THE Sustainable Seas Trust sets out to harness the power of people to promote conservation of the ocean and to help restore marine habitats.
The non-profit organisation uses movies, posters and educational books for schools to help raise awareness about the need to conserve coastal areas and to prevent pollution and over-harvesting of marine resources.
To achieve this, the organisation believes it needs to change people’s behaviour through education, which it says it achieves by engaging with people from the poorest, most removed communities, to decision-makers at the top level.
One of its projects is a photographic competition of all things marine. The organisation has issued the results of its second round of entries that it has short-listed in the competition, some of which are shown here.
The winners will be announced in December.
The photographs will be compiled into a coffee table book, to be launched in December, titled South African Coasts: a celebration of seas and shores.
Environment Minister Edna Molewa will host the book launch and marine conservationist Syliva Earle will launch the South African Hope Spots expedition tour at the same event in Cape town.
Hope Spots are special conservation areas that are critical to the health of the ocean. Some of these Hope Spots are already formally protected, while others still need protection. Networks of Hope Spots maintain biodiversity, provide a carbon sink, generate life-giving oxygen, preserve critical habitat and allow low-impact activities like ecotourism to thrive. – Staff Writer