BARRIER REEF | HALF HOUR
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INTRO: One of the world’s
most spectacular wonders, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is frequently in
the headlines for all the wrong reasons. It’s under intense pressure
on multiple fronts - from climate change, industry and cyclones. The reef spans an area the
size of Italy, so it’s very difficult to give it a single diagnosis, but this
special report from the ABC’s 7.30 program takes a look at the big picture,
including what farmers and scientists are doing to protect the reef for
future generations. Peter Greste has the story
… produced by Amy Donaldson. |
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Drone shots heading out to sea on Wavelength at dawn; CU of Charlie looking out to sea |
Thought track over music: CHARLIE:
00.59 ...when I first started I’d come into a world which I had NO idea
existed // I
thought this was creation gone mad – it was what the gods must have created
to make something ultra special. |
30” |
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CU Charlie Veron on board, getting diving gear ready. |
Charlie Veron is widely known as the Godfather of Coral. |
15” |
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Dr Charlie Veron Coral specialist (interview on board the boat) (cover the end of the grab
with getting gear on) |
CHARLIE IN SYNC ON BOAT: 3.55 curiosity drives interest
and I’ve never lost that curiosity at all. And I’ve never lost that love. |
20” |
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Upsot: jumping into the water (underwater shots…) |
Charlie
jumps into water - show shots of him swimming alone - and lots of shots of
pretty corals |
5” |
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2:28 THOUGHT TRACK CHARLIE: as soon as I’m in the
water, I feel I’m at home. I really do. |
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Underwater with Charlie and
PG on beautiful coral gardens |
Charlie is one of the world’s best known and most respected reef
scientists. He’s identified more than a fifth of all the world’s coral species. |
15” |
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Dr Charlie Veron Coral specialist |
CHARLIE:
9.10 The very, very essential thing about corals is that they build their own
place to live. // corals have got together
with algae to build things that nothing else on earth can possibly rival.
That’s how they live. And I reckon that’s as fascinating as biology can get. |
20” |
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Swimming over healthy corals |
Thirty years ago he started seeing changes to the climate that made him very worried. |
15” |
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PG:
What did you predict in the 1990s? CHARLIE:
6.47 I predicted that by 2015 the carbon dioxide levels would be so high that
it would cause bleaching practically every year |
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PG:
7.43 How did it feel to be right? CHARLIE:
7.45 It felt horrible to be right. Scientists long to be right - of course
that’s what their business is. In this case, I would have loved to have been
wrong. But it’s all happened // and the consequences of that for coral reefs
- not only coral reefs - have turned out to be much worse than those
predictions. |
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Whooooosh! Music changes - sombre tone and we just see
swathes of dead coral |
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CHARLIE
MASTER IV: 2.38 it’s exactly like me seeing my family slowly dying of
something // it’s very gravelike [Let this breathe] |
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Dissolve to: Swimming over
damaged corals |
The spectacular colour of healthy corals is complemented by tiny algae that live within them. When the water gets too warm, the corals commit a kind of suicide - expelling that algae, a major source of food. The corals then turn white - exposing their skeleton. Upsot/music break… If the water stays too hot for too long, the coral starves and bacteria and
seaweeds take over. Breathe with music and the fuzzy dead algae coral we
filmed |
15” |
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Bleaching graphic |
In 1998 the Great Barrier Reef experienced its most destructive bleaching event to date. Half the corals were damaged, mostly in the southern and central regions.
It wasn’t devastating; most corals survived but it was a warning.
Four years later, it happened again, in much the same regions.
But then came 2016 – the big bleach. That killed off a third of all shallow water corals - half the corals north of Port Douglas bleached and died in 8 months.
The following year another 20% of those corals bleached and died. It was the first back-to-back bleaching ever recorded. |
40” |
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Professor Terry Hughes ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies |
TERRY: 1.55 So the interval
between pairs of repeated bleaching events, globally, is shrinking. Professor Terry Hughes is a marine biologist at James Cook University, and one of the world’s most prolific reef researchers. // TERRY 6.15 It takes about
10 years for the fastest growing corals to regrow their population if it’s
badly affected by a bleaching event or a cyclone // the problem with a 10
year window that’s required for a decent recovery is that the chances of us
having a fifth bleaching event in that time period is actually very high
because of global warming ... |
20 |
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Swimming over coral graveyard/
Drone shot of swimming, rising to reveal dead marine-scape |
The damage is shocking. In the hardest hit areas, vast fields of coral have turned into colourless graveyards… the complex architecture of a thriving reef reduced to rubble… |
15 |
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Terry Hughes master
interview 1:05 |
Is it fair to say those
reefs are dead? No - it's completely
inaccurate to describe a reef as being alive or dead. Reef's can be damaged
which means they've lost a significant amount of their corals, but I would
never describe a reef as being dead. TERRY 8.55 There are still
about a billion corals alive and kicking out on the Great Barrier Reef today,
particularly in the southern half of the reef, which especaped the bleaching
both of those years. |
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Even in some of the worst affected reefs, there are small, hopeful signs of recovery. |
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PTC |
PETER PTC UNDERWATER: Reef
systems are both delicate and resilient at the same time. All this looks
dead, but if you look closely, you can see the tips on the staghorn corals
starting to form shoots. Because the base of the stem is dead, they are still
incredibly fragile. |
0” |
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Underwater shots |
The scientists say this is a form of natural selection – elsewhere, tougher corals survived and are slowly re-growing. But it is changing the physical shape of the reef, reducing the complexity that makes it the richest, most diverse ecosystem on the planet. |
12” |
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Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland is a leading biologist specialising in the reef and climate change. |
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Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Director, Global Change Institute |
OVE
11.00 Corals are really the lynch-pin of the ecosystem, right? // When you go
out there and you say, in the ocean, how many species of fish live in and
around coral reefs? The answer is about a quarter. You then look at the
importance that those fish and those corals have to fishers that are worth
millions of dollars to Australian, to tourism, five to six billion dollars
worth of tourist revenue coming into our country because we have this
pristine beautiful structure. You very soon realise that corals are really
important to Australia. |
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Crew raising sails/ calling out instructions |
upsot/ music |
5” |
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Tourist boat under sail (music) |
If there is one group as invested in the reef as scientists, it is tour operators. Music… The reef supports about 64-thousand jobs across Australia, and generates 6 and a half billion dollars for the economy each year. It also makes about two million visitors very happy. |
20” |
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Steve Edmondson Sailaway Tourism Operator |
3:12 STEVE: yeah it can be a bit dangerous we do the
sunset sailing and now we’re up to 27 spontaneous marriage proposals so we’re
in the nature has a lot to answer 3:21 |
10” |
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Steve at the helm/ tourists
on board the boat. |
Steve Edmondson has been bringing tourists to the reef for more than fifteen years. UPSOT TOURISTS As romantic as his job might be, he is clear-eyed about what is going on beneath the water. |
15” |
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2.55 STEVE: Underwater there
are more challenges as in there will be some sort of some small patches of
bleaching and it is something we’re worried about, however the best thing we
can do (because it’s still a wonderful place to visit) is educate and inspire
people |
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PTC |
Tour operators are facing a dilemma - on the one hand
they want to push the government to do all it can to protect and conserve the
reef, but not to the point where it scares all the tourists away. |
15” |
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Steve Edmondson Sailaway Tourism Operator |
PETER
GRESTE: We’ve heard it said so often that the reef is dead, are you sick of
hearing that? 3:37 |
20” |
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Tourists snorkeling |
Worried about scaring tourists away, the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators had criticized green groups for overstating the impact of climate change, but earlier this year, it changed tack. For the first time, it publicly called on the federal government to take stronger action on climate, and help protect the industry. |
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Professor Terry Hughes ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies Underwater shots/ tourists
snorkelling |
24.00 TERRY: Tourism can have a negative impact on
small reefs if it’s not properly managed, but in Australia I think it is
properly managed, and so tourism I think is a force for good. It provides the
social and economic reason // why we need to better protect the Barrier Reef. |
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Steve Edmondson/ Tour
Operator |
4:12: STEVE: nobody’s coming to the Great Barrier Reef
and being disappointed so it’s important to put that into perspective 4:27 PETER: But do you need to be honest about what’s
happening here? 4:29 4:29 STEVE: Absolutely because I can tell you anything
but if you ask some of my passengers and guests, people who have been
experiencing it whether it’s a worthwhile experience, that’s where gets down
to the crunch 4:39 |
25” |
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Simon and Sandra Tourists |
54.35
DUTCH TOURIST SIMON: seeing it some of the coral really looked dead, some of
it was really gone, was grey, but there were also pieces of it where there
was life, so yeah it’s a bit half, half. Was it
worth it, was it something that you would recommend? 55.08
SIMON: Definitely, yeah. It was really nice SANDRA:
Yeah for me also, it was a really nice experience. |
30” |
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Steve Edmondson Sailaway Tourism Operator |
2:18
PETER: Can you as an industry survive as the reef continues to the grave
12:22 |
20” |
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Pause here with music and snorkelers (probably Lizard Island ones) |
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Rigging sails for the trip
home |
The reef is in serious danger. Even the
government’s own advisory panels say if it is to survive, we must move fast
to reduce all the pressures. |
20” |
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Dr Charlie Veron Coral specialist |
CHARLIE:
If you see something you really love dying, of course it has a huge impact.
It’s very hard to continue when so many people think ‘oh there’s nothing
wrong’. And that make me angry, because this is utter stupidity. |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day9_Drone_001_2807 0.00
Drone of windmill cams_Nemo_730_Day9_A_001_2807 23.44
Kids on horseback emerge through the mist |
Music break as we go to the McArthur’s cattle farm Mustering cattle is a daily ritual for the McArthur family. |
10” |
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Upsot |
Dog barking, Rob issuing
orders, cattle mooing… whatever. |
5” |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day9_A_001_2807 From
29.42 More mustering, bringing cattle in through the mist Ainsley
McArthur thought track |
AINSLEY WALK AND TALK 18.30
So this is what you’d traditionally call a coastal country // it’s quite
spare grass, it’s traditional breeder country. |
10” |
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Kids
bringing cattle into the yards (Also
drone of this but only use sparingly - prefer camera A) I
like the shot of Rob and Lachy in silhouette at 32.22 and the kids following
the cattle in silhouette at 32.42 |
(upsot) The McArthurs have worked the property just inland from the coast, for four generations. They know how to care for the land. |
15” |
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Ainsley McArthur Grazier |
AINSLEY WALK AND TALK 25.00
It’s all about soil here, it’s about growing good grass to raise cattle. PG: So at the very bottom of
the whole thing is good soil .. AINSLEY: Is good soil. And the better the soil, the better the grass. |
15” |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day9_A_003_2807 0.45
Walking with Rob down to the creek Lots
of cutaways of the creek and a nice static drone shot of Peter and Rob cams_Nemo_730_Day9_Drone_001_280
at about 4.40 |
That soil is also at the centre of the debate about the Great Barrier Reef. Land-based industries like grazing and cane farming are blamed for sending damaging sediments and nutrients down rivers and out to the reef, making corals less resilient. |
20” |
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Rob McArthur Grazier |
ROB 9.32 There’s plants, there’s little fish swimming
around in the there. PG: But this water flows out … ROB: Into the reef PG: Into the reef, it’s not that far, how far is it
from here? ROB: From where we’re standing it’s probably 7 or 8
kilometres to the actual saltwater. PG: 9.50 So you’re very aware of what goes in here and
the effect it has out there? ROB: 9.55 Oh most certainly, yeah. |
25” |
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With
Rob McArthur by the creek |
Rob McArthur loves the reef as much as anybody, but he rails against Queensland’s Vegetation Management Act amended earlier this year to try to reduce sediment runoff. |
10” |
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Rob
McArthur/ Cattle Grazier |
ROB 8:40 People in the local
area have got more knowledge of the local area than someone’s who’s stuck in
an office in George Street. |
15” |
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Kids
in the yards, cutting cattle cams_Nemo_730_Day9_A_004_2807 Single shot on Rob cams_Nemo_730_Day9_C_001_2807 Locked off two shot on Ainsley and
Rob |
The government passed the amendments to slow land clearing after satellite images showed the state had lost 400-thousand hectares of trees in just one year. The McArthurs say more trees doesn’t always mean less runoff, and that farmers should be able to manage the balance between trees and grass, without government interference... ROB (IN SIT DOWN) 11.33 This
is our asset. We don’t want it out in the reef // maintaining ground cover
and grass cover is paramount in our management and by doing that, we’re not
just protecting ourselves, we’re actually protecting something that the
greater population is certainly concerned about. |
20” |
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McArthurs
sit-down interview cams_Nemo_730_Day9_A_004_2807 Single shot chasing talent cams_Nemo_730_Day9_C_001_2807 Locked off two shot on Ainsley and
Rob |
12:27 PETER: I don’t think
anyone is suggesting that graziers are solely responsible for it, but the
argument is, that this is one of the contributing causes of sediment runoff.
Is it? You know, do you accept that? 12:41 AINSLEY: No. 12:44 ROB: No. |
20” |
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Beautiful drone shot of
Eddie and Peter in the water Out here on Fitzroy Island the sediment meets the reef ... |
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Dr Eddie Game The Nature Conservancy Wideshot
on water interview is in cams_Nemo_730_Day8_B_001_2707 |
EDDIE 3:18: (THOUGHT TRACK
FIRST BIT) All rivers do push, will push sediments and nutrients out
naturally. But what we know is that the land use changes that we’ve made in
the catchments of the Great Barrier Reef have really increased the amount of
sediment and the amount of nutrients that are coming out of those river
systems. |
25” (4:00 approx) |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day7_Drone_001_2607 0.45
Drone shots of Fitzroy Island From
8.40 Eddie and Peter looking at the corals |
Fitzroy Island just off Cairns is one of the inner reefs affected by land-based runoff. Eddie Game is the lead scientist for the Australian branch of the Nature Conservancy - the world’s biggest conservation group. He’s been monitoring the impact of water runoff on the inner reefs. |
20” |
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Dr Eddie Game The Nature Conservancy |
PG 0.41 We’re at a tiny,
baby patch of reef here. It’s not dead … EDDIE 0.52 Yeah, you’re
right Peter, by no means dead, you can see the living coral on the side, this
big massive porites coral, but you can also see a kind of grey, that dull
brown colour that’s not coral. It’s sediment and algae that make it really
hard for the coral to compete with. Earlier this year The Nature Conservancy, published a study which showed just how far runoff was spreading out. The results shocked them ... |
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Eddie
Game/The Nature Conservancy |
5:25 |
30” |
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Fitzroy
Island GVs cams_Nemo730_Day7_A_001_2607 41.08 Nudey Beach on Fitzroy Island
- GVs of tourists on the beach 41.55 Ferry in the distance you could stick at the cattle yard
with an upsot of Ainsley yelling encouragement to the kids: cams_Nemo_730_Day9_A_001_2807 Each of the kids practising picking
off a cow. Ainsley yells out encouragement: 10.34 “you went passed his eye,
good” |
The biggest plan ever devised for the reef lies at heart of all policy decisions. It’s called Reef 2050. The original targets called for 80% reduction in nutrients, 50% in sediment. Those water-quality targets are highly ambitious and the Queensland government is under intense pressure to prove it’s taking action … The McArthurs believe their industry is taking the fall ... |
20” |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day9_A_004_2807 Single shot chasing talent cams_Nemo_730_Day9_C_001_2807 Locked off two shot on Ainsley and
Rob |
AINSLEY 15.51 I don’t think
the problems on the reef are overstated but I definitely think they’re used
for political agendas. 16:18 PETER: That relationship of trust is broken down
for you then? 16:23 ROB: Yes, to an extent, definitely. We just feel
like we’ve been taken for granted and just something that can be pushed
aside. |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day6_A_01_2507 Cane
harvesting early morning shots Best
shots for me at 0.58 and 1.50 and 6.17 and 11.30 cams_Nemo70_Day6_Drone_Pickup_0808 Best
drone shots for me at 0.55 and 9.36 |
Upsot sound of harvester |
5” |
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Cane
harvesting |
Sugar cane farmers understand the graziers’ frustration. |
5” |
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Cane
harvesting |
Upsot - could use shot from
inside the harvester here?? cams_Nemo_730_Day6_C_001_2507 At
10.51 (not sure it’ll work) |
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Cane
harvesting |
Cane is the region’s other main agricultural product, and the source of the reef’s other major pollutant. |
10” |
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Dr Eddie Game The Nature Conservancy cams_Nemo730_Day7_A_001_2607 Beach master interview starts at
16.42 |
1:18 EDDIE: The nutrients
that we see in our river systems, the stuff that we’re really concerned about
in the reef comes principally from fertilised crops, so cane would be a big
piece of that. |
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More
cane shots |
The Reef 2050 report says 78 percent of man-made nutrients in the water come from fertiliser used on farms across the region. Those nutrients feed outbreaks of harmful algae and the crown of thorns starfish. |
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Paul Gregory Cane grower |
Upsot Paul “everything here
is best practice” Paul Gregory runs one of the biggest cane farms around Cairns ... 0.50 PAUL: I love this part of the country, I love the fact that I’m a custodian here for a while and I’m trying to do the best I can with what was left to me by my father |
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More
cane shot - heaps to choose from but again I would prefer the camera A ones
rather than over use the drone cams_Nemo_730_Day6_A_01_2507 53.39 Nice shot with four layers -
baby cane, adult cane, palm trees and mountains cams_Nemo_730_Day6_A_01_2507 Close ups of baby cane at 53.52 18.58 shot that shows an example of
those wider rows |
The pressure on cane farmers to reduce the nutrients running into the waterways has forced him to re-design his farm and reduce his fertiliser use to 30% of what it was a decade ago 7.30 PAUL: when I wake up in
the morning in 2018 and look at the jobs thrown at me and compare that to
when I woke up in 1978 // it’s totally different |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day6_A_002_2507 |
For years, farmers were deeply suspicious of computer models that showed the pollutants running off their land. Then, when they developed a program measuring the water quality at source, there was a profound shift. |
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Paul
Gregory cams_Nemo_730_Day6_A_01_2507 Master interview starts 1.03.39 |
12.33
PAUL modelling is theory and monitoring is practice. And when you can show
somebody practical demonstration of outcomes from actions, it’s a more
powerful message than, this is what the computers say. |
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Paul says trust has been rebuilt by treating cane farmers as part of
the solution rather than the problem ... |
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Paul Gregory Cane grower |
4:22
PAUL Growers are now changing practice and it’s voluntary and there are
programs in place from federal and state government that actually help them
to do that // that relationship is intrinsic to the future of this industry.
And intrinsic to the future of the Great Barrier Reef. |
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But runoff in Queensland is still way short of targets. Without better results, the threat of government intervention looms. |
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Paul
Gregory cams_Nemo_730_Day6_A_01_2507 Master interview starts 1.03.39 |
2:18 PAUL: I guess my
biggest fear is that we get regulated out of existence and the reef still
dies. |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day8_A_001_2707 1.09.01 Cutaway shot of the port
with big ship in the background cams_Nemo_730_Day8_Drone_2707 6.59 Drone of Mackay Port at sunset
(I like the one at 9.00 and from
about 18.03 wheeling around the big ship) |
While the government might be focused on farming and grazing, for the public, the industry that intersects most visibly with the reef is the ports … Music and more pretty drone
shots |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day8_A_001_2707 Interview starts at 48.13 cams_Nemo_730_Day8_C_001_2707 25.32 dirty two shot on Rochelle
interview |
ROCHELLE: 14.57 Ports are really the lifeblood of the
region 14.25 Without ports // we would
have significantly less GDP in terms of our important and exports. We
wouldn’t have the royalties that come out of the commodities as well. |
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Mackay
Port – ships at anchor cams_Nemo_730_Day8_A_001_2707 1.14.50 Long lens shots of cargo
ships all lined up out at sea from the southern breakwater |
Whether it’s sugar, beef or coal, very little gets exported without the region’s ports. Plans to expand at Abbot Point are on hold, but there are big projects for Cairns, Townsville and Mackay … The regional port’s engineering manager is Rochelle Macdonald .. |
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Rochelle Macdonald North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation |
5.36 ROCHELLE: we are doing
a lot of work on our existing assets to try and increase the sorts of trades
that we can bring through the port. |
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Mackay
Port GVs |
But expanding means dredging, and that churns up clouds of sediment. |
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In 2014 the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority was at the centre of a storm after endorsing a plan to dump the spoils from dredging at Abbot Point onto the Barrier Reef. The Authority’s Chairman Russell Reichelt is now firmly against it ... |
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Dr Russell Reichelt Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority |
8.22 RUSSELL: I’m concerned about the impacts of
dredging in a local sense. The science tells us that it is, it does create
poor water quality immediately surrounding the dredge operation for a short period.
Um, the, I’m completely opposed to disposal of capital amounts, larger
amounts in the marine parks and it’s now been banned. What I think the
industry should do is adapt the vessels to the reef, not the reef to the
vessels. |
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Coal
mining Drone
shots from Day 9 of coal trains heading out to the port cams_Nemo_730_Day9_A_004_2807 45.40 sunset pics of empty coal
trains stationary at the railyards cams_Nemo_730_Day9_Drone_001_2807 15.07 empty coal train moving along
(you will have to run this in reverse) |
Of all the industries that affect the Reef, the great paradox is coal mining. Its direct impact on the reef from things like mine sediment and pollution is relatively light. But burning coal is one of the main sources of carbon that causes global warming. |
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Professor Terry Hughes ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies |
TERRY 7.55 The link between
burning fossil fuels, rising CO2 in the atmosphere, and global warming is incontrovertible// The oceans absorb 90 percent of the extra heat in the atmosphere, and reef scientist Terry Hughes says corals struggle to cope. It’s the number-one driver
of the rapid decline of the Great Barrier Reef. We can’t fix everything else
and ignore climate change. |
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cams_Nemo_730_Day8_A_001_2707 Interview starts at 0.00 |
3.56 TONY: Well…I think
there will always be coal. I’m pretty sure there will always be coal. It
creates a lot of work. I think we need it. We definitely need it. |
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Tony
McGrath 27.00 Little sequence of Tony
lighting his outdoors fire (doesn’t show him pouring metho on it which was
really funny) 30.06 Nice shot of orchids in
foreground, Tony lighting fire in background Pic
of Tony and his mate in front of the big grader (I have to get this from
Greg) |
Tony McGrath was a coal miner all his life. He used to drive graders and trucks on the Peak Downs Mine until he retired four years ago. 2.18 PETER: Do you think
Australians really value, appreciate the job of the miners? 2.22 TONY: It creates a lot of work. Yeah I think they do yeah. |
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Tony
sharpening his fishing knives |
Upsot |
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Tony McGrath Retired coal miner Tony
sharpening knives 33.50 Tony opening his shed door
and sharpening his fishing knives 41.40 close up of fishing knives 36.54 and 38.36 and 39.20 Shots of
Tony’s fishing lines and reels |
The staunch ALP and union member, is part of an important political constituency fighting for mining jobs.
1.35 TONY: Usually when I
started there, you went there, you stay there your working days. But now it’s
more temporary. Labour hire…they’re not permanent jobs. I think it’s a shame.
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Tony
McGrath cams_Nemo_730_Day8_A_001_2707 Interview starts at 0.00 |
3.00 PETER: A lot of
Australians still say that the reef and mining are incompatible // because of
the impact that the mine has on climate change. 3.22 TONY: Yeah I don’t know
about that…100 years ago it was still pretty hot, I don’t know if it’s got
any hotter….I don’t think there’s any proof there really. |
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Could
you run a kind of montage here, stepping through our characters and their
kids? |
Removing all the pressures on the reef is a huge technical challenge, but threaded through all of it runs the fraught politics of climate change, the economy and the environment. |
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Grazier |
12.40 Do you have sympathy
for the people who are trying to protect the reef, just a couple of
kilometres away? 12.45 Yes. // we certainly
want the reef to remain there for generations. 13.01 But the bottom line is
we probably all want the same outcome, we want to protect the reef, we want
to keep our environment as healthy and as clean as we can, |
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Professor Terry Hughes ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies |
TAKE 2 TERRY INTERVIEW 3.01:
I don’t think there’s any point in blaming one industry, including the
scientists, dare I say it. We all have a job to do and the farmers I think
are making significant progress in improving practices that reduce the amount
of runoff. It’s a big issue, it’s not going to be solved tomorrow. |
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cams_Nemo730_Day4_Drone_2307 Drone shots of Lizard Island
at 3.48? Nice shot at 4.38 cams_Nemo730_Day4_A_001_2307 12.43 Shots of Peter looking
out the plane window |
Music and change of scene to
Lizard Island We’ve come to a unique place on the outer reef that’s been at the heart of coral research for the past 45 years. If there’s anywhere that’s in a position to plot the future of the Great Barrier Reef, it’s the Lizard Island Research Station. |
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Grab is on:
cams_Nemo730_Day5_A_001_2407 cams_Nemo730_Day4_A_001_2307 1.00.15 Shots of Kelly and
Lexi’s boat 1.01.14 Shots from Kelly and
Lexi’s boat |
Get them out to the snorkeling spot quickly Lexi and Kelly laughing as they put on their weights
etc. |
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Lexi and Kelly in their boat cams_Nemo730_Day4_A_002_2307 3.45 Kelly put the snorkeling
flag up in the boat |
Kelly Hannan and Lexi Graba-Landry are two of the researchers studying how changes in the climate might affect the complex underwater ecosystem. |
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cams_Nemo730_Day4_A_002_2307 Kelly jumps in the water (There’s also a GREAT shot of
this from underwater: cams_Nemo730_Day4_B_001_2307
at 10.38) Lexi passes Kelly the net and
then 5.28 Lexi jumps in the water |
0.55 KELLY
THOUGHT TRACK our oceans are absorbing the carbon dioxide emissions that
we’re putting into the atmosphere, they’re absorbing about a third of those
// IN SYNC So I want to see how that’s going to affect fish in terms of how
they swim and how they reproduce |
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cams_Nemo730_Day4_B_001_2307 At 13.10 great to shot to use
somewhere - light on the net and then moving through to hundreds of fish |
Lizard Island is Ground Zero for most of the challenges facing the reef. It’s been hit hard by eight years of disasters: an outbreak of the crown of thorns starfish; two cyclones, then two consecutive years of warm water events that bleached the corals. On top of it all,
is the slow, insidious effect of absorbed carbon dioxide, which is making the
oceans more acidic. |
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cams_Nemo730_Day4_A_001_2307 31.38 |
cams_Nemo730_Day4_A_001_2307 27.52 Kelly grabs her fish from the outside tank and
takes it into her lab Peter comes over to Kelly at her lab and says 31.38
“tell me what’s going on with this” |
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Kelly setting up her fish tank
at 30.37 |
In the lab, Kelly’s raises carbon dioxide in the water, to mimic projected levels. Her work suggests it has a bizarre effect on fish. |
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Kelly Hannan PhD candidate,
James Cook University |
00.01:47) KELLY: it turns out that these fish are either maintaining their oxygen consumption levels or they require less so they are being more efficient. (00.01:58)// (00.02:11) REPORTER: That seems to be good news, stronger fish! (00.02:13) (00.02:13) KELLY: You would think, unfortunately that’s just one side of the story so when we look at fishes’ behaviour they seem to be negatively impacted so they’re making some questionable choices that could very much get them eaten 2:27 |
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Kelly lab interview |
4:06 KH: so we are starting to call it the ‘dumb
athlete’, so, we’re getting these fish that are being attracted to predators,
but they can swim faster. So, we’re trying to put this whole picture together
and seeing if it’s affecting all fish the same way. |
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Music breaker |
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Dr Anne Hoggett Co-director,
Lizard Island Research Station |
Upsot: 0:29 ANNE: Well, this is the aquarium system for
the research station and it’s a really important place for researchers to be
able to do controlled experiments. |
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cams_Nemo730_Day5_B_2407 On the gimble cams_Nemo730_Day4_A_001_2307 14.35 GVs of the research
station tanks, and 15.39 the researchers at their tanks conducting
experiments |
Dr Anne Hoggett has been running the Australian Museum’s research station on Lizard Island for 28 years. She understands the island intimately. For her, the disasters are personal. |
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cams_Nemo730_Day5_B_2407 |
ANNE: 1.18.31 In 2016 when we got the coral the bleaching, // 7.50 it was like being kicked in the guts. It was just appalling. |
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Co-director,
Lizard Island Research Station |
4.49 PETER: But this is the way nature works // it’s
always constantly evolving, constantly changing. Isn’t this just another of
those changes? 0.31 ANNE: The difference this time is that we are doing it. Sure, the Great Barrier Reef is hundreds of thousands of years old and it’s come and gone many times // but it happens over long periods of time. What is happening this time is that it’s happening really, really quickly, in decades, and it’s just too fast for animals to be able to keep up. |
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Little music break and change of
scene |
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Suggest using drone shot from
Day 7 if we haven’t used it yet cams_Nemo_730_Day7_Drone_001_2607
at 2.24 Wide shot cutaway of Anna cams_Nemo_730_Day13_A_002_0108
at 51.24 |
To help meet ambitious targets to reduce sediment runoff and pollution the government recently, and controversially, announced a record 443 million-dollar fund to be managed by a relatively small charity - the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. |
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PETER: So why do you think the foundation was chosen by
the government to receive this money? ANNA: I do think that you have to ask the department
for their … because we weren’t privy to the process when we were … PETER: It seems a little bit odd, doesn’t it? ANNA: But it is what it is. We weren’t privy to the
process. We didn’t suggestion or ask for the money. We were approached when
the funding decision had been made to see if we would be interested in
entering to this partnership. |
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Anna Marsden is the foundation’s Managing Director, charged with allocating the money. |
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Anna Marsden Great Barrier
Reef Foundation |
22:13: So, the funding is to be spread across five components. Water quality, crown-of-thorns Starfish, monitoring, coral reef science around the area of restoration and then traditional owners and community engagement. Peter: 22:27 Not climate change? Anna: 22:30 Well, climate change is interwoven with that. |
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The Foundation’s backers include producers and consumers of fossil fuels … and its critics argue that means it’s not serious about tackling the reef’s biggest threat. |
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Anna Marsden Great Barrier
Reef Foundation cams_Nemo_730_Day13_A_001_0108 Peter’s reverse
cams_Nemo_730_Day13_B_001_0108 |
ANNA: our corporate partners, our donors, have zero
influence, no influence at all over project selection or the projections
themselves // 26:30 Climate change is the number one threat, without a doubt.
The world has got to get its act together and we've gotta reach Paris. And
not just the high level of Paris, the low threshold of Paris, 1.5. Otherwise,
every model is telling us we'll lose the world’s reefs.. |
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Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Director, Global Change Institute |
Ove: it's leveraging in money from outside. It's going do a lot of things you can't normally do in a university or an institute and that's why I think it's so important now. . |
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Several years ago Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg joined the scientific board of the Barrier Reef Foundation in an effort to work with industry. |
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Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Director, Global Change Institute |
OVE: With this backdrop of catastrophic events happening on the reef, this type of relationship between all sectors of society is going to be more and more important |
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Maybe we can have another
graphic on a drone shot here - talking about the Great Barrier Reef
Foundation Partnership Program cams_Nemo_730_Day7_Drone_001_2607
at 16.38 $201 million for water quality $100 million for reef
restoration and adaption science Could have cars driving into
AIMS, past signage? cams_Nemo_730_Day11_A_001_3007 |
While the argument over the Foundation rages, a lot of scientists and farmers are looking at where the money is going. Two hundred million has been earmarked for projects to help farmers reduce run-off and improve water quality. The second largest portion - one hundred million - is for reef restoration and adaptation. And there’s one place that’s very keen to get every cent of that money. |
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Line and Peter walking in
sequence all on the gimble |
Walking into the AIMS Sea Sim Upsot Line saying something to Peter |
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Big reveal of the research
tanks cams_Nemo_730_Day11_C_001_3007
at 3.46 |
UPSOT PETER: Wow, this is impressive. |
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GVs of the research area cams_Nemo_730_Day11_A_001_3007 Wideshot of tanks at 33.07 At 32.23 there’s a sign that
says ‘Year 2050’ - it would be nice to include that |
This is the national Sea-Simulator – a vast laboratory where scientists like Dr Line Bay are trying to answer one underlying question – how can humans help the reef cope with climate change? |
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Upsot Line Bay tank interview
2 Two angles: Tight shot cams_Nemo_730_Day11_A_001_3007
starts at 10.58 after false start Wide shot cams_Nemo_730_Day11_C_001_3007
starts at 11.01 after false start |
PETER 0:40 So these are super corals? LINE 0:43 I don’t like the term super corals because no
coral or human being can cope with all conditions, but these corals can cope
with warmer conditions, yes. |
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Close ups of corals in the
tanks cams_Nemo_730_Day11_A_001_3007
from 29.16 |
This is a form of
accelerated evolution. They are trying to breed corals that are more
resilient to heat, in the hope that they’ll be able to replant bleached
reefs. |
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Dr Line Bay Australian
Institute of Marine Science |
4:25 PETER: there’s no way you can scale up what you’re doing here in the lab onto a system that’s over 2000 km long. LINE: It’s a challenge. I don’t deny that // But what
we’re aiming to do in our research and in our models is to look at whether we
can prioritise the reefs and the species that we work on, whether we can
optimise some of these approaches to breed more resilient corals, |
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Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Director, Global Change Institute |
Ove: 18:15 I think there is some reason to do that, but let's not kid ourselves about the scale of this problem. This is a huge ecosystem, which will take enormous effort if we were to replant it if you wanted to. 18:28 In many ways because it's a size of Italy, it's a bit like trying to plant a market garden across the entire Italian landscape all in 10 to 15 years. |
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. That question of scale is at the heart of a robust debate within the scientific community over resilience and restoration projects. |
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Dr Line Bay Australian
Institute of Marine Science |
LINE BAY 3:07 the oceans will continue to warm over the next 30-50 years regardless of how we um act on climate change now. So what are we going to do in the intervening time? Just leave the reef to its own devices? // 8.00 Doing nothing is not a risk free option |
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Music breaker |
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Terry and Peter looking at the
iPad |
2:30 Terry: So typically when you swim around a reef for half an hour you’ll see good patches and bad patches. |
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Terry and Peter looking at the
iPad |
Professor Terry Hughes has studied the impact of bleaching that’s hit the reef four times in the past two decades The forecasts are disturbing. |
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Terry Hughes |
TERRY at IPAD: it takes 10 years for the reef to fully recover, and the big question is when will we see the 5th bleaching event? |
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Professor Terry Hughes ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies |
PETER 6.47 Do you have a sense of when that might be? TERRY 6.49 I dread to think that it might be as soon as next year PETER Next year? TERRY 6.54 Already the first six months of 2018 are
among the four hottest years on the planet, the others being the last four
years. So it’s quite likely, if the northern hemisphere summer extreme comes
to this hemisphere, that we will see bleaching in 2019, |
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Underwater pics from Day1 |
music pause… For all the scientists we spoke to for this program, the Great Barrier Reef is more than just an experiment or a research project. All feel a deep, almost personal connection to it. Watching its decline is painful. |
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Charlie on the back of the
boat |
PETER Do you feel a kinship with the reef? 3:10 CHARLIE: Oh, very much so. Oh, tremendous kinship
with the reef. |
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More shots of Charlie diving
from Day1 |
Music and Charlie diving After 50 years of diving on the reef, Charlie Veron has a vision he just can’t shake ... |
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Dr Charlie Veron Coral specialist |
11:01 CHARLIE: I’m depressingly confident the models
are right, especially about the physical world. I can be much less sure about
how life is going to react to that and of course, much, much less sure about
bloody politics, |
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Dr Anne Hoggett Co-director,
Lizard Island Research Station |
3.00 ANNE: The reef can bounce back incredibly quickly, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen if after the crown of thorns breaks and we’re seeing it now, after the cyclones and the bleaching. But this is going to take a very long time for it to get back to where it was, at least a decade – if it gets that decade. And that’s the real clincher |
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Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Director, Global Change Institute |
OVE: 22.43 “I think it’s really important that we don’t
paint the Great Barrier Reef as dead. It’s not dead. But if we don’t take
really firm action // it will be.” |
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Charlie walking by the ocean cams_Nemo_730_Day12_A_003_0108
from 2.45 |
Charlie new location on the beach
- slo mo walking down to the beach, slo mo on legs walking on the sand, slo
mo close ups of Charlie’s face looking concerned |
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Thought track to close End on drone shot that flies over
Charlie’s head and out to sea cams_Nemo_730_JerryDroneShots 58.55 |
8:30 CHARLIE: I’m an incredibly worried man because //
I see what lies ahead and I’m terrified of it. I’m terrified, not only for
coral reefs, not only, I’m terrified for my family, my children. **ENDS** |
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