Mahonia Na Dari
"Guardians of the Sea"
Since 1996, Mahonia na Dari ("Guardians of the Sea" in the local Talasea
language) has been working to protect Papua New Guinea's abundant biodiversity
by promoting the sustainable development of its biological and cultural
resources. Mahonia Na Dara was established as a result of a cooperative venture
by the owners of Walindi Plantation Resort and several international
governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the European Union and
The Nature Conservancy.
Marine Conservation and Education
Barren seas make barren photos.
As threats increase to the teeming sea life that we love to photograph, we recognize the importance of working for its preservation. That's why the Underwater Images Photo/Video Competition donates proceeds from its entry fees to organizations effective in promoting marine conservation and educating the public about its importance.
Our beneficiary for the competition is WiLDCOAST, a marine conservation organization dedicated to protecting coastal and marine resources in the waters of Baja California, Mexico. WiLDCOAST's efforts start where they count the most: with the human residents of the Baja coasts. WiLDCOAST works to identify local marine conservation leaders and to support their conservation efforts on a local and regional level.
WiLDCOAST
is also an integral part of the effort to protect the sea turtle population that
ranges from the Baja coast throughout the Pacific Ocean.
WiLDCOAST monitors sea turtle populations and, through satellite
tracking, plots the movement of individual turtles to nesting areas as far a
field as Japan.
Since 1998, Underwater Images has been able to donate over $9000 to
WiLDCOAST's scholarship programs. Almost a dozen
Mexican fishermen have benefited from these scholarships to national and
international sea turtle symposiums. They include Adan Hernandez, who has been
nominated as Time magazine's conservationist of the year.
Without these scholarships, local conservationists are unable to attend important seminars like this. At a sea turtle seminar, they meet others like themselves, see the latest data on sea turtle declines, make connections with biologists and conservationists from around the world, and learn conservation techniques. They come back to their communities inspired to continue their work. Returned fishermen have been able to save hundreds of turtles and-more important-to begin to change local attitudes to support turtle conservation.
We urge you to join our efforts to support marine conservation and education.
For more information about WiLDCOAST, please visit these sites:
- The WiLDCOAST web page
- The Sea Turtle Conservation Network of the California's web page
- The seaturtle.org web page
OCSSDI Scholarship Fund
The Underwater Images Competition also donates to the OCSSDI Mel Sheehan Memorial Scholarship Fund. This scholarship is awarded to a person from Ohio who is pursuing a career in Marine Sciences. For more information on this scholarship, visit the OCSSDI .