Conservation Photography

Polynesian Voyaging Society – Hōkūle’a Returns Home

By Kevin Majoros

It has been said that the early settlers of Polynesia arrived from the west at those islands in their voyaging canoes by accident. Long known to be experienced sailors, it is believed that they drifted there using navigation skills that were passed down through the centuries.

There were no maps, compasses or global positioning systems. Instead, these navigators used the sun, stars, wind, swells, birds, weather and other patterns of nature to chart their course.

Over the centuries, that art was lost to the current inhabitants of the islands. In 1973, the Polynesian Voyaging Society was formed to perpetuate the art and science of traditional Polynesian voyaging. In that spirit, two years later they launched a traditional double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe named Hōkūle’a.

An ānuenue dances over Hōkūleʻa as she journeys onward to Lāʻie.

The Society tapped Mau Piailug, a Micronesian wayfinder who was in possession of the lost art and eager to share it, to lead Hōkūle’a on its first voyage to Tahiti. The success of the Micronesian-Polynesian exchange had an impact that was felt in every part of the Pacific.

The day breaks over Hōkūleʻa with Kualoa behind her.

Through her subsequent voyages, which have surpassed 150,000 nautical miles, Hōkūle’a has sparked a reawakening of Hawaiian culture, language, identity and revitalized voyaging and navigation traditions throughout the Pacific Ocean. In 2012, a sister ship was launched named Hikianalia.

To become a figurative and literal flagship for the cultural renaissance, Hōkūle’a embarked on the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage at the end of 2013. She will cover over 60,000 nautical miles, visiting 100 ports and 27 nations. Hōkūle’a, along with her Pacific voyaging sister ship Hikianalia, are expected to culminate the worldwide voyage on June 17 when they sail into Magic Island in Hawai’i.

Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) President and Pwo Navigator, Nainoa Thompson, sums up the experience by saying, “We are voyaging because what is happening to climate, ecology, and the chemistry of the earth is happening to all of us. There are stories out there of solutions, hope and leadership. These stories can build a sustainable future when we come together to protect what we love. That is what Hōkūle’a has always done.”

Eric Co, a crew member on two of the legs of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage is the leader of one of PVS’s major environmental initiatives, Promise to PaeʻĀina o Hawaiʻi. His participation on the voyage on two separate legs, one through American Samoa and one through the Caribbean, brought him new perspectives for what the journey means in terms of caring for the environment as it pertains to the cultural rebirth in the Polynesian Triangle.

“Being on a canoe in a sacred space, using nature as our guide, resulted in many lessons learned including just how reliant we are on the environment,” says Co. “Our ability to take care of our space is directly reliant on our ability to care of ourselves.”

By sending Hawaiʻi’s greatest treasure, Hōkūle’a, out into the world, PVS is raising global consciousness on shared issues such as marine conservation, sustainability and global health. The challenge for PVS is that when Hōkūle’a returns from her four-year voyage, will anything be different from when she left.

With that in mind, Promise to PaeʻĀina o Hawaiʻi has engaged two dozen organizations in Hawaiʻi to achieve three goals and twenty commitments.

“There are a lot of different voices in the room but we are focused on working towards our shared goals,” Co says. “There is an incredible amount of data that has never been utilized to determine what it is telling us. We are building a single comprehensive marine data set to be used in making marine decisions.”

The goals of the initiative include effecting an immediate change on oceans and how they are valued; implementing policy measures that ensure healthier oceans in the future; and catalyzing long-term collaborative ocean management.

The outreach is multi-pronged and includes maintaining healthy marine fish and coral reefs, mapping out career pathways, creating coalitions on clean beaches and encouraging homegrown talent to become marine professionals.

Eric Co shares his thoughts on the initiative, “It’s amazing for me to think about the idea that during the diaspora of who would become Polynesians over six to seven thousand years from west to east, how many times a small, intrepid group of people stood on the beach – and having no idea what was out there or what would become of them – set sail in these double-hull canoes to discover a new home. How many times did that play out through this history? Hundreds, maybe thousands of times I assume. It’s partly why Nainoa Thompson rightly calls voyaging canoes the spaceships of their time. As we talk about these ‘voyages’ to tackle the issues facing our oceans, it’s maybe not so different. You’re either content with our situation, or you team up with the willing to band together and set out for something better. That to me is what the Promise to PaeʻĀina is really about.”

Co says he is excited about the return of Hōkūle’a and the prospect of making a new commitment to what can be achieved through the success of her voyages. Her homecoming will allow the many people who never leave their island to dream about what is possible and understand what can be accomplished. Co’s own adventure aboard Hōkūle’a left him with a sea of metaphors which he likes to share.

“Understanding where you are going is a direct function of where you are, which makes it fascinating to watch a navigator at work. They have vision beyond what they can see. It’s kind of a magical thing,” says Co. “We all need to find that within ourselves. Your vision is your own roadmap.”

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Conservation Photography

National Geographic Explorer Thomas Peschak to Receive 2025 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling

This year’s award recognizes Peschak’s legacy of visually illuminating ecosystems, including the people advocating for them, while connecting audiences to the importance of conservation

Cover of the Amazon Special Single-Topic October 2024 Issue of National Geographic Magazine. Photo by Thomas P . Peschak/National Geographic.

Award-winning photographer and National Geographic Explorer T homas P. Peschak will receive the National Geographic Society’s 2025 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling for his long legacy of conservation storytelling at National Geographic and beyond.

The award — named for the writer and photographer Eliza Scidmore, the first woman elected to the Society’s Board of Trustees in 1892 — recognizes individuals whose work focuses on immersive storytelling to advance our understanding of the environmental and conservation issues we face, with the ultimate goal of supporting societies in making the best decisions for a healthier planet.

While Peschak began his career training as a marine biologist specializing in human-wildlife interactions, he eventually moved to photojournalism after realizing his impact on conservation could be greater through storytelling to inspire change. Now, Peschak’s accomplishments are world-renowned, with 18 Wildlife Photographer of the Year wins, seven World Press Photo Awards, and most recently, the 2024 Wildlife Photojournalist Story Award — all for his significant work documenting some of the most crucial conservation stories of our time.

Ariaú River, Brazil – A pink river dolphin cruises in the shallows of a flooded forest in Brazil’s Ariaú River. Its unique anatomy allows it to swim easily through these waters. Narrow dorsal fins, long snouts and large, flexible flippers let the mammals slip in and out of submerged branches. “They basically fly between the trees,” marine biologist Fernando Trujillo says, “following the fish.” Featured in the Special Single-Topic October 2024 Amazon Issue of National Geographic Magazine. © THOMAS P. PESCHAK/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

“Tom’s work is rooted in a commitment to drive meaningful impact. Whether documenting vital ecosystems, the plight of at-risk species or the stories of communities, his images open our eyes to the world, make it clear what’s at stake and inspire us to act,” said Jill Tiefenthaler, CEO of the National Geographic Society. “Tom’s dedication to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world defines his work, and it’s why we are deeply honored to present him with the 2025 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling.”

Most recently, he was the lead storyteller on the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition, a multiyear series of solutions-centered science expeditions spanning the entire Amazon River Basin. Working with fellow Explorers and local communities, Peschak immersed himself in the basin for 396 days to reveal its aquatic and wetland habitats. The single-topic October issue of the National Geographic magazine was devoted entirely to Peschak’s stunning images of the Amazon Expedition. Starting with ice axes and crampons in the icy high Andes and finishing with scuba gear in the Atlantic Ocean, he created the first-of-its-kind comprehensive photographic archive of our planet’s most iconic and biodiverse river system.

Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands – A ground finch pecks at the base of a Nazca booby’s flight feathers and drinks the blood. © THOMAS P. PESCHAK/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

To date, Peschak has photographed 20 National Geographic magazine features on various subjects, including manta rays, sea turtles, climate change in Antarctica and the global seabird crisis, the latter of which resulted from a Society grant in 2017. Seeking to address the loss of 230 million seabirds over 60 years, Peschak mined archives for images of seabird colonies in Peru taken 100 years ago and re-photographed those same locations, presenting these images side by side in an innovative multimedia display to visualize this staggering absence in the hopes of protecting this ecologically critical and unique species.

Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles Islands – Blacktip reef sharks wait for the tide to refill the lagoon at remote Aldabra Atoll. © THOMAS P. PESCHAK/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

In addition to his extraordinary photojournalistic work, Peschak has written and photographed eight books, including “Sharks and People,” which chronicles the relationship between people and sharks around the world, and “Wild Seas,” a collection of photos taken by Peschak documenting the beauty and fragility of underwater life and wild coastlines from around the world. He has also appeared as a speaker for the National Geographic Live! series, having presented over 20 shows in 15 cities on three continents.

Mexico – A manta ray being cleaned by Clarion angelfish. Today these animals play an important role in tourism in places like Mexico’s Archipiélago de Revillagigedo Biosphere Reserve, in the Pacific Ocean about 240 miles southwest of Baja’s southern tip. © THOMAS P. PESCHAK/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

“Photography and storytelling aren’t just about highlighting places with unique biodiversity, especially when areas like the Amazon basin are under siege every day from issues like overfishing, pollution and climate change,” said Peschak. “To capture the full scale, it’s imperative to highlight these challenges as well as the people who are facing them head-on: local communities, Indigenous peoples, researchers and other Explorers. The goal and hope with my work has always been to photograph places I love in order to help save them, so it is a true honor to receive this award and get to continue to work on important stories of conservation.”

Bahama Islands – Green sea turtles congregate near a dock in the Bahamas. © THOMAS P. PESCHAK/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

While remaining a cornerstone of storytelling work at the Society, Peschak continues to focus on marine conservation storytelling more broadly, serving as the director of storytelling for the Save our Seas Foundation — an organization he has been an integral part of for almost two decades. He is also a founding director of the Manta Trust and a senior fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers.

Peschak will be honoured as the 2025 Eliza Scidmore Award recipient during the annual National Geographic Society Storytellers Summit in February 2025. To learn more about Peschak and other Explorers’ work, visit our website here.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Since 1888, National Geographic has pushed the boundaries of exploration, investing in bold people and transformative ideas, providing more than 15,000 grants for work across all seven continents, reaching 3 million students each year through education offerings, and engaging audiences around the globe through signature experiences, stories and content.

Conservation Photography

Manta Ray Magic: Witnessing a Feeding Frenzy in the Great Barrier Reef – Photography by Aliya Siddiqi

While working at an island that’s known as “the home of the manta ray,” it’s easy for most of us staff to get jaded at seeing one or two manta rays…per day. Maybe they do a quick cruise past, or maybe a stop at the cleaning station. But when these mantas do aggregate around this small island on the Great Barrier Reef, those are the days that turn into pure magic. And it reminds us all as to why these animals are so spectacular to interact with.

Manta rays, more specifically Manta alfredi, are unique in the contrast between their large size and inquisitive behavior around humans. Despite reaching average lengths of three to five meters wingtip to wingtip, they are filter feeders and seek out the smallest creatures in the ocean to feed on. The diets of manta rays are found to consist mostly of different types of zooplankton, small creatures that range from microscopic single-celled organisms to the larvae of larger animals like crabs, octopuses, and fish. Zooplankton are heterotrophic, meaning that they obtain their energy from feeding on other organisms including phytoplankton and other zooplankton. In this photo series, all of those small dots sparkling in the photos indicate a high number of plankton.

According to scientists studying the island aggregation site, the higher biomass of zooplankton seems to be a result of “local concentration and retention processes around the island”. Though still unknown why these zooplankton blooms around the island happen, when it does become what we call “manta soup,” the foraging behaviour of the manta rays gives guests and staff some unforgettable experiences. The elasmobranchs ensure filter-feeding efficiency by looping around consistently in nutrient-dense areas. All one must do is stay in that same spot and wait for the mantas to swoop in and detour around you – though with strong currents, this is often more easily said than done. However, some days you get lucky when the weather window blesses you with no wind, high zooplankton biomass, and an influx of manta rays.

These photos come from a day like that, making it almost too easy for an amateur photographer like me to capture these charismatic animals. The mantas were swooping in and out, with some of the females displaying quite pregnant bellies. Like any aggregation site, tourism operators greatly benefit from the frequency at which these animals appear. Their docile and curious nature also makes them excellent flagship species for marine conservationists. Listed as Vulnerable to Extinction by the IUCN, these experiences with the public allow for an opportunity to discuss the challenges our oceans are facing, and why protection is of the utmost importance.

Conservation Photography

Cleaning Stations & Coastal Cruising – Under the Waves with Karim Iliya, October 2024

This is a turtle cleaning station. You can see the turtle in the back getting cleaned by a fish which eats parasites and algae off the turtle’s skin, shell, and scales. The turtle in the front is waiting its turn. This is a symbiotic relationship in which the turtles get cleaned, and the fish get a meal.

A Hawaiian green sea turtle cruises beneath the waves off the coast of Hawaii. This turtle was eating algae off the rocks, seemingly unaffected by the powerful turbulent water all around. When not eating algae, these turtles spend much of their time laying on the nearby beach .

Karim was published in National Geographic magazine for his humpback whale photography. He now leads his own trips so that others can swim with whales.

If you are interested in swimming with or photographing humpback whales, Karim guides people on small trips between August and October every year in Tonga. Visit www.dancewithwhales.com to find out more

To see more of Karim’s work, visit his website at www.karimphotography.com