2023-06-07 18:34:00
Using nine impressive sea creatures, underwater photographer Vincent Kneefel tells the story of the ocean, which is under pressure from overfishing, global warming and plastic pollution. The first version of his book will be published on Thursday, World Ocean Day.
Like a group of burly guys, four tiger sharks hang in the water a few meters from Vincent Kneefel’s camera. Waiting, curious and alert. Dangerous? “I never felt threatened in the ocean,” says Kneefel. “None of those animals are out to eat humans. They only attack incidentally, when they feel threatened or by mistake.”
Underwater photographer Kneefel finds it difficult to put into words what the encounters with large sea creatures do to him. “Something really changes when you come into contact with them. They are all very intelligent animals. Manta rays look at you when you swim with them, dolphins often want to play and the orca I photographed was very relaxed, he also looks at me.”
Kneefel has photographed nine impressive species for his project over the past two years The Ocean Story: manta ray, pilot whale, coral, tiger shark, sperm whale, whale shark, killer whale, black killer whale (or pseudo killer whale) and beluga (or white whale). He swam around them and brought them into sharp focus using a fisheye lens.
The book will be released in first edition and limited edition on Thursday, on World Ocean Day, although it is not actually finished yet. Not every icon can be seen just like that, three of the nine species – killer whale, black killer whale and beluga – have to make do with just one photo. And some of his expeditions, such as to the blue whale, were unsuccessful.
After the presentation of his book, which is partly made with plastic recovered from the sea, Kneefel is therefore continuing to work on his project, of which he also wants to publish a public version together with an international publisher, perhaps even in the Dutch language. With the help of a QR code in the book, interested parties can already gather additional information via the Sustainability Unlocked platform.
Met The Ocean Story Kneefel draws attention to the three major threats to the ocean: overfishing, global warming and plastic pollution. His project fits into the ‘Decade of the Ocean’ proclaimed by the United Nations in 2021: to save the world’s oceans, these ten years may well be the most important of the next ten thousand, says Kneefel. “That is why it was agreed in December during the Biodiversity Summit in Montreal that at least 30 percent of the ocean must be protected by 2030.”
Overfishing disrupts the food balance: there is simply not enough food left for the giants of the sea and endangered species become entangled in nets that stretch for miles. The warming of the seawater also disrupts the food chain: the amount of plankton, krill and seaweed decreases because fewer nutrients come to the surface from the deeper layers. As a result, the ocean can also produce less oxygen and absorb less CO2.
How is Vincent Kneefel?
Vincent Kneefel (1984) has a passion for the ocean. At 18 he was already a dive master and instructor. He decided to become an underwater photographer following his first encounters with the amazing life below sea level. He studied business administration, but focused on ocean protection at the United Nations and the World Wildlife Fund, among others. His book was published in 2016 Giants of the Carribbean.
Warming is also causing coral reefs, the source of a quarter of marine life, to fade and die. Finally, plastic permeates all marine life in microparticles, while larger pieces are dangerous to the fish and marine mammals that choke on or damage them.
“The ocean covers 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, our life depends on it,” explains Kneefel. “That’s why we call the Earth the blue planet. All that water is connected; although we have given it different names it is in fact one great ocean. There are no boundaries for the animals that live in it.
“But the threat is taking place outside our field of vision and as a result, it receives far too little attention. The large sea creatures are in danger of becoming extinct, which is why I wanted to photograph them now. If the ocean warms up 2 degrees, 99 percent of the coral will die too. And there are already 150 million tons of plastic floating in the ocean, which will have tripled by 2040. There is talk of a global treaty, but the biggest problem is a lack of waste management in developing countries, and we are only producing more plastic.”
It is not easy to make contact with every animal. “Sperm whales avoid humans because they have been hunted for a long time. Because a sperm whale can live to be a hundred years old, there are still enough who have experienced that and see humans as a danger.”
Tiger sharks are also hunted, but around the Maldives, where Kneefel met the foursome in his photo, they enjoy protection to promote ecotourism. “Everyone wants to see those sharks. That way they earn much more than if their fins were cut off for the soup.”
For the time being, ecotourism is also the rescue for the whale sharks that were a direct competitor of shrimp fishers in Oslob on the Philippine island of Cebu. Since 2010, hunting this largest fish species (up to 15 meters) in the world has been banned there. “It’s one of the most popular areas in the Philippines, too popular in fact,” says Kneefel.
“But without ecotourism there would be no more whale sharks there. The value of an animal only counts if it is linked to an economic activity. During my photo expedition I saw at least 25 of them. I was able to photograph one while feeding, with these animals filtering up to 200 liters of water per minute, recycling many nutrients. He paid no attention to me at all.”
There was contact with Hvaldimir, the beluga that swims around in the Norwegian Sea and made a surprising appearance along the Swedish coast last week. This white whale was still wearing an oar harness when it was first seen off Norway four years ago, which it may have used to carry a camera. It is suspected that he was trained by Russia. “We were looking for killer whales, which we didn’t find, but one morning he was next to our boat,” says Kneefel. “I played with him for hours, affectionate as a dog, but very big.”
Kneefel photographs everywhere, but mostly in the so-called Coral Triangle, the tropical ocean between Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. Into the coral The Ocean Story he went to the diver’s paradise Raja Ampat near West Papua. “Here, the biomass is still increasing thanks to a cold flow from below. The reef is well protected and is less vulnerable to ocean warming than The Great Barrier Reef in Australia.”
As a counterpart to the colorful coral of Raja Ampat, he shows an image from the Maldives, in which the reef has been bleached by the El Niño warm water current. “Coral is a living organism, regarding which we still know far too little. It lives by interacting with an algae, which it spits out as the water warms. It can reproduce in two ways. Sexually, where it releases millions of eggs that are only partially successful. And asexually, by breaking off and planting small pieces. In this way we try to restore coral in the Caribbean.”
Kneefel does this as sustainability director of The Mustique Company, a company of the inhabitants of the island of Mustique, which is part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. “It is a private island, for the rich and famous, in a marine protected area with coral. There are a hundred houses and in the peak season there are a thousand residents. My role is to ensure that the island becomes more sustainable: we are working on 100 percent solar energy, we are working on a circular economy and on coral restoration.”
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