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Short filmTranscript
00:00The Great Barrier Reef, truly one of nature's gifts, packaged in luminous colours, sustaining
00:15a myriad of oceanic life.
00:22And slowly coming under threat from global warming.
00:29A mass of almost 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands, the reef is 2,500km long.
00:43The coral of the Great Barrier Reef is a living, breathing animal, home to a myriad of amazing
00:49creatures.
01:03The reef comprises millions of spineless animals known as coral polyps.
01:08These minuscule organisms spawn 4 or 5 days after the magical glow of a full moon in November.
01:16Born in the moonlight, coral thrives in sunlight.
01:21The world's largest coral reef system stretches like a huge underwater rainbow, yet the rainbow
01:28is fading.
01:30Rising sea temperatures due to global warming is causing coral bleaching, leaving only white
01:36skeletons of these once bright organisms.
01:41However, if the stress continues, the coral perishes.
01:46The coral colony's other natural enemy, the crown-of-thorns starfish, can destroy up to
01:52six square metres of reef in one year.
01:55For all its tragedies, this natural wonder continues to be triumphant, offering shelter
02:01to preyed-upon fish, controlling levels of carbon dioxide in the sea, and protecting
02:08coasts from strong waves.
02:11Any wonder this magnificent World Heritage Site is the greatest reef.
02:31It's the source of all life on the reef, the magnificent, synchronised mass-spawning of
02:36coral.
02:51For just a few hours each year, the marine world turns on its own equivalent of a fireworks
02:57display.
03:00Corals, both soft and hard, release their eggs and sperm into the water simultaneously.
03:09It's a phenomenon which only takes place when the water temperature and tides are precisely
03:14right, usually after the first full moon in November.
03:24What washes over the reef is a kaleidoscope of colours.
03:27Cells by the millions trying to find each other and fertilise.
03:36From this mass-spawning, more than 300 species of corals are formed.
03:47One by one the corals combine, eventually creating the most complex and stunningly beautiful
03:53ecosystem on Earth.
03:59The underwater wonderland that evolves attracts its own equally colourful and very specialised
04:04residents.
04:06The most spectacular and diverse of fish and plant life.
04:21One species that makes the Great Barrier Reef its summer playground are the southern
04:25humpback whales.
04:27They've swum 5,000 kilometres from the Antarctic to give birth and mate here on the reef.
04:33This calf is just a few weeks old.
04:35It floats just above its mother's head as she lazes in the warm tropical waters.
04:45Vying for this mother's attention are two sub-adult males.
04:49They're in a very playful mood, slapping their pectoral fins.
04:59Spy-hopping.
05:05Tail-slapping.
05:13And finally, breaching.
05:23What you're watching here is a mammal that weighs as much as 600 people.
05:29Here on the Barrier Reef they're both playful and inquisitive.
05:33Boisterous, then graceful.
05:40There are now some 8,000 humpback whales that migrate to the Great Barrier Reef every summer.
05:45Well up from the population of just 200 left when whaling ended 40 years ago, but still
05:50well down on the estimated 20,000 that once came here.
06:00Another graceful beauty found in abundance in these waters are the largest of the rays,
06:05the manta rays.
06:07These mantas are feeding on one of their favourite food sources, plankton, which today is being
06:11swept along in a surface current.
06:16They're like ballerinas, using their giant pectoral fins or wings to perform backflips.
06:28Some mantas are so big their wings are as long as a car.
06:36As they camouflage themselves from their greatest predator, the shark, they're commonly
06:40coloured black on top and white below.
06:50Sharks are indeed at the top of the food chain, the master predator.
06:56Many species of sharks have made the reef their home, cruising above the coral in menacing
07:01ways of evolutionary perfection.
07:07Particularly foreboding are these grey reef sharks that charge at any creature that invades
07:11their territory.
07:21To the unwary, second chances are rare.
07:28Like their cousins all over the world, they're most active at dusk.
07:34It's then that they use their formidable weapons, highly sensitive receptors that allow them
07:39to respond to the slightest movement.
07:44Brute power and agility to overwhelm their victims, and staggering jaw strength to crush
07:50them.
07:55Almost as feared as the moray eel.
08:01Theirs is a thick and smooth skin, enabling them to move gracefully through the labyrinth
08:06of coral forests.
08:11Sea snakes too strike fear in the hearts of many.
08:19They're extremely venomous and highly inquisitive.
08:26But unless provoked they won't attack.
08:33Another deceptively dangerous creature is the butterfly cod.
08:37It's stunning beauty comes at a price to the foolhardy.
08:50They're like creatures from another planet.
08:53Monstrous eyes, minute head, weird body, ugly appendages.
08:59You're watching the very rare stomatopod.
09:09Those razor sharp limbs mark him as a vicious killer.
09:12He uses them to spear passing fish to death.
09:22It's even rarer to see him swim because normally he'll hide in burrows.
09:36Stingrays too can cause nasty injuries or even death.
09:42With one of the most common and larger of the rays being the bull ray.
09:51Under threat the stingray uses the sharp barb at the end of the tail to inject a lethal poison.
09:57Rays are bottom feeders, feasting primarily on mollusks and crustaceans.
10:05One ray endemic to Australia is the shovel-nosed ray,
10:09characterised by its wedge-shaped disc and long triangular snout.
10:15While all of these hunters of the reef might terrify humans,
10:18they act as guardians of nature's most beautiful tapestry.
10:33Amid the pulsating, heaving rhythm of life in the deep,
10:36lie the most explosive and vibrant colours to be found on earth.
11:00These beautiful forests of colour are filled with neon coloured fish.
11:23And these tiny nudibranchs are referred to as the butterflies of the sea,
11:28a photographer's prize bounty.
11:34Other fascinating reef dwellers abound, the lizardfish
11:40and the garden eel, so timid that it emerges only partly from its hole.
11:48These leaf fish drift along with the currents,
11:51their presence almost unnoticed by potential predators.
11:57All over the reef turtles are in abundance.
12:02These graceful swimmers are usually loners, that is until the time to mate.
12:11It's then that the female turtles can be seen swimming to the surface,
12:14trying to fend off amorous males.
12:20Of all the creatures that use colour to adapt to their surroundings,
12:24none does it more dramatically than the octopus.
12:37So skilled are they in the art of camouflage they're rarely seen.
12:59Just how healthy and well preserved the Great Barrier Reef is in the future
13:03now depends on our ability to read the warning signs.
13:10The level of damage already sustained has to be monitored
13:13and one of the most successful ways of achieving that
13:16is to measure the well-being of its residents.
13:23Today, tough new measures are helping to safeguard and protect
13:27the Great Barrier Reef for the future.
13:32In the world, up to one-third of all reefs are not expected to survive the next generation.
13:40But hopefully Australia's tough new policies have placed the future
13:44of the world's greatest reef on the road to recovery.
14:02.