Reef Keepers
Reef Keepers follows scientists' journey of care, connection, and defiance as they refuse to let Florida’s Coral Reef – and the communities that depend on it – slip away. Amid record-breaking heat waves, hurricanes, and loss, they aren’t just saving corals: They’re proving that stewardship and grit can turn the tide.
One of the world’s largest barrier reefs stretches 350 miles along the Florida coastline, buffering it from hurricanes and flooding and undergirding the state’s tourism and fisheries. But the reef has lost more than 90% of its living coral cover to heat, disease, storms, and pollution. Today, more Florida corals live in aquariums, labs, and artificial nurseries than on the reef itself. After a massive bleaching crisis in 2023, coral scientists across the state banded together to innovate short-term coral solutions and build toward the long-term changes needed to guarantee the reef’s future. REEF KEEPERS is about the people fighting to save Florida’s Coral Reef. We follow key figures in coral restoration through storms, setbacks, and sacrifice as they work to protect the reef that protects Florida. This film reveals one of the nation’s greatest environmental crises as a deeply personal struggle, showing the heartache of witnessing the reef’s decline and the resolve it takes to secure our corals for generations to come. It offers each of us a roadmap for how to turn hope into action and how to fight for what we love.
Project Website: Reefkeepersfilm.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reefkeepersfilm/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6157703424...
Project Trailer: https://youtu.be/fCb5P_4xKBU
Co-Director, Producer | Alyson LarsonCo-Director, Writer | Natalie van Hoose
Director of Photography | Kris Spelce
Editor | Laura Landry