The “coral triangle,” an area of nearly 2.3 million square miles of ocean across all, or parts of, the seas of six countries in the Indo-Pacific, is currently only really known to politicians, marine biologists and industry professionals. My role is to put a human face on it and to show the people whose lives are intricately tied up with the oceans and depend directly on its continued abundance. I chose to work with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as they understand the humanitarian and cultural side of conservation.
I began the story living with the Bajau Laut, a group of sea nomads, who took me in, taught me to speak Indonesian and how to free dive to fifty feet on a single breath of air in order to photograph them hunting with handmade spear guns. The story will continue as the WWF has just pledged to give me a very considerable budget in order to set up a communications department with the sole purpose of continuing to get indigenous voices from the coral triangle into mainstream media and conservation forums. It has been great working with a large organization like the WWF as they have very knowledgeable people on board. Going forward, they have the capacity to provide the financial and logistical support that is necessary for a project of this scale.
