The Great Barrier Reef is currently under duress due to a widespread underwater heat wave. In the documentary “Chasing Coral,” a team of divers sets out to study reefs around the world to find out how we can take better care of them. Producer Larissa Rhodes joins us to talk about what the divers discovered. “Chasing Coral” screens tonight and Saturday at the Music Hall at Fair Park as part of EARTHxFilm 2017.

Larissa Rhodes on … 

… the relationship between coral health and human health: 

“What I didn’t realize is that reefs are this huge source of protection for coastal regions. They break the surf. But in addition to that, drugs that are coming out on the market today, a lot of them come from specific organisms that are on coral reefs. It’s almost this undiscovered world that we keep finding new things that can help humans. And if we destroy that, we’re wasting that opportunity of what could be out there that we could be saving other people with.”