Deeply Invested: Coral Reefs and the Future of Florida
We recently launched a new film in our series on ocean acidification and coastal economies. Deeply Invested: Coral Reefs and the Future of Florida tells the story of two scientists working to understand how ocean acidification is degrading Florida’s coral reefs and two local business owners whose livelihoods depend on a healthy reef ecosystem. “Coral reefs are our business,” says Miami chef Dale Palomino, “That is what we’re all about, the health of the ocean. Without that we don’t have a business.”
The Ocean Conservancy is working to build support for more research on ocean acidification among policy makers and elected officials on both coasts. The oyster industry has been persuasively vocal on the issue and the Conservancy would like to expand that group to include other fisheries. In 2015, we profiled Dungeness crabbers in California, and late last year (after a month-long delay due to Hurricane Matthew) we traveled to Miami and the Dry Tortugas to profile Florida’s coral-dependent economies.
For the first week, Whitney Hassett and I accompanied USGS biogeochemist Kim Yates as she completed maintenance on a complex remote sensing device that monitors ocean chemistry in a shallow reef, eight hours off the docks in Key West. Kim is doing ground-breaking work on ocean acidification, sea level rise and reef ecosystems, and has a much larger story to tell than we were able to include in our short film.
Four days on a live-aboard dive boat is not a bad place to work, and after a past life as a PADI scuba instructor, it was a blast to get back in the water. We then drove up the Keys to Miami to spend a morning with Ray Rosher of Miss Britt Sport Fishing who has a front seat to changes in fin fish populations. Next up was head chef Dale Palomino who we followed into the kitchens and fish market at Captain’s Tavern, a local icon that has sold fish in Miami for over 40 years. Finally, we toured Chris Langdon’s laboratory at the University of Miami and talked to him about why he’s concerned about changing ocean chemistry at both the micro and macro level.
Deeply Invested premiered on June 28, 2017 on Capitol Hill at an event featuring Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and representatives from 11 other congressional offices. A huge thanks to the team that helped us with this project including co-producer Ryan Ono, UAV cinematographer Whit Hassett and cellist Jami Sieber.
Watch the film or browse a collection of images from the project.
