Ten minutes before a Monday night screening, all the seats in the Opera Studio in the Voxman Music Building were filled. People gathered for this screening for a simple purpose – the state of the oceans’ ecosystems.

The screening was hosted by both University of Iowa Outreach and Engagement and FilmScene for the film “Chasing Coral”.

It was a documentary film about how a group of divers, photographers, and scientists captured the coral reefs around the world vanishing at an unprecedented rate, the Chasing Coral website stated.

Throughout the film, there were lots of emotional moments comparing and contrasting the scene when the coral was alive and when the coral died.

“Before coming, I thought watching a documentary film might not that useful. But after watching this film, it helps me thinking about the diversities of the earth,” Cheng Zha, a third year Biomedical Engineering student at the UI said.

Zha’s personal experience for previously studying biology tied him closely to the film.

“The only feeling I’m having for now is to join as much as events like this as possible to help myself to remember we need to do something for the earth,” he said.

The huge change of the small ocean ecosystem, coral reefs, also touched the film’s team member.

Zackery Rago, one of the key people in the film, said in the discussion after the film, “we try to keep the optimism. It’s not easy to watch something die like that.”

Rago witnessed the death of several coral reefs while he was filming.

“When you are a scientist, the only reason for you to get there, it’s because you love that,” he added.

One of the main reasons that caused the coral’s death might be the seawater temperature increasing, the film stated. This phenomenon was called “coral bleaching”.

“After the bleaching, the coral is still hard to survive…It’s a huge issue having a lot of tension right now,” Rago said.

Even though Iowa is in the heartland of the country, the nitrogen we used in farms in Iowa does have linked impact to the ocean. For example, the dead zone in Mexico is because of the nitrogen coming from the heartland of the United States, Rago said.

There was not much people could do in Iowa like all the other seaside areas. But Rago said he believes that we need to take a step back. Opening a conversation like this will be a good beginning.

“Seeing film like this, it’s already a large contribution for the audiences,” FilmScene Programming director Rebecca Fons said.

Fons said for Iowa City to see the film, we can learn lessons from that support environmental issues.

“[Science on Screen Program] is very connected to the environment by showing film closely or direct to the environment, which is also connected to the University of Iowa’s Theme Semester, climate change,” Fons said. “For having the program, it helps the earth and the community.”