Date: 27 October 2009
Location: Botany Centre
After a long day at school, my colleagues from TMSI decided to drop by for this short talk organised by the Singapore branch's WWF. They have invited husband and wife (Jürgen (‘Yogi’) and Stella Freund) to give a short talk about their 18 month expedition.
Here's a short excerpt from the website:
"The WWF / Freund Factory Expedition is an 18 month photojournalistic expedition into the heart of the Coral Triangle, investigating the connectivity between the wildlife and peoples of the region, and the threats they face."
Both Yogi and Stella not only document the beautiful marine creatures that can be found within the Coral Triangle, one of their main aims was to document the activities carried out by the WWF and how their initiatives have helped conserve the marine animals and carry out proper coastal resource management.
They even had to document the daily lives of the local inhabitants, for example their ways of life, culture, subsistence farming and fishing from the sea. Though it can be cruel (e.g. culling of whale sharks in the Philippines about 8 years ago, dynamite fishing, cyanide poisoning), Yogi shared with us that he felt that he was being 'protected' against all these behind his camera. At the same time, they feel that they cannot just go in and start changing the people's mindset. Instead, they try to introduce new methods and perhaps new occupations for them to alter their lifestyles, in order to conserve more wildlife...
Although I wasn't able to take any photographs, the photo slideshow was a peek into their 9 month journey around the Philippines, Sabah, West Papua, and Indonesia... The colourful marine life makes up for many wrong things. I don't feel that it is wrong to fish, but it is wrong to over-fish and take more out of the sea more than what we can consume. At this expense, we sacrifice alot more than just the animals...
In any case, Yogi and Stella still have another 9 months to go! Stella shares some of her thoughts and blogs about her trips! Check it out at http://blogs.panda.org/coral_triangle/
Cheers... :)
Giant clams at Raffles Lighthouse....
Beautiful flatworm on the rocks...
Unique anemone with anemonefishes at Terumbu Hantu... A baby and its parent...
A colourful mushroom coral exhibiting its green pigments and purplish tentacles...
