Creative Visions of the Reef

Photo submission brief
Entries to this category should reveal new ways of seeing coral reefs and what they mean to you. Your brief is to represent your vision in an imaginative or abstract way that captures the essence of the coral reef environment. Judges will be looking for originality and artistic vision. NB: Extensive image manipulation is permissible See rule 4.

If you are a member and would like to enter a photograph in this category Login Here and click on the "Photography Competition" link in the members section. If you are not a member and you would like to join Click Here to register as a new member.

Why did we select this category?
We selected this category to demonstrate the myriad of ways people view coral reefs. Visions of coral reefs have also changed through time, but is this because of personal interpretation or real change?

Understanding Shifting Baseline Syndrome
The natural environment changes. These changes can be great over a human lifetime but only subtle over a few months or years. Change creeps up on us unnoticed until there are no more huge fish in the sea or until we run out of clean drinking water and we wonder why. This is why it is important to have an idea of the environmental ‘baseline’, as this provides us with a reference point with which to accurately measure our impact on the environment and then do something about it! In ecological jargon, ‘baseline’ refers to the initial, pristine state of a community of organisms. The fisheries biologist ‘Daniel Pauly’ has recently remarked upon the significant problem of what he calls a ‘Shifting Baseline Syndrome’. Without a baseline to use as reference our standards for the environment are declining, leaving a world less aware of vanishing species, dirty polluted air, and contaminated water. (Jeremy Jackson 2002).

What can you do?
By joining our Reef Check Monitoring Team you will start to document the current status of our coral reefs to help ensure our baselines can’t shift further unnoticed.

Illustration by Sarah Lowe