People & Cultures

/People & Cultures

Nature Images Awards 2015 – IUCN 2016 Lauréat Bourse

Paris, 20 December 2015 For his story on the Tolga Bat Hospital and the flying foxes of the Atherton Tablelands, Jürgen Freund wins the 2016 IUCN Prize or lauréat bourse in the 2015 Terre Sauvage/IUCN's Nature Images Awards. The prize is a fellowship assignment - to shoot a [...]

Fruit Bats!

Yogi and I have been visiting the Tolga Bat Hospital in the Atherton Tablelands, Tropical North Queensland for many many years, working and becoming fast friends with a wonderful woman named Jenny Maclean. Jenny Maclean with kelpie Guirri Maclean sitting on their magnificent bat bench. Jenny owns and runs the Tolga Bat Hospital. She has [...]

Photographing Great Barrier Reef Mission of the Global Reef Expedition

The oceanic water at the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef is so clear, that you can see the surveying scientists as little specks in the upper right corner from almost 50 meter away. In 2003, my wife and I immigrated to Far North Queensland, Australia – gateway to the Great Barrier [...]

A Funeral to Remember – Goodbye Paramount Chief Ratu Aisea Katonivere

25 - 27 April 2013 - Naduri, Vanua Levu, Fiji Sevusevu with the late Tui Macuata, Ratu Aisea Katonivere, Paramount Chief of Macuata Province in Vanua Levu with Koli Musudroka of WWF South Pacific. We started our journey to Macuata Province first and foremost with a traditional sevusevu in Naduri with the Macuata Province Paramount Chief Tui [...]

Sea Cucumber Hunters of Fiji in the GSR

April 2013 - Kavewa Island, Nukusa Village, Yadua Island Sea cucumber is a high value, high demand Chinese delicacy that is sought after by Chinese traders buying dried sea cucumbers from all over the world especially in Asia and the Pacific. Sea cucumbers are flexible, elongated echinoderms belonging to the class Holothuroidea.  They live on the sea floor in reefs, lagoons and coastal [...]

Yadua Turtle Monitoring and Irris

20 April 2013 Patricia Mallam WWF South Pacific Communications Manager brought her lovely 9 year old daughter Irris to rendezvous with us on Yadua Island - we, coming from Macuata Province and they, coming from Suva. They were joined by Pita Qarau, Turtle Monitor from Yadua Village in Suva and they all took the ferry from Viti Levu to [...]

Yadua Island and Cyclone Evan

19 - 22 April 2013 December 16 - NASA’s Aqua satellite image as Cyclone Evan spirals over Vanua Levu and Viti Levu. The 17th of December 2012 will forever be etched in the minds and hearts of Fijians and the memory is unfortunately not a good one. With a maximum wind speed of [...]

WWF and University of South Pacific at work in the Great Sea Reef

April 2013 Our visits to the Fijian villages and the one resort in Macuata Province were made the richer when we were able to document the fieldwork of WWF South Pacific Marine Species Coordinator Laitia Tamata, WWF Labasa staff Koli Musudroka and University of South Pacific Laisiasa Cavakiqali. They were visiting 5 sites in the target reef systems [...]

Nukubati Island – the Only Resort in Macuata Province’s Great Sea Reef

14 - 18 April 2013 Google Earth Map - Nukubati Island Getting a WWF assignment to document the world's third largest barrier reef, we needed to make sure we saw the Great Sea Reef from underwater. Nukubati Island Resort is the only resort in the Macuata Province of the GSR who offered diving as well [...]

Kia – The Remote Island Paradise of the Great Sea Reef

10 - 14 April 2013 Kia Island in the horizon surrounded by the Great Sea Reef. Google Earth Map - Kia island It was a long 4 hour boat ride from Nukusa Village to Labasa Town where we stayed overnight before heading to Kia Island. We armed ourselves for the next stretch [...]