Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Coral Reefs, in a Four-Minute Video

Submitted by Lauretta Burke on July 9, 2012

"Coral Reefs: Polyps in Peril" was animated by Jim Toomey and narrated by Céline Cousteau. Photo credit: WRI

Coral reefs are beautiful, diverse, productive ecosystems. Many people love to marvel at these rainforests of the sea, but how much does the average person actually know about them? For example, how many people know whether a coral is a rock, a plant, or an animal?

This lack of understanding prompted WRI and partners to release a major report last year on threats facing the world’s coral reefs. The 120-page Reefs at Risk Revisited report contains a wealth of information on the world’s reefs, including a lengthy answer to the question, “What is a coral reef?” There was just one problem: Most people don’t read 120-page reports, so we needed to get the story of coral reefs out to a wider audience.

That’s why we’re so excited to introduce our new coral reefs video, Coral Reefs: Polyps in Peril. With the help of a few animated fish and other critters, the film highlights the importance and value of coral reefs; their unique biology; threats to these ecosystems; and what individuals can do to help save struggling corals.

Some funny, creative humans help drive the points home, too. My friends Jim Toomey (cartoonist of Sherman’s Lagoon) and Céline Cousteau (perhaps you have heard of her grandfather?) joined us in this endeavor. Jim shared his humor and his magical pencil to create the images you’ll see in the animated video. Céline used her dynamic personality and passion to narrate coral reefs’ story. The result is a film that informs, inspires action, and may even make you laugh.

That reminds me – are corals rock, plant, or animal? You’ll have to watch Coral Reefs: Polyps in Peril to find out.

To learn more about coral reefs, read our newest report, Reefs at Risk Revisited in the Coral Triangle. For the big-picture view of the status of the world’s coral reefs, download our global report, Reefs at Risk Revisited.

8 Comments

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thanks for this post, i am

Submitted by indonesiandalamtulisan on October 1, 2012.

thanks for this post, i am from indonesian
The areas in Indonesia which has a coral reef?
- Bunaken (Sulawesi), Panaitan Island (Bantam), Nusa Dua (Bali), a coral
reef edge or successors or fringing reefs.
- Middle Rocks (Bintan, Riau Islands), Spermonde (South Sulawesi), Banggai
Islands (Central Sulawesi), a barrier reef or barrier reefs.
- Thousand Islands (DKI Jakarta), Ujung Batu Islands (Aceh), a coral reef flat
or burnt coral (patch reefs)

Thanks for sharing this,

Submitted by Sarah Parsons on October 1, 2012.

Thanks for sharing this, info! You may want to check out our report, “Reefs at Risk Revisited in the Coral Triangle.” It has a lot of information about Indonesia’s reefs: http://www.wri.org/publication/reefs-at-risk-revisited-coral-triangle

Fantastic idea:) There's

Submitted by Alan Minshull (OAS) on August 5, 2012.

Fantastic idea:)
There's still loads to learn about Coral Reefs and presenting this in such a fun and educated manner to everyone who hasn't a clue what Polys are or what a coral is will be most welcome and a hit:)
This is great timing too, for as this appears here, the Great Barrier Reef Australia is in tremendous danger if the recent application for massive coal mining gets approval. Urgent help needed.

Great Job... Love it.. Do you

Submitted by Irham Rapy on August 1, 2012.

Great Job... Love it..

Do you have this video in another Language like bahasa? May i got this video?
We are a local NGO namely YKL Indonesia / Indonesia Marine Conservation Foundation located on South Sulawesi, Indonesia (www.yklindonesia.org). one of our concern is to introduce the Marine life such as coral reef for most people like fisherman, students, children and other stakeholders about how important it through campaign, workshop, social media, etc.

We are very grateful if you could share to us the video or other campaign material..

Warm Regard,

Irham

Hi Irham, Thanks for

Submitted by Sarah Parsons on October 1, 2012.

Hi Irham,

Thanks for writing! Unfortunately the video is currently only available in English. We may translate the video into other languages soon, and will let you know if we can translate it into Bahasa.

In the meantime, you may want to check out our Reefs at Risk Revisited in the Coral Triangle report, which include a lot of information about threats facing reefs in Indonesia and ways to protect reef ecosystems: http://www.wri.org/publication/reefs-at-risk-revisited-coral-triangle

No harm done, Laurie! Thanks

Submitted by Christine Potochny on July 27, 2012.

No harm done, Laurie! Thanks for posting again. We’d be happy for you to link to this video from your online course.

You have two options: simply link to our video page at http://www.wri.org/polypsinperil or embed the video directly into your web page by copy/pasting the YouTube embed code at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn5-ARXmQlQ.

Thanks for your compliments. We think the video is wonderful, too. Please pass the link on to other educators you know! We also have Google Earth tours of six coral reefs region on the video page of our Reefs at Risk project: http://www.wri.org/project/reefs-at-risk/video.

Christine

Director of Online Communications at WRI

I previously submitted a

Submitted by Laurie Maak on July 26, 2012.

I previously submitted a comment noting the music was drowning out Celine's voice.

MY APOLOGIES! Somehow activating the video also turned on music in iTunes. Thankfully you are reviewing the comments and won't post mine!

This is a terrific and fun to watch, info-packed video. Thanks so much for doing this! Is there any way we can link to this from our online course for high school students about environmental sustainability and green careers? Who might I contact to pursue this possibility?

Thanks and again, apologies for my error!

Cudos! Love the info and the

Submitted by Laurie Maak on July 26, 2012.

Cudos! Love the info and the animation. Great synthesis. Unfortunately, the music drowns out Celine's voice, drastically reducing effectiveness. We'd love to link to this for our online course for students about environmental sustainability and green careers once the audio is fixed.