Dr. Rebecca Vega-Thurber surveys a coral reef on Mo'orea, French Polynesia (Courtesy of Justin Smith/OSU)
A coral reef system in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia (Courtesy of David Baker/OSU)
Colombian researcher Mateo Lopez Victoria shows students of Bocachica the corals on their threatened local reef (Courtesy of David Baker/OSU)
Rebecca Vega-Thurber, an OSU associate professor and director of the Global Coral
Microbiome Project at the Corvallis campus, is one of the film’s stars. Vega-Thurber, who spent a lot of time exploring reefs during childhood visits to the Caribbean Sea, said she saw the changes. “I would mention to my dad, ‘Daddy where are all the fish?’” she said.
But the film, based in large part on Vega-Thurber’s research and that of other reef experts, is about much more than fish and the underground ecosystem.
The people in each of those ocean-centric communities feature prominently in the film. That was by design, its director said.