New Documentary Issues Wake-up Call in Light of Impending Collapse of the World’s Largest Marine Ecosystem.

BRISBANE, Queensland — 2nd October 2018 — Confronting new documentary by Chernobyl researcher shows the Great Barrier Reef is in grave danger due to poor management of the surrounding land.

The film, Murder on the Reef, by Gold Coast based geochemist, Allen Dobrovolsky, and film-maker, Alex Fitzwater, compares poor management of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef with the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.

Dr Dobrovolsky says, “Pushing the nuclear reactor’s capabilities to its limits led to the ‘human-made’ Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Thousands of square miles of pristine environment around the Chernobyl nuclear power station became a wasteland.”

“Similarly, poor environmental management led to the environmental disaster in the Great Barrier Reef’s port of Gladstone in 2011. Since this time the reef has suffered unprecedented back-to-back bleaching events which have killed half of the corals. This is due to the warming oceans caused by climate change. The collapse of an entire ecosystem is imminent unless action is taken.”

According to Dr Dobrovolsky, the next impending reef disaster will be on a much larger scale due to the predicted global increase in the rate of bleaching events. With 50% of the Great Barrier Reef’s corals already wiped out, a further increase in ocean temperatures will have catastrophic effects.

“I would like people to walk away after watching the documentary understanding the reef is affected so much that without human intervention it will die,” says Dr Dobrovolsky.

Director, Mr Fitzwater, says the film is much more than a compilation of facts, “We are bringing the dying reef to its knees and that says something about us as humans…the time for burying our heads in the sand is long past.”

The film reveals an underlying lack of co-operation between government, marine research scientists, activists, politicians, indigenous leaders and the general public as being a core factor in the rapid decline of the reef’s health.

“Despite repeated warnings by Australian scientists that the reef is in ‘grave danger’, the budget for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has been wound back by successive governments,” says Dr Dobrovolsky.

Dr Dobrovolsky, who self-funded Murder on the Reef, says the film was driven by a sense of social and environmental responsibility, “I’ve seen first-hand the devastation of the corals on the reef. This, combined with my scientific research, has left no other option but to spread this message as far and wide as possible so together we can rectify the environmental damage we’ve all created.”

Since its release in February this year, Murder on the Reef has received more than 20 accolades, including the prestigious Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival’s ‘Best Documentary Film’ and The Monthly Film Festival’s ‘Best Feature Film’ awards. The film will be taken to market in Cannes this month.

Murder on the Reef is premiering in Australia with the support of the Australian Marine Conservation Society on Wednesday October 10^th, 2018 in Brisbane. For more information about the screening or to follow the documentary’s progress visit our social media pages below.

Facebook – @documentarygreatbarrierreef

Twitter – @murderonthereef

Instagram – @murderonthereefdocumentary

Press contact:

Ms Anna McCormack

Beacon Social Media

anna@beaconsocialmedia.com

0434 252 995