Date:  27 December 2007 

Get out your cameras this summer and plan to enter the Southern Seabird Solutions Trust’s Seabird Photograph Competition.  The overall winner receives a $3000 prize with the winners of each category receiving $1000 prizes. 

“Southern Seabird Solutions Trust promotes fishing practices that avoid seabird deaths in southern hemisphere fisheries,” says Robin Hapi, Southern Seabird Solutions Trustee and Chairman of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd.  “The photograph competition is one way we can remind people that 86 species of seabirds breed in New Zealand – more than anywhere else in the world.”

The Trust held its first photo competition in 2005.  That competition was open to fishermen and their families to help increase awareness of seabirds around their fishing vessels.

“The photo competition is a good way to showcase New Zealand’s seabirds and remind people about the importance of conservation efforts,” says leading ornithologist and Southern Seabird Solutions Trust management committee member Chris Robertson.  “In our first competition we received a number of excellent entries from fishermen and their families.  It was hard to select a winner from so many outstanding photographs, but John Barry’s photograph of albatrosses perfectly captured not only seabirds, but also their activities around fishing vessels.”  

Chris, along with renowned wildlife photographers Kim Westerskov and Rod Morris, and New Zealand Geographic’s editor, James Frankham, will be judging the competition.

“New Zealand Geographic came onboard as a sponsor this year so that the photo competition could reach a broader audience,” says James Frankham, editor, New Zealand Geographic.  “New Zealand is one of the best places in the world to view seabirds, but with that distinction also comes responsibility.  We are glad to be involved in this competition and look forward to publishing winning photographs in the magazine later this year.”   

The 2008 competition has been expanded to include four competition categories.  They are:
1.  New Zealand seabirds (open only to fishermen and their immediate families)
2.  New Zealand seabirds (open to everyone)
3.  New Zealand seabirds (open to young people under 18 years of age on 5 June 2008)
4.  Seabirds and fishing practices or by-catch mitigation efforts in action (open to everyone)

Competition entries must be received by 5 June 2008.  For information on the conditions of entry and an entry form visit www.southernseabirds.org/photocomp.

Sponsors for the Seabird Photograph Competition are Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd, New Zealand Geographic, Te Ohu Kaimoana, and WWF-New Zealand.

–release ends–

Background notes

Southern Seabird Solutions was established to promote fishing practices that avoid seabird deaths in southern hemisphere fisheries. It is an alliance of New Zealand and international interest groups working together to solve the incidental capture of seabirds during longline and trawl fishing.

The organisation includes representatives from government departments, fishing industry, environmental groups, eco-tourism operators, fisheries trainers, indigenous fisheries interests and others.

A core premise of Southern Seabird Solutions is that fishermen hold the key to finding solutions to stopping seabird mortalities. Southern Seabird Solutions works with fishermen to pass on their knowledge, technology and skills to promote good practices in the longline and trawl fisheries.

The organisation’s scope extends beyond New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone because seabirds that breed in New Zealand territory are global travellers, roaming the oceans as far afield as southern Africa, Australia, Japan, and North and South America.

The Southern Seabird Solutions Trust is supported financially by the New Zealand government through the Department of Conservation, and the fishing industry through the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council and the Deepwater Group Ltd.  The Trust is also supported by WWF-New Zealand.  Funding for the Trust’s projects comes from a variety of sources, both within and outside New Zealand, and includes financial contributions from supporters, grants, sponsorship and services in kind.