Issue 68 - January 2021

Oceans: An Overlooked Oasis

By Simon Hilbourne

Conservation is a curious thing. I wish it weren’t necessary, even if that did put me out of a job. Unfortunately, the human race is exploiting nature for everything it’s worth, putting profit before the planet. Overconsumption of wild habitats, animals and natural resources has pushed ecosystems and biodiversity to the brink of collapse. Marine conservation has a whole other level of challenges to overcome in that we are fighting to protect a world the vast majority of humans will never see. The phrase ‘out of sight out of mind’ couldn’t be more apt for the 70% of our planet covered by water. Once you do see the life below the waves, it’s hard not to want to protect it.

I have been lucky enough to swim alongside the largest sharks in world, make eye contact with a humpback whale mother and calf, and visit the world’s most biodiverse coral reefs. I have also witnessed the destruction of the oceans; turtles entangled in fishing nets, coral reefs turned to rubble from bleaching, a Mediterranean Sea void of nearly all fish and piles of drying shark fins and manta gill plates. As a marine conservationist and a passionate underwater photographer, I want to bring both sides of this story to light.

I had an unusual upbringing, attending secondary school in Thailand. My parents were already recreational scuba divers, having fallen in love with colourful tropical coral reefs whilst living in Sri Lanka. Back then I was too young to dive, but I would float on the surface with one parent watching the other below.

As soon as I was old enough, I learned to scuba dive and we carried on diving as a family for a number of years. On most dive boats there are fish identification books to help divers figure out what they saw underwater. I would flick to the sharks and rays’ section to read about the different species, testing my knowledge after by identifying the photos by memory.

At eighteen, I moved to Australia for a year to work as a dive instructor. I soon came to realise that I was far more interested in the animals than the tourism side of the business. Diving the northern Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea from the liveaboard vessel, I started to grow my interest in underwater photography. I would jump back in the water with the trip photographer between dives to get an extra fifteen or twenty minutes underwater during my breaks. Some days I would log up to six hours underwater. Shooting with just a small compact camera, the photos were mediocre, but I was hooked.

a dolphin with a school of fish in the ocean

Moving to the UK for the first time in my life for university, despite being British, was certainly a change of scene for me! I completed my MSci in Marine Biology at the University of Southampton. Although dredging limpets in the Solent River and counting barnacles on rocky shores wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, the course set me up perfectly and equipped me with the knowledge and skills I needed for my dream career. My final year dissertation project took me out to La Paz, Mexico to study seasonal whale shark aggregations. Just before this trip, I bought my first DSLR camera and underwater housing second hand. La Paz is situated in the Sea of Cortez which Jacques Cousteau aptly named ‘the aquarium of the world’ and the abundance of whale sharks and sea lions gave me plenty of opportunities to sharpen my photography skills.

Fast forward a few months and I was sat at a desk in my first job out of university as a junior marine environmental consultant with British winter looming, I knew it was time to head back to warmer waters. I wanted to continue taking photographs which could engage people with the marine world and work on projects with conservation value. I struck gold when an opportunity to work in the Maldives with the Manta Trust popped up.

On the way to the Maldives, I had an unexpected stopover in Sri Lanka. Returning to a country I had the fuzziest of memories of living in as a toddler was an exciting prospect. With only a few days to explore Colombo, I did my best to cram in as much tea, culture and cuisine as possible. On my last day, I heard about a fish market near the airport which had shark landings. Intrigued, I took an early morning tuk-tuk and to my surprise, the driver knew the market well and showed me pictures of a huge hammerhead shark caught the day before. The fish market was quite a tourist attraction!

At the main landing site, I passed through a dozen or so tiled benches where cutters filleted large tunas into steaks for restaurant owners and locals. Just past the benches were the covered auction house part of the market. Right on the harbour front, fishing boats bunched in tightly to unload their catch of big game species like tuna, marlin and swordfish. Winched out from the ice holds and carried by two or three men, these 70-100kg fish were laid out on the market floor and auctioned off. Dotted around the market were small piles of manta and devil rays (collectively known as mobulids) and a few sharks. Once sold, a cutter would then come along and remove the fins from the shark and the gill plates from the rays before the buyer would take the meat away.

After most of the tuna and swordfish had been sold, just as I was about to leave, a truck backed up to the tiled area. They opened the back doors and started unloading sharks one after another from the lorry. My heart sank as I watched the lifeless sharks being kicked and thrown out of the back of the truck and laid out in rows. Over the course of an hour I watched as they unloaded more species of shark than I had seen in 10 years of diving. There were great hammerheads, scalloped hammerheads, tiger sharks, blue sharks, silky sharks, mako sharks and many more. Once all the sharks had been laid out they then unloaded half a dozen rice sacks full of shark fins.

The first and most overwhelming emotion was of anger; anger at these fishermen for slaughtering animals that I was launching myself into a career of studying and protecting. The more I learnt about the industry over the months and years the more I realised my initial anger was misplaced. These fishermen are merely trying to earn a living to pay for their children’s schooling. Speaking to the fishermen, many of them don’t like going out to sea for weeks at a time, away from their family, living on cramped, rickety old wooden boats, working gruelling hours and they certainly don’t enjoy killing sharks and manta rays. Instead, the onus is on the consumers, the people who are creating a market and demand for these products and making it financially viable to hunt them.

Shark fin soup originated in China hundreds of years ago but only increased in popularity in the 18^th and 19^th century where it is seen as a symbol of status and wealth. Shark fin soup is falsely marketed to have medicinal properties and features in Traditional Chinese Medicine literature. The trade and demand for mobulid gill plates is far more recent. The gill plates that manta rays use to feed are dried out and consumed as a tonic or in a soup similarly to shark fins. Again they are heavily marketed for their false magical healing abilities that ultimately results in creating a market for these animals.

I returned twice more to Sri Lanka on mini ‘holidays’ to learn more about the fisheries from Blue Resources Trust and to see if the same thing was happening at other landing sites. Waking up groggy at half-past four in the morning to trundle along to a fish market, where the stench of decomposing shark and ray meat clings to your clothes, bags, skin and even your camera, and to slosh through ice cold water and fish trimmings that litter the floor isn’t everyone’s idea of a holiday, but I felt I needed to document the extent of the issue.

three humpback whales are swimming in the ocean

Working with the Manta Trust team in the Maldives, it was refreshing to be in the water and among live manta rays and sharks. All sharks and rays have been protected for a number of years in the Maldives. The country also hosts the world’s largest population of reef manta rays, which I was helping the Manta Trust study. During the Hulhangu Monsoon season, a combination factors including wind speed and direction, productivity and the orientation of an inconspicuous horse shoe shape of one small coral reef system called Hanifaru Bay results in one of the most spectacular phenomena in the natural world.

This natural wonder has to be up there with the Serengeti wildebeest migrations, the Eastern Cape sardine run or Alaskan salmon fishing bears. In Hanifaru Bay there can be up to 200 reef manta rays, growing to 3.5m (7ft) wide, congregating to feed on tiny shrimp called zooplankton. Swimming in tight formations, silent but graceful and with incredible spatial awareness, they swoop within inches of snorkelers. Co-operative foraging can result in what researchers have termed ‘cyclone feeding’, a vortex of mantas creating a spiral formation from the surface to the sandy bottom 18 metres below. Sometimes huge whale sharks, the largest fish in the ocean, may join the feeding frenzy.

Our team and I would spend days searching for mantas. Once spotted, we’d jump in and photo ID them. Each manta ray has a unique cluster of markings on its underside. Like a human fingerprint, these uniquely identify individual mantas. With over 70,000 sightings of nearly 5,000 manta rays, this is the largest population of reef manta rays in the World. From this data, the Manta Trust has answered questions about their life history and migrations, which inform conservation efforts around the world. Once the ID work was done, I would spend time snapping photos for fun and trying to capture the beauty of these animals.

Whilst I have experienced some incredible manta and shark encounters, the scenes at the Sri Lankan fish markets are still engrained in my memory. If the overexploitation of the oceans carries on as it is, fish stocks will collapse, the food web will become unbalanced, endangered species will fade into extinction and the sharks and rays that divers travel the world to see will become harder and harder to find. In the case of manta rays, they reach sexual maturity at 10-15 years. Females reproduce only every 2-5 years and give birth to a single pup at a time. These life-history traits make manta rays extremely susceptible to overfishing and there is no way they can be sustainably fished.

In many countries around the world there is a growing movement towards a more sustainable plant-based diet. Much of the emphasis of these campaigns is geared towards reducing beef and the consumption of other land animals but seafood is often left out of the picture. Earlier this year I launched the Fish Free February campaign to raise awareness of the environmental issues surrounding global fisheries and to encourage people to reduce the amount of seafood they eat, because the fact of the matter is we can’t carry on plundering the oceans at this rate. I am using Fish Free February as a platform to educate people about the extent of overfishing, the countless species that are being wasted as by-catch, the unimaginable quantity of plastic pollution from discarded ghost fishing gear, and worrying extend of falsely labelling seafood protects in the hope that people will reduce their seafood consumption. At the end of the day, that is the easiest and fastest way to have a positive impact on the blue planet.

For many people, the ocean is just a source of food. They never experience the beauty below the waves, making it hard to inspire them to protect it. Through my underwater photography, I hope to show people the wonderful underwater world we risk losing and convince them to stop exploiting the oceans so we can work towards a world where conservation isn’t needed.

To read more about Simon Hilbourne’s story, click here.

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Related Topics:conservation photopgraphy humpback manta whale sharks

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Issue 68 - January 2021

SEVENSEAS Travel Magazine – January 2021 – Issue 68

How to volunteer your way to a holiday in Queensland

Exploring a different corner of the world on a holiday is something that’s guaranteed to leave you with lifelong memories. But spending some of your vacation time giving back will take the experience to a whole new level. Read more…

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Coexisting with Nature During a Worldwide Pandemic

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Green Fins Environmental Materials Now Available in Arabic and Japanese

The Reef-World Foundation – the international coordinator of Green Fins – along with the Chamber of Diving & Watersports (CDWS) and the SDGs Promotion Secretariat (Onna Village Office in Okinawa) is pleased to announce Arabic and Japanese-speaking dive and snorkel operators can now benefit from environmental resources in their first language. Read more…

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How Conservatives Can Embrace GreenEnergy During The Biden Administration

Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election is being seen as a positive development by those who favor renewable forms of energy over fossil fuels. The Trump administration has moved to reverse over 100 climate and environmental rules, considering them burdensome to the fossil fuel industry. Read more…

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HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene Features 40 International Photojournalists and Foreword by Joaquin Phoenix

An unflinching new book of photography documenting our relationship with non-human animals was released today, featuring the work of 40 international photojournalists and a foreword by Academy Award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix. Read more…

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Wildfire Orphans, Captain Cal & Adopted Sisters, to Depart Soon for New Home at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

“Captain Cal” by the Cal Fire firefighters who found him limping down a burned-out road in Redding on September 30, 2020, the severely burned orphaned mountain lion cub is now fully recovered, 47 days after he was first rushed to Oakland Zoo’s veterinary hospital by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW). Read more…

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Sabah-Based Dive Operator Wins Global Diving Award!

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Feature Destination: How to fit Queensland’s top 8 marine life encounters into just 5 days

Home to 1625 species of fish, not to mention sea turtles, whales and dolphins, the Great Barrier Reef is a place where the best of Queensland marine life encounters are pretty much guaranteed. With 2300km of coral reef stretching from Bundaberg all the way up to Cape York to explore, you might be wondering where to begin – or how much time you’ll need to see it all. Read more…

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Australian Scientists Discover 500 Meter Tall Coral Reef in The Great Barrier Reef – First to be Discovered in Over 120 Years

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Bobtail Squid – Jack’s January Underwater Photograph

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The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey by Deborah Cramer

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Interview with Maui Marine Scientist Darla White

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Visiting Bangkok’s Pata Zoo, now known for Cher’s attempt to rehome resident gorilla.

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The most beautiful beaches in Queensland

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Fish Carcasses Deliver Toxic Mercury Pollution to The Deepest Ocean Trenches

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Will Fall Travels Be Possible This Year? A Coronavirus Update

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Oceans: An Overlooked Oasis

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Domestic, Green-Rated Salmon Making its way to West Coast Grocery Stores

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OMA to design Miami Beach’s First Underwater Public Sculpture Park and Artificial Reef in 2021

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The FREE Weekly Conservation Post and Jobs List

Signing up for the free Weekly Newsletter & Jobs List will get you a round-up of upcoming events, webinars, meetings, reports, funding opportunities, photos of the week, and recent postings to the jobs list.

To sign up for our free subscription, please Click Here or email us Here.

Since 2004, SEVENSEAS Media has fostered an informal and non-partisan platform to promote understanding of key issues and challenges while building partnerships across an increasingly diverse group of marine conservation professionals and students.

Our mission is to promote communication and build partnerships across the global marine community and to identify and address gaps in the community’s work. SEVENSEAS Media achieves this through multimedia promotion and partnerships. The community consists of a diverse and growing group of participants, including non-governmental organizations, government agencies, foundations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, fellowship programs, independent consultants, and academia/students.

If you are interested in contributing or getting involved, email us Here.

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Issue 68 - January 2021

How to volunteer your way to a holiday in Queensland

By Kim Barnard

Queensland, boasting a beautiful, vast landscape, offers a range of unique volunteer experiences which allow you to put your skills to good use while also exploring the beautiful sights and experiences the region offers.

If you’re looking for ways to give while you’re away, this guide will help; it’s all about how to volunteer while on holiday.

Keep Australia Clean

Removing debris and litter from in and around the magical Whitsunday waters is a life-saving task that can be done with Eco Barge Clean Seas.

This not-for-profit organisation has removed over 200,000 kilograms of pollution from the Whitsunday region since 2009. Not only do they eliminate objects that harm marine life and damage their ecosystem, but they recycle and transform ocean plastics to reduce landfill entirely. Plus, they nurture sick and injured marine turtles back to prime health.

Founder, Libby Edge is dedicated to protecting and preserving the marine environment so generations to come can enjoy its beauty. Libby established Eco Barge Clean Seas after learning about the devastating effects that marine debris has on the residents of the sea.

To volunteer for one of their barge trips (as part of the Whitsunday Marine Debris Removal Program), head to their website and fill out your details. The barge, which holds up to 10 volunteers at a time, will take you to known impacted bays and beaches. Expect to pick up approximately 300 kilograms of debris during the trip!

Note: morning tea and lunch is provided.

Dig for Dinosaurs

The Australian Age of Dinosaurs is a museum in Winton, Queensland that not only displays the incredible animals of the past, but lets the public get up close and personal with them. It’s one of the few places in the world that offers this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Join the team in the Fossil Preparation Laboratory and spend the day prepping real dinosaur fossils for display. Prep-a-dino over two days, with a mate, for just $169 per person; this package includes a guided tour of the laboratory, collection room and dinosaur canyon. Plus, a one-year membership to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs society. If two days isn’t enough, why not opt for 10? After completing 10 days of preparation and training with the museum, you’ll become an Honorary Technician. This package, starting at $729, can be enjoyed over non-consecutive days.

Dive with Whales

If you’re a keen diver and want to meet dwarf minke whales, then sign yourself up for a volunteer experience with Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Not only will you be able to swim with these amazing animals in the Great Barrier Reef (it’s the only place in the world where you can), but you can contribute to research by collecting data on whale observations and sharing photos to the database.

Cairns is the departure point for these unforgettable scuba diving expeditions. Whether you choose the three-, four- or seven-day trip, you’ll have the time of your life witnessing the incredible biodiversity that lies in the incredible underwater world.

Check out this guide for other ways to help the Great Barrier Reef.

Have Some Turtle Time

When it’s turtle season (from November to March), the Mon Repos rockery near Bundaberg can always use an extra set of hands to help the newborn loggerheads reach their ocean home.

You don’t need any specific qualifications to take part in this very special experience, just a commitment to donate one night per week. As well as helping the rangers with visitor groups and turtle research, you might be called on to staff the entrance and souvenir shop, provide information to visitors and run the children’s activities.

Be a wildlife warrior

Head to Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast to help this conservation destination in its daily duties.

Volunteers learn new skills, gain an exclusive look into being a zookeeper, and meet some amazing animals and people. Choose from being a Keeper or a Customer Relations Volunteer; as a Keeper, your tasks will range from cleaning and maintenance, food preparation, animal observation, assisting keepers, and interacting with visitors at the daily Wildlife Warrior Colosseum Show. As a Customer Relations Volunteer, you’ll get to welcome visitors, answer people’s questions and help them navigate the zoo, and assist with guided tours, regular promotional events and children’s activities.

Live like a local

WWOOF is a worldwide movement bringing volunteers and organic farmers/growers together, to promote building a sustainable global community.

Travel around Australia living and learning on a host farm (for free!). For 4-to-6 hours a day you’ll be able to work on a functioning farm and perfect your organic practices.

Note: Before you become a WWOOFer, ensure your travel insurance is up to date as medical assistance in Australia can be very pricey.

Join a bush tribe

If you’re over 18, register as a volunteer with Bush Heritage Australia to be notified of roles going in the beautiful bushland.

Bush Heritage Australia is an independent not-for-profit organisation that buys and manages land, and partners with Aboriginal people to preserve our landscapes and irreplaceable native species.

As a volunteer, there’s a plethora of tasks you can work on. Reserve tasks range from caretaking, grounds and building maintenance, fencing, feral animal control, weed control, ecological monitoring and other ongoing land management activities. Office tasks include research, administration, fundraising, events and other important projects.

Click here to learn more.

Feature Destination

How to fit Queensland’s top 8 marine life encounters into just 5 days

By Laura Walls

Home to 1625 species of fish, not to mention sea turtles, whales and dolphins, the Great Barrier Reef is a place wherethe best of Queensland marine life encounters are pretty much guaranteed.

With 2300km of coral reef stretching from Bundaberg all the way up to Cape York to explore, you might be wondering where to begin – or how much time you’ll need to see it all. The good news is that seeing the best of the reef doesn’t require a big-time commitment. If you’re looking to pack a lot into a short space of time, try this marine-life spotting mini-break on for size.

Meet the Great 8

Kicking off in Hervey Bay and wrapping up in Port Douglas, this five-day itinerary will take you on a journey of discovery in search of Queensland’s Great 8. A checklist of the reef’s rarest and most spectacular marine creatures, the Great 8 features whales, turtles, manta rays, clown fish, sharks, potato cod, Maori wrasse and the giant clam. Get ready to experience nature at her jaw-dropping best.

Day 1: Go in search of whales in Hervey Bay

From Brisbane, hop on a quick 50-minute flight or take the scenic three-and-a-half-hour drive north to arrive in Hervey Bay, Australia’s whale-watching capital. This laidback seaside town was recently crowned the world’s first whale heritage area and considered – with good reason. Each year, more than 20,000 humpback whales and their newborn calves travel along Australia’s eastern coast on their annual migration. Hervey Bay’s warm, protected waters provide a natural nursery where mother whales teach their calves to socialise and play, making it a wildlife spotter’s dream. You’ll be able to spot them breaching and tail-slapping from the shore during whale watching season (July to October) – but for a more up-close experience, jump aboard a day tour with Tasman Venture. If the conditions are right, you may even be lucky enough to swim alongside them. (Queensland is one of just a handful of places worldwide where this is possible). Hervey Bay is known for its lively local dining scene, so wrap up your day with dinner at one of the town’s many restaurants and cafes.

Day 2: Snorkel with giant turtles and potato cod at Lady Elliot Island

a turtle is swimming in the coral reef around Lady Elliot Island

Your base for the next few days is Lady Elliot Island, a coral cay off the coast of Bundaberg in a conservation Green Zone. Home to sea turtles, manta rays and much more, it’s one of Queensland’s best locations for marine life encounters. From Hervey Bay, take the 40-minute scenic flight across the bay (a trip highlight in its own right) to arrive at the award-winning Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort. Travelling with kids? Don’t miss the resort’s Reef Rangers program. Budding conservationists will love learning all about Lady Elliot’s incredible marine ecosystem and the work being done to protect the reef. After lunch, grab your mask and snorkel and head for the island’s eastern lagoon. Be sure to check out the lagoon’s far-left corner: the favourite hangout place of an enormous potato cod. Next, head to the western side of the island. Explore coral ledges and underwater valleys as you swim among hawksbill and green turtles, as well as schools of shimmering fish. Tip: for even more turtle-spotting action, visit between November and April. This is nesting and hatching season when mama turtles lay their eggs and baby hatchlings scuttle down to the sea.

Day 3: Meet manta rays and Maori wrasse on a scuba adventure

Today will see you tick two more iconic marine creatures off your list. First up: manta rays. Hop aboard a dive boat to the Anchor Bommie site, just a short distance off the island’s south-west coast, for the chance to swim alongside these gentle giants. Marvel at their graceful movements as they cruise around and above you, using their enormous wings to glide effortlessly through the water. Next stop is Maori Wrasse Bommie, named after the family of giant Maori Wrasse that calls the area home. With their bright blue and yellow markings and impressive size, they’re impossible to miss. Famously friendly, Maori Wrasse rarely passes up the opportunity to say hello – so bring your waterproof camera for an underwater selfie.

Day 4: Get up close to sharks Townsville (without getting wet)

You’ll need to get an early start today, because it’s time to wave goodbye to Lady Elliot and set your sights on Townsville. From Bundaberg you can choose to fly (via Brisbane) or take the epic 1000km, 11 hour scenic drive up the coast.While in Townsville, don’t miss the chance to brush up on your reef knowledge at Reef HQ: the world’s largest living coral reef aquarium. Wander through the underwater reef tunnel to experience life under the waves without getting wet. (It’s perfect for little ones who haven’t mastered the art of snorkelling yet). Don’t miss the daily shark feeding show for the chance to see these sleek and efficient predators in action.

Day 5: Spot tiny clownfish and giant clams in Tropical North Queensland

Today’s final destination is Port Douglas: the gateway to exploring the Outer Reef. Take the short flight to Cairns and continue on to Port Douglas by road (the journey takes around an hour). Alternatively, put your trip on pause and spend a day (or more) exploring Cairns and its surrounding beaches and reef. Keen to get back on the water? Check out the boat trip options at Sunlover Reef Tours. For expert insights into reef ecology, sign up to their Marine Biologist for a Day program. Your day includes a guided snorkel safari as well as a practical session on how to analyse coral health and look for signs of environmental impact. Combine it with their Astronomer for a Night tour and spend the night stargazing 50kms off the coast of Cairns. If you’re cruising on to Port Douglas, head to buzzing Macrossan Street on arrival to refuel (The Little Larder is a local favourite). Then, it’s time to explore the underwater world of the Outer Reef. Discover the weird and wonderful marine life that inhabit the bommies and coral cays of Agincourt Reef aboard Silversonic, Quicksilver Cruises’ high-speed dive catamaran. For the best chance of spotting giant clams, parrotfish and Maori Wrasse, head to The Point on the northern end of the reef. Continue north and west to reach the Three Sisters, where clownfish dart amongst the colourful sea anemones that double as their homes. Back on dry land, celebrate completing your bucket-list of Queensland marine life encounters with sunset drinks on the deck at the Tin Shed, Port Douglas.