The devil in the deep blue sea

Greg MacGillivray, whose camera has memorably scaled mountain peaks (“Everest”), crisscrossed blue skies (“To Fly”) and descended into deep, dark caverns (“Journey Into Amazing Caves”), all in the name of capturing images for the Imax screen, returns to the setting of the Oscar-nominated films “The Living Sea” and “Dolphins” for “Coral Reef Adventure.” The new documentary, which opens Friday at the California Science Center’s Imax Theater, accompanies underwater cinematographers Howard and Michele Hall as they chronicle the state of coral reefs in the South Pacific.

Among those the Halls encounter on their mission to compare endangered reefs with healthy ones are well-known marine conservationist Jean-Michel Cousteau and deep-reef ichthyologist Richard Pyle.

According to the organization Reef Check and the United Nations’ Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, 10% of the Earth’s reefs have died in the last four years. The Halls, veteran divers and the winners of seven Emmys for their work, spent 10 months traversing the Pacific to register the sharp decline in certain areas and bring attention to these immensely vital organisms (though the film was four years in the making).

Information: (213) 744-7400 and www.coralfilm.com.