Archipelago

I went to another great National Geographic Live program tonight. This one was called Archipelago: Portaits of life in the World's Most Remote Islands. It's the first in a 3-part series they're calling Masters of Photography. This lecture again featured amazingly beautiful images, as the photographers spent years studying the remote atolls and islands in the northwestern corner of the Hawaiian archipelago. I had no idea there were so many uninhabited islands spanning thousands of miles (I think thousands) between what we know of as the state of Hawaii and Midway Island. Midway is the only one that has a human population; the rest are all teeming with amazing life, including plans, sea birds, and marine life.

These photographers use a fairly unique method as they try to take "portraits" of this native life. With the help of scientists and some well-rigged studios, they were able to isolate plants, birds, fish, against either white or black backgrounds to take these portraits, focusing on the beauty and the uniqueness of each subject without any background. I had to wonder a bit about the ethics of this technique, although the photographers assured everyone that this was all done with the utmost care without damaging habitats or harming the animals or plants. We had a fascinating conversation in my photography class this summer about the ethics of photography, particularly using examples of National Geographic projects, and I'll share more details on that some other time. Regardless of thoughts on this technique, the images were striking. Some of them were adorable, with fuzzy baby chicks, some showed sea life to hve more personality than I'd ever imagined, and some showed the true wonder of nature's own survival skills.

Unlike the program last week, this lecture included a lot more discussion of conservation and the damage that human civilization has inflicted on these habitats. They told a heart-breaking story, illustrated with photographs, about a young albatross that they watched from hatching until it was almost ready to take flight. He lived near the shed in which they worked, so they called him Shedbird. After molting all of his baby chick feathers and starting a few test runs on flying, Shedbird suddenly started seeming listless. After a rapid decline, he died. One of the scientists they worked with was curious as to what had happened to this seemingly healthy bird, so they performed an autopsy. When they opened up Shedbird's stomach, they found that it was completely filled with plastic. Pieces of trash - lighters, bottle caps, plastic bags shreds, toy pieces - all debris that floats in the ocean. The image of this bird's body opened up and filled with the plastic was horrifying, and they actually took a picture of all of the plastic trash after it had been emptied out of the body. There were probably more than 100 pieces. Curious and disgusted, the team performed more autopsies on birds as they died and found the same thing. In fact, the photographers said that on these islands, part of the cycle of life is that birds that die quickly decompose and you find the bones along the beach often. They said they often see rib cages of dead birds that are still filled with plastic debris. This human trash is literally killing these animals.

The program was cosponsored by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, which is a non-profit dedicated to helping to preserve/protect this refuge. I know that the Ocean Conservancy is another major group trying to preserve the marine ecosystem. I want to do some research into what other groups are trying to help minimize human damage on this pristine part of the world. I'm not sure what I can do at a small level, but I'll try to find out.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying these National Geographic programs. I'm looking forward to the next one!