This is one of the most famous and recognizable underwater images of our times. The photo of me working underwater was taken by Brian Skerry. I was with him in Auckland Island, Sub Antarctic, New Zealand covering a feature for National Geographic Magazine on Right Whales. Photo credit goes to Brian Skerry.
As a wildlife underwater photographer I have seen first hand the changes that have occurred and continue to transform our natural world, in particular our oceans, lakes and streams. The list is long and would take many pages to address. The highlights though are clearly the loss of coastal habitat and coral, the increase of pollution, the acidification of our seas and the immense over fishing of all marine species, in particular our apex predators such as Shark.
All these will affect the long term health of our seas, which will in turn affect the feeding of humans around the world. The indiscriminant killing of intelligent marine mammals such as whales and dolphins and seals simply has no excuse and cannot be tolerated at any quota. The ocean is not an open refrigerator for human consumption- it can take just so much of our uncontrolled appetite. Greed, mismanagement and simply not carrying of what lies beneath cannot be sustained for much longer.
I fear that the natural events that I have been so privileged to photograph will not be there the next time I set out to find them yet through my lens I see a clear picture of what the core root of the problem is and that is Man.
Clear and simple, there are just too many of us on this planet for it to remain a healthy viable ecosystem. Too many of us that is, if we all want to have a standard of living such as the over consumption of modern society.
I believe in policy and in education but I think time for the implementation of both of these takes too much time. In many respects this time has run out.
We, the modern societies of the planet must take more concrete, direct action to implement the changes necessary for the immediate reversal in this degradation of the core land and aquatic ecosystems of our planet.
I would like to ask that all of us take time out to educate ourselves and vote with our wallet. We need to simplify our lives and lower our consumption in all aspects of our daily living. Talk to others and take the time.
Are we out of time? I believe that maybe we are. Yet I also believe that mankind can make a change, but it needs to be now.
You can read more about Mauricio Handler and view samples of his work at his homepage, www.handlerphoto.com . You can also join his professional Facebook page Mauricio Handler Photography where he posts short essays and photographs from his many adventures.
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