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Angellina Coats

Professor Beth Cox

RC 1000

October 9, 2022

Chasing Coral: A Rhetorical Analysis

For decades, the human population has been emitting carbon into the atmosphere and not

many people know that 93% of all heat being trapped is going straight into our oceans. This heat

is causing coral reefs all over the world to not be able to survive the temperatures and they start

to bleach. Chasing Coral is a documentary following a group of coral experts on their efforts for

getting a better look at coral reefs dying while also going over a more widespread issue, global

climate change. The majority of people aren’t fully aware that these things are happening to our

own oceans and the severity of it all. Richard Vevers, an underwater photographer, is hoping to

capture perfect time lapses of how quickly coral reefs are changing overtime. Although the

efforts prove to be very challenging and frustrating at times, Vevers' determination and use of

experts on his team that share a similar passion helps the project so that it may reach a

widespread audience.

In order to be qualified for the position of leading this entire team of experts on a big

project Vevers must have credibility, otherwise referred to as ethos. From the very beginning he

explains his background in the advertising industry which may seem to detract from how much

passion he has as an underwater photographer now, but he gives the viewers a better

understanding. He explains that the oceans are hidden from clear view which is a huge

advertising issue for the reason that no one can immediately tell that the corals are dying. To go

back even further, Vevers started diving when he was only sixteen years old and as he noticed
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that his favorite sea creature was disappearing he wondered, “Well if it's happening to my

favorite, what else is it happening to?” which shows his passion. One of the experts used in the

film, Zack Rago, was a great addition to showing credibility. Rago, an underwater camera

technician for View Into The Blue, calls himself a ‘coral nerd’ and explains his passion for trying

to create a camera durable enough to handle an underwater time lapse. His passion is so intense

that we see him completely break down over how saddening this issue is. Another expert that is

very credible is Dr. Ruth Gates, a marine biologist in Hawaii. Throughout the film she does a

great job at teaching the viewers more about coral structures and how they thrive, especially with

a microscopic look at how alive the coral is. Gates is not only teaching the viewers more, but

Vevers as well, making her more credible. Vevers, Rago, and Gates have more than proved their

credibility within this documentary and therefore their determination for wanting the project to

succeed.

Pathos is portrayed with a variety of emotions being expressed throughout this film in

order to make the viewers feel the same way the experts who are working on the project do. For

starters, the filmmaker shows clips of beautiful coral at the beginning mixed with peaceful music

to allow viewers to correlate a positive connection with the coral. This tone quickly changes as

images and videos of dead coral reefs are shown as the team works on their project in the Florida

Keys, Hawaii, and Great Barrier Reef alongside more saddening music. They also add side by

side clips of the dead coral with the once alive coral which helps portray how drastic the changes

really were. This in return gives a shock factor for viewers because we see how something so

magnificent can decay in the blink of an eye, which is crazy whether you’re interested in coral or

not.
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Other than the physical clips of coral that help viewers understand the severity of the

issue, we also see how the project is mentally affecting the team. After their first attempt at

getting coral footage lots of bad weather came through which flooded their system. At this point,

viewers can really feel the disappointment they all had after working so hard on constructing

everything. Once they moved their location to Hawaii with more durable equipment everything

seemed to be running smoothly until they brought the cameras up after 2 months and saw all the

footage was out of focus. That was even more heartbreaking to watch because they had missed

filming a huge bleaching event that was occurring in Hawaii at the time. As humans, we can

sympathize with this team because putting in so much effort into something that you are very

passionate about to get false results is relatable within all spectrums. As the team presented their

findings to scientists at the International Coral Reef Symposium you can see the actual tears

coming down the scientists’ faces as they see in real time what is happening to the reefs.

Showing their footage to scientists working on the same issue was a great first audience because

they already have a deep passion for helping and they could ultimately spread it to even more

people. Overall, the emotion tied with this film is strong enough to get other people to be equally

concerned about this issue because of how real the footage is.

Lastly, the amount of logos found in this documentary does a great job at providing

factual information to help viewers better understand the issue of coral reefs. Their first project

titled, XL Catlin Seaview Survey, was something that had never been done before. They ended up

having to work really hard at creating a camera that would capture perfect time lapses

underwater, to the point where they had to 3D print some parts. Furthermore, we learn about how

fish interact with coral reefs through mutualism and how 25% of all marine life relies on these

reefs to survive. This brings in a better perspective on life around the coral since the entire
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documentary is based solely on the point of view of coral. When referring to climate change, the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association uses satellite imagery to look at ocean surface

temperatures that help to determine when bleaching occurs. The scary thing is that over time they

have seen that the intervals between these bleaching events have been gradually decreasing.

Within the next 30 years annual bleaching will kill most of the world’s corals if we don’t do our

part in preventing it which is kind of crazy to wrap my head around and the vast majority would

agree. This film also does a great job at connecting this issue with the human population as they

explain how half a billion to a billion people rely on the reefs as their main source of food. Some

corals are even used to create new drugs that could help fight cancer. This information gives

viewers a better sense of dependency on coral reefs and the efforts for saving them because it’s

personally tied to them. All of the factual information presented in this film proves to viewers the

reality of corals dying whilst connecting it with humans on a personal level with food and

medicine as well as a global level with climate change.

With the use of ethos, pathos, and logos Chasing Coral does a great job of getting its

message across about how coral reefs are dying and the efforts at showing the world what is

actually occuring. People around the world are now doing their part to study the reefs and report

their findings to continue getting the message across. The use of visuals that match the music

being played helps readers emotionally connect to coral reefs while following the ups and downs

of Vevers’ team puts it all into perspective. We must continue watching films like this and

becoming more knowledgeable on these subjects in order to ultimately put a stop to the

eradication of an entire ecosystem, one step at a time.

Works Cited

NewOnNetflix. “Chasing Coral | Full Feature | Netflix.” YouTube, YouTube, 17 Apr. 2020,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGGBGcjdjXA.