Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Protectors of the deep

By Dennis Hoey dhoey@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND — The underwater images, both ugly and uplifting, convey a story about the world's oceans that award-winning National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry believes has gone untold for too long.

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Brian Skerry, a photojournalist specializing in underwater and marine-related subjects, chats before his presentation at the Waynflete School on Wednesday.

John Ewing/Staff Photographer

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TO GET INVOLVED

Applications for the Sustainable Ocean Studies program are online at www.waynflete.org.

Tuition will cost $2,500 per student. Waynflete hopes to make scholarships available for students who need assistance. For more information, contact the school at: 774-5721.

A dead shark caught in a gill net, its fins stretched outward, looks as though it has been crucified.

At the other end of the spectrum, a manta ray, framed by a mountain range in the background, leaps into the air above the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.

In another stunning image, a massive southern right whale circles a diver standing on the ocean floor off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand.

"I think the message is clear," Skerry said Wednesday night as an audience of more than 300 people watched his presentation of slides taken in exotic locations around the world. "The ocean is resilient and the ocean is tolerant, to a point, but we have to take steps to protect it."

Skerry's presentation at the Waynflete School's Franklin Theater served as a kickoff to the school's Sustainable Ocean Studies program. The month-long program, which starts July 6, is open to high school juniors and seniors and recent graduates.

David Vaughan, a Waynflete teacher who will be the program's director, said it will infuse students with a sense of place as they combine classroom studies with field trips.

Among the destinations: the Fish Exchange and Union Wharf in Portland, Monhegan Island, Port Clyde, Stonington, Pemaquid and Penobscot Bay.

Students will interact with scientists, researchers and fishermen, as the program aims to inspire a new generation of ocean advocates, Vaughan said.

Skerry's presentation, "Crucial Waters," represents the beginning of a new era of ocean advocacy, Vaughan said. "We are hoping tonight that we can make a ripple in the waters of interest in this program," he said.

Skerry did his part, taking his audience on a photographic journey through several of the world's oceans.

The 48-year-old Massachusetts resident has spent more than 10,000 hours photographing sea animals underwater.

Since 1998, he has been a contract photographer for National Geographic, a magazine read by millions of people every month.

His assignments have taken him to Japan, Indonesia, the coral reefs in the Pacific, the Arctic, the Caribbean and the Galapagos Islands.

An experienced diver, Skerry has witnessed the beauty of the oceans, and how mankind has degraded them through overfishing and pollution.

In one photograph, taken at a fish market in Japan, workers stack bloodied bluefin tuna like cordwood. Another shows harp seal pups, white, fuzzy and cute, but climate change is melting pack ice and threatening their survival, Skerry said.

Kerry spent days photographing lemon sharks in tropical mangroves. Soon after he completed his assignment, he learned that the mangroves had been bulldozed to make way for condominiums.

In one of his most impressive photographs, Skerry was able to photograph the eye of a right whale. Since underwater photographers don't have the luxury of using telephoto lenses, they must swim within a few feet of their subjects, some of which can be dangerous.

But for Skerry, any risks are worth the effort. He hopes people will begin to realize how fragile Earth's oceans are and take action to protect them. New Zealand, for instance, established a marine preserve, where fishing is prohibited.

"The oceans are in trouble, but there is also hope," Skerry said. "They are truly the last wild places left on earth."

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com