"Looking into the fish's eyes is what gets me," Walker says. "You can see the life behind their eyes. It became an addiction going into the new world, but over time, I realized this world under the waves needed our help."
While caring for his home aquarium, a friend gifted him a piece of coral to put in the fish tank. "I just thought it was an old rock, but it was a piece of coral that started growing over time, and I became very infatuated with it," he explains.
Walker's coral journey started with the book Aquarium Corals: Selection, Husbandry, and Natural by Eric H. Borneman. "I was intrigued by every word in this book," Walker adds. "I thought it was a great read. I learned so much like I learned it provided so much for our economy and our livelihood, especially here in Florida."
His interest in scuba diving and coral led him to start a YouTube channel where he shared his knowledge, everything from cleaning fish tanks to sharing tips on coral.
"I came from tech sales; I come from the corporate world. I wanted to be this big office guy with the office overlooking the city, the money, the nice house — all of that," Walker explains. "But I wanted to make a difference elsewhere, and I pursued my hobby."
His hobby also led him to dive into cinematography, with Walker working on commercial shoots in New York and Florida. Eventually, he got the idea to work on a documentary short focusing on coral.
In With & Without: A Coral Story, Walker shows what life would be like without coral reefs. Told through the help of experts and scientists, the short explores the issue of stony coral tissue loss disease. "Just diving a bunch in Florida was my main inspiration for the documentary," Walker adds. "I immediately started bringing my camera every time I started diving. I wanted to bring what I saw down there up here."
Scientists are battling to understand this disease and how to stop it. At the heart of the issue is the human impact on the reefs. Without significant changes and corporate cooperation, one of the most crucial animal species on earth could be lost.
"As I'm diving, I'm seeing all the soft sponges, the oranges, the purples, the yellows, and everything looked beautiful," Walker says. "But beyond that, the stony coral, the one I put in my tank, the ones that protect our shoreline, are dead. I saw that no one was talking about it and that there was more death down there than we realized. I was furious."
Since 2014, Florida's coral reefs have been experiencing an outbreak of stony coral tissue loss disease. First reported off the coast of Miami-Dade County, the outbreak has spread along Florida's coast and to the reefs in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Mexico, St. Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic.
"The decline or death in these reefs is a big problem," Walker explains. "The biggest problem is when the coral dies, we feel the impact. The impact in ten years won't be a problem until it's a problem. We spoke to 20 scientists about this for the documentary, all of them mentioned the impact in ten years can lead to beaches eroding, more flooding, fish dying, more hurricanes, overall, causing more damage."
Walker and his production crew spent four years talking to experts for With & Without: A Coral Story.
Photo by Jackson "Iko the Rainman" Paraiso/@operation5am
"We filmed in about four to five different islands," Walker says. "We're filming sad stuff, and the hardest part was finding hope. My sales in tech came back to help me, and I used that experience to raise money and push this project forward."
Recently, Walker screened the documentary at Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale, with a discussion panel held after the screening.
With & Without: A Coral Story also won for "Best Cinematography" and was nominated for "Best Documentary Short" at the New Bedford Film Festival in New Bedford, Massachusetts, earlier this year. The film will continue making the rounds on the film festival circuit, aiming for a release in 2025. He also founded Walker Wildlife, a nonprofit that'll continue to make documentaries and raise awareness on environmental issues in South Florida.
"Seeing what we built, I couldn't believe I made this happen," Walker says. "We have more to do, but it's not about making millions of dollars. It's about the mission in our backyard or globally, and I never thought I'd be inspired from looking at a fish tank to looking at the bigger picture."
