PRESERVING NAKED BEAUTY
Nature is naked beauty.
We took a look at some of the latest initiatives focused on documenting and preserving the naked beauty of the land, sea, sky, and creatures in the remaining pristine pockets of our world.
“The Last Ocean,” an award-winning documentary, directed by Peter Young, captures the pristine bracing landscapes and exotic sea life of Antarctica’s Ross Sea. Released in 2012, the film is top of mind this week as the “battle for Antarctica’s soul” suffered a major defeat last week at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) conference in Bremerhaven, Germany, when the proposals to designate 1.2 million square miles, including major parts of the Ross Sea and Eastern Antarctica, as nature preserve, were struck down.
The film shines a light on the tug-of-war over Antarctica’s native toothfish, also known as Chilean seabass, a species rapidly being eaten up by its own popularity. The toothfish is not a conventional beauty, with its feral jagged mouth and its sharp spiny fins, but it does possess a pure prehistoric kind of magnificence.
The toothfish has been overfished and it’s absence is threatening the entire region’s marine ecosystem. “The Last Ocean” project, co-founded by Young, photographer John B. Weller, and scientific advisor David Ainley, continues its aims to counter the aggressive lobbying efforts of the commercial fishing industry. The battle over “Antarctica’s soul” continues. See our post, “Keeping Up with Ice” to read more about it.
Photo: Rajesh Ran, Gharial Crocodiles
Some efforts are committed to the critically endangered species and ecosystems.
The Chambal Sanctuary protects three species that are near extinction, listed on the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Red List: gharials (Gavialis gangeticus - aka long snouted crocodile), freshwater gangetic dolphins (Platanista gangetica), and the Batagur Red Crowned Roof Turtle.
Illegal sand mining and fishing are the two primary threats. The gharials’ and dolphins’ needle-nosed snouts easily get caught in fishing nets, as do the turtles. And the crocodile and turtle eggs get destroyed by the mining. The Sanctuary has, so far, managed to have successfully protected 55 nests of the “Critically Endangered” gharials, each of which house clutches of 35-40 eggs.
Photo: Courtesy of Terrambiente
Chambal is also listed an Important Bird Area (IBA), offering refuge to vulnerable migratory birds, such as Indian skimmers, sarus cranes, Pallas’s fish eagles, lesser flamingos, and pallid harriers.
Less vulnerable animals are happy here too. Striped Hyena, smooth-coated otters, black-bellied terns, and black-necked storks are part of the beautiful mix, as well as two primate species (Hanuman langurs and Rhesus macaques), two species of mongooses, sambar, nilgai, blackbuck, Indian gazelles, and monitor lizards.
Beyond offering refuge, the Sanctuary operates a breeding operation that has already made a significant impact by more than doubling the gharial population in the area. The 2013 census counted 758 adult gharials. Watch as a new litter of gharials hatches on the banks of the river Ganges in this video.
Nature photography not only captures naked beauty, it serves to protect it as well, by connecting both photographers and their fans to the wild world. David Cardinal won the Grand Prize in the 2012 National Wildlife Federation Photo Contest for his spectacular photo of two Harris Hawks fighting in the skies above the Rio Grande Valley, beating out more than 28,000 other images.
The National Wildlife Federation just extended its deadline for entries for its 43rd annual photography competition to July 22 (2013). If the community rallies lots of votes for your shot, it will be featured in an upcoming issue of National Wildlife magazine, where it will be in good company with photos from some of the world’s top nature photographers. The Grand Prize is a nature lover’s holiday for two in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, for a polar bear photo safari, and more.
All this week, we’ll be exploring the pure, simple, unadorned, untainted naked beauty in our world. Let’s keep naked beauty naked.
Check out the rest of our posts on Naked Beauty this week in Arts/Design, Food/Drink, Mind/Body, Place/Time, Nature/Science, and Soul Impact. And enter our new photo competition starting tomorrow. The theme: Naked Beauty (Deadline, July 28th, 2013).
