share the same stomach

when the current fix up speed

time lap photographs shows

how these soft corals inflate like balloons

to trap passing animals

on a healthy reef like this

you see so many different creatures

we preferred not to approach these animals

it's better of they come to us

this distant cousin of the cobra

can kill a person in a matter of minutes

but they rarely bite humans

Michael is counting on that

we learned a lot of our reef from its animals

and so do the children

there is more to the reef than meets the eyes

observation is the first step in science

who would notice

that yellow fish got their tiny eggs

before they hatch

all that the sea cucumber eat the waste

leaving the reef clean up for all

some of the finest marine biologists are Fijians

we could expect scientists mixed

we've learned that we don't inherit the earth

from our parents

we borrow it from our children

children love this spot fish they've never seen before

that same discovery drives many scientist

like Richard Pile

Richard Pile calls himself a fishman

he study fish on the deepest parts of coral reefs

the deeper down we go on the coral reef

the less we know

I want to find out who lives there

you can't get a true picture of coral reef

if you only look at part of it

but deep dives could be really dangerous

even using a special breathing devises

we could still get a fatal disease

called "the bangs"

we nearly lost Howard on a deep dive

only two months ago

ha had a bad case of "the bangs"

it could have killed him

to stop the progression of the illness

I began breathing pure oxygen

but it didn't seen to help

I was losing all the feelings in my right legs

one of the terrify moment for me

was actually seeing him stumble

I just thought it can't be happening

Michael rushed Howard to the hospital

hoping the specially pressurized chamber

might hold the illness

and save his life

thank god for the communication system

because at least then I could talk to him

Howard survived

but his closest call was on my mind that

we prepare for the dive to the 350 feet

the next day on the deep dive

Howard and Richard would face pressures

nearly 12 times greater than the normal

but they are expert divers

and there is much to learn by exploring regions

where so little was known

support divers attached safety tanks to a life line

every 50 feet

as we descent

too much oxygen is bad

too little is worse

both can kill you

the safety divers go down as far as he can and stop

after that

we are on our own

as we drop down the reef wall

it gets darker and colder

and in a way we are going back in time

at 200 feet

we pass lime stone deposited the lay down

twenty thousand years ago

back when this was the top of the reef

at 350 feet

we entered the twilight zones

it's sort of spooky but wonderful

to look around the reef that

no one has ever lay eyes on for

it's starting to get interesting

it's that we could see fan corals and weed corals

this community definitely appeared to be thriving

in his quest to find out what lives down here

Richard can only bring a few back to the surface

to be documented for science

looking around I see at least a dozen of new species

I have never seen before

I doubt that anyone has seen them before

scientists like Richard

are mapping the web of life that

we are all part of

each new fish Richard finds

told millions of years of genetic engineering

for medical research

then the intense water pressure

caused the primary camera

to no function

I was glad that Howard coordinate into the dive

we hope that Howard's images

would let scientist explore reefs

that they might never be able to dive on the rope

it's not everyday you can witness

that a discovery of a new species of fish

you see the red one with the long tale

that's what I was really excited

that's definitely live

oh I see those all the time

until quite recently

the deep coral reef was

the big dark boy on the map of life

but each new discovery

leads us to the new connection

this may seen like just some magnificent red fish

but it's very important piece

to the biodiversity puzzle

as soon as I saw I knew it's something different

the months of hard work in Fiji paid off

Russy have seen first time

how corals can thrive when reefs are protected

he is now ready to return to his home island

my fellow Fijians have shown me

how to set up a marine preserve

protect the mangroves

and even cut logging operations

I really want to get started

here in Fiji we have seen some amazing reefs

but we have also seen a lot of coral damages

the siltation we saw in Russy's reef

let us to a next question

is closeness to shore

a major risk factor for corals?

French Polynesia is a perfect place

for answering this question

in French Polynesia

Howard and Michael started with

the heavily populated islands of Tahiti and Maria

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