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gorillas before they are poached into oblivion
or see the great migration in East Africa before
the construction of a proposed highway through
Tanzania that will irrevocably disrupt behavior that
has existed for millennia. But in the ocean it feels
like the timeline is on steroids, and changes we
could not imagine happening in our lifetimes are
happening in decades and less.
I can relate to this urgency, for there was a time I
felt like I blinked and it was gone. “It” was the huge
field of elkhorn and staghorn corals in the shallows
near Carysfort Reef off Key Largo. Jerry Greenberg
made a career out of photographing these exquisite
reefs. I’d seen his shots in National Geographic, and
we actually processed his E-6 film in my photo lab. So
even before I saw it through a facemask I knew this
was a special place. But for me Carysfort was a long
boat ride away. It is one of the northernmost areas of
Pennekamp Park, and I generally dived with boats out
of the south end. It wasn’t a tremendous distance but
enough to be inconvenient. I visited a few times, was
duly impressed and shot a few rolls of film. But some
of those days were rough, and visibility was marginal.
Other days I had camera malfunctions. I never really
felt I connected to the place photographically, and I
always figured I’d shoot it later.
But the clock on the Carysfort corals accelerated.
Some say the algae got out of control and smothered
the reef like it did on many other reefs when the
long-spined sea urchins died off suddenly (see “Water
Planet,” Page 104). Had I known it could all deteriorate
in less than a decade, I’d have surely picked a few good
days in the summer and photographed those massive
fields of pristine coral in every way I could imagine —
as wide-angle vistas, with models, as over/unders and
in silhouette. But I procrastinated for no good reason,
and now it is gone.
So to those big-critter enthusiasts who want to see
great white sharks, whale sharks, sperm whales or
humpbacks, you’re right to have a sense of urgency.
Get out there now. Enjoy. Celebrate. Shoot. Share.
Have no regrets. We’ll never have a time machine to
see the reefs that were, but there’s no time better than
now to savor the reefs that are.
AD
WHAT’S NEW ON
ALERTDIVER.COM
Rumengan’s
Pipehorse Video
Journey to Lembeh Strait
from the comfort of home
to observe the Rumengani
pipehorse, a species discov-
ered in 2006 by Indonesian
dive guide Noldy Rumengan.
Visit www.AlertDiver.com
for a close encounter with
this tiny creature revealed
in this issue’s “Encounters”
(Page 26).
Bonne Terre
Mine Gallery
Want to explore more of
Bonne Terre Mine (“Local
Diving,” Page 30)? Take a
virtual tour of this deep-
earth adventure; explore
the exclusive online photo
gallery brought to you by
Andy Morrison.
Capture the Moment
After reading about the meth-
ods and equipment shooters
use to expand their creative
range in “Photo Techniques”
(Page 100), check out the
gallery to explore examples
of the moments these
unique techniques have
helped them capture.
Behind the Lens
Once you’ve read the
interview with famed pho-
tographer Brian Skerry in
“Shooter” (Page 92), take a
moment to watch his TED
talk about the current sta-
tus of the world’s oceans
and his vision for the future
at www.AlertDiver.com.
N E D D E L O A CH
A ND Y MORR I S ON
K E R I W I L K
BR I A N S K E RR Y
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