[soft music playing]
[Zac] Water.
We're made mostly of water.
Around 70%.
And what a bizarre coincidence, or no coincidence at all,
is that our planet's surface is covered by water at that same percentage.
That's how important water is to us.
So as we work hard to protect the air and the land,
it's just as crucial, if not more, that we protect the sea.
Here in Australia, there is a system of 3,000 individual coral reefs
spanning 1,400 miles.
They are living structures that provide a habitat to an ecosystem so vast
they're considered the tropical rain forests of the sea.
But after a long, healthy life around 25 million years,
the coral reef in this area is dying, about half of it, since 1995. Gone.
Dead. And soon with it, all of those organisms that depend on them.
Including… us.
We're all running out of time.
-There's Dory. -Yep, there's Dory. And there's Nemo.
-[Darin] Hey! -[Zac chuckles] Hi, buddy!
We're on the northeastern coast of Australia
to see how cutting-edge researchers and scientists…
[man] We've got to explore ideas.
-Really? -[woman] Yeah!
No getting around the fact that they're absolutely threatened.
[Zac] …are all working to save a very crucial part of the ocean…
It's seagrass. It's mangroves. It's that whole coastal interface.
[Zac] …that has been on my bucket list for the last 15 years.
-You got some harvesting to do. -Yeah. Cool. Never done this before.
-And along the way… Hey!
[Zac] …we'll squeeze in as much fun as we can.
[upbeat music playing]
[Zac] Coral reefs make up around 2% of the ocean's floor.
But they are home to about 25% of all sea life.
They provide revenue for us through food and tourism.
They protect our shorelines from storms and erosion.
And on this adventure,
we're gonna meet some of the people who have dedicated their entire lives
to saving and protecting the largest coral reef system
on the entire planet,
the Great Barrier Reef.
Running along the north coast of Australia,
the Great Barrier Reef makes up 10% of the Earth's coral reef systems.
And while all of the coral reef systems on this planet are in danger,
because Australia is completely surrounded by water,
the health and sea of the Great Barrier Reef
seem especially important to this country.
With the world's largest coral reef system right here,
it's the perfect case study for scientists and researchers
to figure out what's causing the decline of the world's coral reefs.
And more importantly, how they can be saved.
First stop on this aquatic adventure is on the shores of Queensland,
on a little section of coast jutting out into the Coral Sea.
This is the National Sea Simulator,
run by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, or AIMS for short.
Here, a group of world-class innovative scientists have created
the world's most technologically advanced research aquarium on Earth.
This is a haven where dedicated researchers
from all over the world can study the underwater environment
and the impact that human activity has on it,
all of them working together to improve the health and sustainability
of the planet's oceans.
[woman] The scale of the Great Barrier Reef is just massive,
and so we're really working on intervention strategies
that would allow us to scale up the tools that we have in our tool kit
to really have a meaningful impact on helping the Great Barrier Reef.
We've got to explore ideas 'cause we're stuck at a place
where reefs are severely threatened.
There's only a small amount of the seafloor
that actually is coral reef,
yet 500 million people get their sort of food and livelihoods from coral reefs.
Five to six billion dollars each year
from tourists coming to the beautiful reef.
So this is a really…
It's an employment issue, an economic issue.
Just imagine if it disappears on our watch.
[Zac] Yeah. "Just imagine" is right.
The entire world, one way or another, sort of depends on the health
of these coastal waters. So let's see what they're doing about it.
[Ove] Let's go look at corals.
-Yeah, please. -[Zac] Yeah. Beautiful.
-If I can open the door. -[Darin laughs] Oh my gosh.
[Zac] I feel like this is Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, behold,
the Sea Sim Room.
[jazz music playing]
[Zac] It is like walking through the Chocolate Factory.
Okay, it actually looks like the world's coolest fish store
or a Pixar movie come to life.
-There's Dory. -[Ove] Yep, there's Dory.
And down here, there's Nemo.
-[Darin] Hey! -[Zac] Hi!
[Ove] Right?
And this is Nemo's home, right? Just like in the movie.
-[Zac] Beautiful. The sea anemone. -[Ove] So, yeah.
[Zac] No joke, it is breathtaking in here.
It doesn't look real at first,
but then you see some tanks that look… not good.
So, if you look at coral reefs worldwide,
they're providing these services for humans.
But as they… As human populations have increased
along coastlines, we've started to see the loss of reefs due to physical damage.
They've started to deforest the coastline
that used to hold the sediment from flowing onto the reefs.
Over the last, you know, few years,
we've seen sort of bleaching events, which is where coral gets too hot.
We've started to see sort of changes to the ecosystem as a result of that.
You lose the corals, you start to lose the fish,
and you start to lose the benefits to people.
Yeah.
[Zac] It's estimated that since 1950,
the Earth has already lost half of its coral reefs.
And another two-thirds of what remains are damaged and at risk.
What they're studying here is how coral reefs change
in various temperatures and pollution levels,
and searching for methods to possibly restore them.
Every one of these tanks represents a few different states.
Yeah, exactly. So this is the way it was for thousands and thousands of years.
Right? It's an explosion of biodiversity, fish.
There's productivity. There are reef services.
It's a healthy system.
Coral reefs have sort of built up an enormous amount of mutualism.
I mean, it even goes down to the fish. When they go and hide at nighttime
among the branches of coral,
they pee really important nutrients into the water column
that feed the coral, and the coral then provides protection.
[Zac] So the fish needs protection, but the coral reef needs nutrients.
So the fish is like, "You're in luck."
So there's this sort of feedback loop between, you know, fish, corals, pee,
and, you know, the reef.
It's like the ocean's perfect bipartisan entity.
Yeah. Absolutely. That's a really good way of putting it.
But here's what happens if you sort of heat above two degrees
above the summer temperatures on the reef.
You get something that transpires as this. There's still some fish there.
-Is this just temperature you increased? -This is just two degrees higher.
It's a delicate symbiotic balance here.
With the water temperature up just a few degrees,
the coral becomes stressed and can no longer feed the algae.
The algae dies, leaving behind a barren exoskeleton of bleached coral.
Eventually, the organisms and fish that relied on the algae are also gone,
and soon the entire ecosystem is dead.
[Ove] This is sort of what would happen if you had a lot of nutrients coming in
on a reef system.
Because you've been pushing nitrogen into the system,
the whole thing's sort of undergone a change.
But more and more, we see things like algae coming in.
And that can also be affected by grazing fishes.
A whole bunch of fishes like to eat algae, and they're essentially the gardeners.
They go in there, and they collect the seaweeds and eat them,
and that allows corals to sort of grow back up into the systems.
One of these reefs here is from the inshore Great Barrier Reef,
and this is really where we've lost a lot of corals.
-This one has got very big fleshy polyps. -Simulating a completely different space.
Absolutely. So, allowing us to dial up different futures
and look at what happens.
'Cause if we can dial up that future and understand it, then I think we have…
We can find solutions.
[Zac] Seeing the impact of temperature change on the coral reef
all laid out so clearly is pretty scary.
But if our oceans have gone from vibrant to decaying because of humans,
perhaps there's hope that humans can also bring about some healing.
I wonder what the coral has to say about all of this.
[muffled] The harm from the rise in water temperatures and pollution
can be seen here in the Great Barrier Reef.
Take Coral over here.
Ugh, dude, it's so true.
Since 1950, Earth has lost about 50% of its coral reefs.
The rapid human-caused increase in sea temperatures,
combined with large increases in CO2, have changed the chemistry of the oceans.
Hassle.
-Whoa! What happened? -It's coral bleaching, man.
Everything in the reef is stripped of all its nutrients and life,
essentially dying slowly,
affecting the entire ocean's ecosystem.
Well, what can be done? I mean, is it too late?
It's not, but wide-scale changes need to be made and fast.
There are two basic types of help,
protective and restorative.
Restorative includes all the methods to replant
and repopulate more resilient coral,
and help heal areas that can be brought back to health.
Oof. Sounds complicated.
A little.
And luckily, top ecologists are working on it every day.
-But you know what's simple? -What?
The protective things you can do to prevent further damage,
like not polluting, being aware of where your seafood is coming from,
and, of course, reducing your CO2 footprint.
That I can do.
Oh, hey, Coral, I gotta head back up. Thanks.
No problemo. Later, dude!
[Zac] Our first example of restorative healing to the Great Barrier Reef
is right here at AIMS.
As Dr. Carly steps up to show us a new method called coral seeding.
[Darin] We're super excited to see what you're doing
to create some strength in the reef.
We're really focused on trying to come up with a tool kit
to help the reef recover into the future. So this is just one of those.
It's a part of something we're calling coral seeding.
Essentially, what we're trying to do is develop a way that we can sow corals
onto reefs the same way that you would sow seeds into a forest that needs recovering.
And then we can apply that to these,
what we're calling settlement plugs, and then we seed them on the reefs.
Every one of these plugs has about ten to 15 coral babies growing on it.
Have you had any success with any of these different types?
Last year we achieved a 25% survival rate, which we were quite pleased with.
Amazing.
You guys wanna get your hands wet and help me put some corals in some devices?
-Oh yeah. Absolutely. -[Carly] Yeah? Awesome.
There's some stools underneath. Feel free to pop those out.
-A little booster. -Whoa.
Yeah, this is great. Thank you.
So, what I can do
is hand you guys some device components, and I'll hand you some plugs.
And then you can put them together. Hold it by the base or the sides.
-Zac? Yeah, so just… -Sliding it into the triangle side.
What Darin doesn't know is that he and I are in a race to put these together.
The last person to properly assemble their seeding device will be eliminated.
Let me repeat the instructions.
The last person to properly assemble their seeding device will be eliminated.
-Hey, wanna hand me-- -Mine fit perfect and was effortless.
-Yours is just taking a long time to-- -I'm just… I'm being kind to you.
[Zac] The idea is to breed strains of coral
that can survive in warmer temperatures,
and then plant seeds of this new coral in damaged parts of the reef.
-[Carly] There you go. -I think I'm finished.
-Yeah? -Good job.
[Zac] The seeding devices can provide a space for the young corals to grow.
Once planted, the devices help anchor them firmly to the reef
and protect the corals from predators.
The work you're doing here is such to be celebrated
because this supports the ecosystem
literally from the bottom of the ocean, all the way up.
The thing that people at home can do if they're going on holiday
somewhere there's a reef, there are many citizen science projects
where people can make observations
and report things they see while they're snorkeling.
So it's a small thing an individual can do,
but it actually provides the researchers so much information.
[Zac] Like Dr. Carly said, a quick search online will show there are
citizen-based coral reef monitoring programs all over the world
for those who wanna help.
For me, it's an exciting time.
Down the road, I think we'll be, you know, hopefully celebrating winning the fight.
Fascinating. Thank you so much.
-It's a pleasure. -It's fantastic.
The coral seeding that takes place at AIMS is just the start
of one restorative process.
But there's another step to restoring the reefs that's been going on for years.
We're in Cairns,
a tourist hot spot, major port, and getaway to the Barrier Reef.
We're taking a catamaran about 17 miles out to sea.
And then we hop on a small tender boat to actually board the Marine World pontoon.
This is the last stop,
the Marine World pontoon, where all the magic happens.
This is a joint venture of private companies, universities,
and concerned citizens,
all working together to help save the Great Barrier Reef.
And we're meeting the rock stars that are here to repair it.
Or rather the reef stars.
[woman] Welcome to Marine World.
What we're going to be doing today is working on something called reef stars.
This is a type of reef restoration technique
developed by Mars, the chocolate bar company.
-Developed about ten years ago. -Really?
-[Alicia] Yeah! -Cool.
Pretty interesting, huh?
And it's literally just using pieces of steel bar
that have been coated in sand or limestone like we have here.
-And we attach coral pieces to it. -[Zac] Sweet.
We put these down in the water,
and we help restore these areas of coral rubble which have been broken
as a result of maybe storms, it could be from blast fishing,
and even from climate change as well.
So the area that we're going to go out to today was an area that was hurt
as a result of Cyclone Yasi about ten years ago.
And so when you have corals and coral reefs, they naturally recover.
But there's some areas where you have heaps of storm damage,
and it just becomes a big rubble bed.
You've got these little coral fragments that are moving around in the water.
They pretty much don't survive unless they've got something to be attached to.
So then today, what are you… You and Zac are gonna take off…
We're gonna go out and collect those coral fragments.
What we're going to look for is corals of opportunity.
Looking for something the same size
as between your thumb and forefinger, these sorts of fragments.
We've got some here that I can show you as well.
Something that's no longer attached to the actual coral.
-Wow. So you've got some harvesting to do. -Sounds like fun.
Yeah. Cool. Never done this before.
Darin and I are splitting up. I've been diving for years.
And we're gonna save Darin's first time in scuba gear for later.
Besides, he has to stay on the boat and see how they prep the reef stars.
Okay. This is it.
[inhales] Ready to dive.
Ah.
It is so good to be back in the ocean.
Look at the coral.
Look at the fish.
Look at the sharks.
Those are gray reef sharks,
and they're the most common sharks in this area.
They usually only attack people if they feel threatened.
So I'm just gonna head this way and try to seem nonthreatening.
After all, we're here to save the reef.
That is, like, the opposite of threatening.
Seriously though, do you see the size of those things?
Okay. Back to work.
Remember, we're searching for broken coral pieces
about the size of my hand to bring up and attach to the reef star frames.
Wonder how Darin's doing.
You know, the Great Barrier Reef is not just coral or fish.
It's seagrass. It's mangroves.
It's that whole coastal interface
that is critical to the fish life that we see out here.
They start their lives back on the coast. In terms of the runoff and the filtering
that happens through mangroves and seagrass systems,
that's all part of what we know as the Great Barrier Reef.
Thirty percent of the ocean animals
will have spent some time on a reef in its lifestyle.
So it's incredibly important that they're vibrant and alive.
The reef's been through some pretty tough times recently.
The sequential bleachings in 2016 and 2017.
And, in fact, I think much of the world thinks the reef is gone, which it isn't.
But, obviously, as the world hopefully starts to deal with climate change,
we still have to build as much resilience into the reef as is possible.
I think there's two parallel tracks.
Deal with climate change. Global issue. Everyone has to do it.
And what can we do on the reef to help better manage it,
to build resilience into the reef system.
[Zac] This is one of the world's largest coral reef restoration programs.
Installations yield a rapid growth in coral,
increasing the coverage by 12 times in a few months.
And the fish population nearly triples.
Over the past decade,
diver teams have installed around 20,000 reef stars worldwide,
using almost 300,000 coral fragments.
Like this one.
Here's a small loose piece. This is exactly what we're looking for.
Shout-out to Owen Wilson. Wow.
Or flip it, and shout-out to Mom.
Here's an example of a sea star that's been planted.
Look how well it's starting to grow
as it creates a new shelter and home for the other organism,
and eventually adds more biodiversity to the entire area.
We'll bring these coral pieces up to the boat,
and Darin can take it from there.
[Samantha] What we're gonna do is take our little fragments that we have here,
and we're going to pop them straight onto the star.
-So if you wanna take this one here. -Yeah.
What we can do is we can lay it across the top here.
And then each fragment gets two cable ties to attach it to…
-[Darin] That's as simple… -[Samantha] Easy as it is.
So one at the bottom, one at the top. And then we just tighten them on there.
[Darin] We're doing this, and it's by hand.
My brain goes, "How the hell can we scale this?"
[Andy] Yeah.
And we're dealing with something that's so massive.
[Katie] We might not be able to repair
and keep these kind of technologies going on all 3,000 reefs,
but if you can focus these efforts where they're needed most,
you're gonna help sustain those reefs and make sure they're resilient
through those tough and lean times.
-Can you grab it from the top? -[Darin] Yeah.
-[Katie] Lift it up. -Lift the star?
Yeah, it's the safest way. You can lift it over, and then…
[Samantha] I'll show you where we put them.
[Zac] Once enough coral is attached to the frame,
they're lowered on this platform till they're ready to be planted
on a section of the seafloor that's in need.
[soft music playing]
[Zac] It's beautiful down here.
Diving underwater feels like I'm visiting another planet.
I'm weightless…
isolated from people…
and surrounded by strange creatures.
I'm reminded of why it's so important to protect the oceans.
And it feels so good to be a part of the repair and protection of it.
But this is only a stopgap, and there's still a long way to go.
Man, I can't wait for Darin to get a chance to dive before we leave.
Oh, I'm running out of air. Time to go up.
Between the ocean and the land
is a unique biome that protects corals and their reefs.
They're called mangroves,
shrub and tree species that live and grow
on the edge of the coast where the water meets the land.
Ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef
rely on mangrove forests to function properly.
And unfortunately, the mangroves are also threatened.
We're visiting a public and protected park
to meet a local Indigenous climate activist
and caretaker of the mangroves
for a better look at this beautiful and lush habitat.
So, you liking it up here?
-Yeah. We got a good day. -Yeah?
-Yeah. -[Darin] Loving it.
-We're in mangrove country. -In the mangrove today, yes.
Up here in Cairns.
[Zac] And it's still raining. Don't worry.
Cameras love that. Right, guys?
What does it mean to your mob, your people, the mangroves, and the reef?
In Aboriginal culture, in Indigenous culture here in Australia,
we see the cultural connection that they both have between each other.
-Yeah. -[Jiritju] Okay?
So one might be, say, the little brother
might be the mangroves. And the big brother might be the reef.
So, what is working and what isn't working in terms of the environmental impact
in mangroves' health right now?
What we have is, like, the man-made effects that happen.
So your destruction of habitats like this here.
An example is taking out these mangroves just to put a car park in, all right?
Take out these mangroves, and you got the effect of barren land,
which then means more sediment runoff.
Okay, that then directly flows into the water system,
then the water system takes it out to the reef.
So more and more man-made pollution as a result going directly into the ocean.
[Jiritju] Directly to the reef. Yeah.
So mangroves, they need fresh water, and they need salt water as well.
It's not just dependent on salt water. They actually need that oxygen as well.
[Darin] They're really an environmental tree.
They're keeping kind of a safety boundary between the land world and the ocean.
It might be a coincidence that the airport was like,
"We'll build here with the mangroves."
Because then the mangroves are actually offsetting their actual carbon emissions.
-Oh, interesting. -Yeah.
So they're taking out more of the CO2 just by being here in itself.
So, how much CO2 do the mangroves, like, eat versus--
It'd be more… 20% more than what your normal trees.
What we do here affects someone else on the other side of the world
or on the other side of Australia.
Vice versa. What they do on that side of the country affects what happens here.
My generation and the younger generation, really sick of sitting around now.
So we're not gonna let you destroy it on us.
We're actually gonna get up and start doing what we can.
Because I wanna leave something beautiful for my daughters.
I want them to actually be able to go out to the reef and know that,
"My father did his part by looking after the mangroves,
that I get to go out and see the reef."
"I get to see the beautiful fish out here,
see the beautiful coral that's out here as well."
And I think if we all think about
what Indigenous people have is… We're leaving it to the next generation.
-We can start now. -[Jiritju] We can start now.
It's a good time to start now.
[Zac] And with that, we'll start our tour show.
All right. Let's check out this boardwalk.
So all this before you came down here was just dry.
And now 'cause of that rainfall that we just had,
all the water's starting to catch in here now.
That's the other importance about having the mangrove systems and roots
that's around here is they hold all that water here in the soil,
and then it's actually benefiting all these plants.
-[Zac] 'Cause it all would go out to sea. -[Jiritju] It'd go straight out to sea.
So if you noticed when we were walking through just before how dense it was,
it was a different kind of species of mangrove.
So now we're going through these ones, and you'll see these trees here
are more clustered together, more of your straight kind of trees now.
[Darin] And how many different types of species of mangroves are there?
[Jiritju] So, altogether, there's 42 types of species.
[Zac] Insert Dagobah system joke here.
[hoarsely] "Away, put your weapon."
[Jiritju] See some of these ones here? These are different species again.
You see some of those little sharp little stems that's pointing up?
-[Darin] Yeah. -[Jiritju] So they're just breathers.
[Zac] Oh, cool.
[Darin] The purpose of the breather is what?
[Jiritju] To breathe in oxygen. That acts like their snorkel.
Just like we need the mask and snorkel out on the reef,
they have their own little snorkel here now.
-We're just mimicking the mangroves. -[Jiritju] Yeah!
These ones here, you'll have… This is the leaf. Okay?
You might not see it now, but that's the actual leaf
that we have on these trees here.
So what will happen is when there's mud,
you'll drop it, and see how it stands up just like that?
-[Zac] Hey! -[Jiritju] They're actually planted now.
-We planted. -[Jiritju] You planted.
I've officially planted some mangroves.
[Zac] Look how gnarly they look, man. This looks like Mordor.
-[Darin] Good luck walking through there. -[Zac] Yeah.
-Takes a lot of practice. -It looks crazy in here.
-This is different than where we started. -[Jiritju] A bit more muddy now, you know?
Kinda that more mangroves smell that you're smelling.
[Darin] This is so beau… I love that it's raining.
[Zac] I bet they don't.
-[Jiritju] It's lovely, isn't it? -It's so beautiful.
-[Jiritju] It's keeping-- -[Zac] Sweet.
[Jiritju] Keeping the mozzies at bay.
[Jiritju] I think now walking around out on country here for a little bit
and seeing some of my country,
and you're getting the full tropical effect here.
-That's right. -You get the rain. You get the mangroves.
You'll go to the reef and enjoy it even more.
Beautiful, brother. Thank you. This'll mean a lot to us.
-We'll come full circle at the reef. -Yeah, that's right.
[Zac] From sequestering CO2
to protecting both land and the Barrier Reef,
mangroves play an important part
in maintaining the balance of life on Earth.
And Jiritju's message
plays an important part in protecting the mangroves.
After all this talk about the Great Barrier Reef,
it's time to experience it for ourselves.
We're on the northeast coast of Queensland at Airlie Beach
to ride 39 nautical miles out to sea.
Yes, the goal is to go diving in the reef.
But this is definitely one of those "journey, not the destination" scenarios,
because we'll be taking this to get out there.
Cue the yacht rock!
[rock music playing]
[Darin] This is pretty epic.
-Like we entered the zone, dude. -Danger zone.
Yeah, dude. I'm stoked. I've been diving for, man, almost 15 years now.
This is the one place,
without fail, every single person I've been on a dive with always says,
"You have to go to the Great Barrier Reef."
It's just… It's another world down there.
I'm really excited to see what's down there.
[Darin] Yes.
-Hey, man. -[man] Morning, gentlemen.
[Zac] Peter is our diving instructor. Darin has never done this before. Ever.
-Good to see you too. -[Peter] Well, here we are.
Just about to, uh, arrive at the Great Barrier Reef.
-Man. -[Peter] Let's take you back a bit.
About 10,000 years ago, you could've walked all the way here. It was all land.
About 10,000 years ago, the last ice age ended.
When the ice age ended, the sea level rose.
And about 6,000 years ago, it reached its present level.
Previous to that, this was a mountain over here,
and this was a mountain over here. And we're in what was a big river.
As the sea level rose, it covered up these mountains,
and coral started to grow on top of them.
So we've got this coral that is growing on the top of a very old submerged mountain.
-Very cool. -What?
And it's sort of reached this present level.
So we're in what would have been a river about 10,000 years ago.
[upbeat music playing]
The coral on the Great Barrier Reef is fantastic.
I've heard, in the last few years particularly,
more and more people coming to the reef
having heard that it's in terrible shape,
and now they see perfectly healthy brown coral,
but because it's brown, they look at it and go, "It must be dead. It's brown."
People are quite used to seeing coral, either in a video or in a postcard--
-[Zac] That's rainbow-colored. -…it's brightly colored.
Because people won't buy a postcard
if it's got a picture of poo-brown coral on it.
[laughing]
However, I'm not saying we're not doing any bad things to our oceans.
You know, we're overfishing. We put too much plastic.
But I don't think it's all doom and gloom.
Everywhere you look, you're gonna see something new.
You'll see different species.
There's a lot big fish here, and you'll enjoy that for sure.
[Zac] Our new home away from home for the next few days will be here.
What is that? Waterworld? Kevin Costner is over there right now?
[Zac] It does look just like Waterworld. Look at that.
This is Reefworld,
a floating three-story pontoon located in Hardy Reef.
Wow.
Hey!
[Zac] This next part is the big reward, the icing on the cake in this episode.
Darin and I will have a chance to stay overnight in the reef.
Not on the reef. In the reef.
Underwater. You'll see.
Sure, you can sleep on the deck,
but down below, a hotel experience four meters underwater,
guaranteed to be the best room with a view ever.
Welcome to Reefworld. It's quite steep down here.
-So just hold on to the handrails. -[Darin] Yeah.
Oh, sweet.
-[Darin] Whoa. -[Zac] Wow.
Like we're in a spaceship.
Oh!
What?
[Zac] This reminds me of Troy McClure's house.
Oh, hey, buddy.
Tonight, I'll be sleeping with the fishes, but not in the Mafia way.
[man] A blue light in the bottom, that's what attracts them at nighttime.
The one thing about these windows is they're not soundproof,
so you'll definitely hear the fish, but that's the best thing about it
is hearing nature during the night.
[Zac] I don't mind that.
And these windows are two-way, so we can see the fish, they can see us,
but all the scope in between that as well.
[Zac] They've probably seen some pretty crazy things.
-They've told me a few things. -[laughing]
[Zac] Oh jeez.
[happy music playing]
[Zac] We're up with the sun and getting fueled for the dive.
And picking up a few souvenirs.
[Peter] Hello, gentlemen. How are we doing?
-We're good. -Pretty good.
-[Peter] Good. We're going to, uh… -Get in the water?
…get you to slip into some black rubber here before we get in.
-Cool. -There's the suit.
-There's a little one for you. -For you.
Party on, Wayne.
[grunts] This is a little snug.
[chuckles] We look like The Life Aquatic crew.
[chuckles] Will you zip me, baby?
-[coughs, laughs] -[Darin] Absolutely, honey.
-[chuckles] -You look great, sweetheart.
Jeez, Darin, you're too… too ripped, man.
You're pumped up.
-You're busting out of the suit. -Excuse my size.
Whoa. Okay.
Comfortable? -[Zac] Not really.
Did you see me just squeeze him in there?
Let's go bring you down this end, gentlemen.
[Zac] We start with the scenic cruise through an area called the Whitsundays
to get our dive spot on the Hardy Reef.
As the salty wind blows against my face and through my hair,
the anticipation of the experience is racing inside me.
I always have a little nervous energy before a dive.
It's not fear,
more like a healthy respect for the fact that, just like flying,
breathing underwater isn't a natural human experience.
My conscience dances between caution
and relaxing enough to enjoy every wondrous moment.
Darin says he's ready, but he really has no idea what he's in for.
And I guess neither do I, for that matter.
Here we go!
[splashing]
[Zac] It's beautiful,
to the point that it doesn't even seem real.
I've seen countless pictures and videos.
They don't do the experience justice.
That's why this is the ultimate dive location.
The reef is teeming with life.
Huge schools of fish
in countless varieties, shapes, and colors.
I don't know what this thing is, but look how awesome it is!
I'm gonna touch it, just lightly.
Touch. Touch.
It's true. The corals are a little brown in some areas, but they're not dead.
And they will hopefully come back even stronger.
And for that, I give a big thanks to everyone we met along the way,
all those who have worked so tirelessly
to save the Great Barrier Reef and who continue to work.
And Darin has no idea how lucky he is.
For this reef to be his first dive,
I know he's lovin' it.
I will relive this moment in my head forever and ever.
It's truly one of the coolest experiences of my life.
[bubbling]
[Darin] Yeah!
That was amazing.
-How was that for your first dive, buddy? -Dude! Come on.
-[Zac] Good job. -That was amazing.
We smashed that.
Oh man.
Some of those fish that just came right up to us like a little dog.
-[Peter] Yeah. -It was like…
-A little dog? It was a massive dog! -A massive fish.
Outweighs any dog I've ever seen. That was, like, a 300-pound dog.
…being able to touch 'em, and, they're just, like, chill.
[Zac] Yeah. You actually touched it?
-Oh yeah. -You should probably get that looked at.
[laughing]
Oh. Cool, man. Dude, I seriously…
I can't believe that you got to see that on your first dive.
-[Darin] Yeah. -[man] Was it good?
Oh yeah.
Uh! Unreal, bro. I… Like, that was…
I've never seen coral that alive and thriving
and just so… so many different colors and…
-That was really cool. Good job, D. -Yeah.
I can't believe you checked that off the list first, lucky son of a gun.
[upbeat music playing]
[Zac] Diving in the Great Barrier Reef has been a dream come true for me.
And it's good to see how much is being done to save it.
But at the same time, like all of the Earth's oceans,
it remains under constant threat of climate change, pollution,
and overfishing.
The future of our coral reefs and all the sea life within
remains to be seen.
There's a chance for healing.
We have the ability to repair the reef little by little,
to possibly even reverse what now seems inevitable.
But the question remains,
can we also reduce the very actions that have done damage in the first place?
Only time will tell. And speaking of time, I don't know the next time
I'll get a chance to do this again,
so I think I'll take it all in just once more.
Later.
[splashing]
[soft music playing]