Our very own Ocean Correspondent, Cheryl-Samantha Owen, recently had great success at the Fujifilm Photographic Awards. Her striking photographs of various marine subjects from around the world won awards in several categories including winning the Underwater category with her image of blacktip reef sharks from Aldabra.
We would like congratulate Sam on her great photographs that not only show the beauty of the marine realm but also bring to the fore some of the most pressing issues facing our oceans today, including overfishing and plastic pollution reaching some of the most remote places on Earth.
<!–more–>"The split level image of the sea urchin barren was taken near a beach that was once my childhood playground," says Cheryl-Sam. "Victims of overfishing and climate change, the dazzling reef fish and fluorescent coral are gone, replaced by a vast sea urchin barren. Elsewhere in our underwater realm and on some of the remotest shores plastic is suffocating marine life, even out-weighing plankton. The beauty behind these images, of man’s influence on nature, is that we can change this reality. By showing both the wonder of our oceans and the challenges they face we can inspire people to become custodians of our seas."