In 2009 I accompanied the Australian National Maritime Museum on two archaeological expeditions to remote coral reefs off the coast of Queensland.  The opportunity to be the underwater photographer and videographer on these expeditions was an absolute privilege and a highlight of my career.  In 2010 an exhibition of my images from these expeditions was displayed at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.  The museum has since expanded the exhibition to 33 images which will now go ‘on tour’… first stop, Geelong in Victoria.

The aim of these expeditions, sponsored by the Silentworld Foundation, were to locate the site of His Majesty’s Colonial Schooner Mermaid, wrecked in 1829 on the Great Barrier Reef, and to survey the sites of His Majesty’s Ship Porpoise and the merchant ship Cato, both lost more than 400 kilometres offshore from present day Gladstone (in the Coral Sea) on the Wreck Reefs in 1803.

The expeditions would also provide marine scientists the opportunity to investigate the physical condition of the various reefs encountered during the work and to seek possible evidence of the impact of climate change on these reefs.

Wrecks, Reefs and the Mermaid is a display of 33 photographs I have taken, illustrating the Museum’s work, on these coral reefs.

Exhibition itinerary

National Wool Museum  VIC
9 November 2011 – 12 February 2012
26 Moorabool Street  Geelong  VIC  3220
http://www.nwm.vic.gov.au/

Eden Killer Whale Museum  NSW
18 February – 20 May 2012
184 Imlay Street  Eden NSW  2551
www.killerwhalemuseum.com.au/

Parkes Shire Library  NSW
July – September 2012
Bogan Street  Parkes NSW  2870
www.parkes.nsw.gov.au/library.html

Bribie Island Seaside Museum  QLD
October – November 2012
1 South Esplanade  Bongaree  Bribie Island QLD
www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/subsite.aspx?id=72406

Manning Regional Art Gallery  NSW
8 December 2012 – 8 March 2013
12 Macquarie Street  Taree NSW  2430
www.fogsmanningvalley.com.au

‘The Coral Sea: Our Ocean Paradise’ exhibition opens this week in Cairns and aims to capture the beauty of the Coral Sea with 25-pieces of underwater art. This is a group exhibition and I am proud to have some of my work featured alongside artists such as Jurgen Freund, Mark Spencer, Lucy Tripett, Tyrone Canning and Nicola Temple.

The exhibition is in support of the Protect Our Coral Sea campaign, a joint effort supported by regional, national and international conservation organisations. This year, we are calling on the federal government to establish a very large, world-class,highly protected marine park in the Coral Sea that will provide a safe haven for marine life and recognise its historic significance.

The images will be on display at:
Stockland Shopping Centre, Earlville  3-5th June 2011.
Smithfield Shopping Centre Cairns 27th-29th May 2011
Cairns Central Shopping Centre 13th-22nd May 2011

For more information on the exhibition, please visit:
http://www.protectourcoralsea.org.au/news-media/north-queensland-upcoming-events

This year the Cairns Underwater Film Festival (CUFF) is back and I am proud to be involved both as a board member and also a photo competition judge.  Although one look at the prize pool is enough to make me wish I was entering!  There are some incredible prizes on offer to top destinations.  The underwater photography competition requires entries to be taken in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea.

Previously the festival has been run as a business by Christian Botella, however this year he has handed the running over to a team (the CUFF board) of volunteers, which Christian is still a part of.  The CUFF team then made the unanimous decision to volunteer their time and return all profit from the festival back to the community through donations to local marine conservation groups and other worthwhile causes.  Please visit the CUFF website for more information on this years festival and also the photo competition.

Last weekend I headed to Sydney for the opening of my latest exhibition “The Coral Sea: Our Ocean Paradise”.  This is a group exhibition held to raise awareness of the campaign to protect the Coral Sea.  A group exhibition, it was a privilege to see some of my images displayed next to the work of artists I have looked up to for many years.  The Arthouse Hotel continues to host the exhibition and it will be on display there until the 9th April before traveling to Brisbane (or more specifically Mooloolaba) and then Cairns.

Opening night was a fantastic evening and a big thank you to all who attended.  It was a success in terms of the exhibition looking fantastic in the surrounds of the Arthouse Hotel and also it achieved its aim of raising awareness. For more information about the campaign, please visit: Protect Our Coral Sea.  A big thank you also to those from the campaign who worked hard to get the exhibition together and for selecting me as one of the showcased photographers.

The Coral Sea is a globally important habitat for many species which are listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Green turtles are long lived, highly migratory and are found in tropical, and to a lesser extent, sub-tropic waters.

By providing the Australian Marine Conservation Society and IUCN with this underwater image for their use, I hope I can help contribute to educating more people about the plight of the many marine species which are included on the IUCN Red List.

The publication “Underwater Cultural Heritage in Oceania” produced by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) was released in September this year and features an underwater photograph of the HMCS Mermaid wreck site taken by Xanthe.  The photograph (shown below) was taken on a joint Silentworld Foundation / Australian National Maritime Museum expedition to locate the wreck of the HMCS Mermaid in January 2009.

The publication can be viewed online or downloaded as a pdf and describes some of the important maritime and underwater heritage sites throughout the Oceania region, categorised by country.  Xplore Dive, an Australian company which specialises in creating dive site maps for divers, which can be taken underwater with them, also had their incredible map of the S.S. Yongala wreck featured.

Dwarf Minke Whale IUCN Conservation Information

Three of my underwater images are currently being used to promote the conservation status of marine species on the IUCN Red List. The first photograph to be show-cased is of a Dwarf Minke Whale (pictured).  Details on the conservation status of the Dwarf Minke Whale is detailed on the IUCN website, or you can download the pdf document.  Two additional photographs will also be featured: Coral Sea Manta Rays and a photo of a Green Turtle taken on the Great Barrier Reef.

Marine conservation, and awareness of marine issues, is central to the core values of Xanthe Rivett Underwater Photography.   These photographs will be used to help educate the public about the conservation status and importance of marine species.

After a lot of work, much hair-pulling, etc. the new site is live!  I updated the website to: bring my photo galleries within the site, add an easy way for people to purchase my images and modernise the look and feel.  I hope you like the new site, and if you come across any hiccups along the way, please let me know!

Australia's Marine Bioregional Planning Areas

The Coral Sea extends east from the Queensland coast, it includes the Great Barrier Reef before continuing out past where the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park ends and the continental shelf (a shallow platform extending from the Australian coast to the 20mm depth contour) drops away to deep ocean.  Out here in the ocean, remains a great ocean wilderness of over 1 million square kilometers of ocean.  Amongst this ocean are a series of spectacular reefs and islands which rise up from oceans over a 1000m deep.  These reefs were formed by underwater mountains on the Queensland Plateau.

“The Coral Sea is a rare example of a marine environment that is thriving. Bountiful fish populations including grey and white tip reef sharks, hammerheads, manta rays, tuna, barracuda, turtles, whales and rare sea creatures such as the nautilus inhabit the waters, alongside an incredibly diverse range of corals.”

The area of the Coral Sea beyond the Great Barrier Reef has largely been protected by its remoteness in the past, however as fishing stocks are reduced in other areas, fisherman will travel further to achieve their quotas.  This includes illegal fisherman which may use more destructive fishing practices.  Current figures indicate that in the last 50 years 90% of the ocean’s fish stocks have been removed.  As we learn more about our oceans we understand that many big ocean fish species move across large areas of ocean, and a single large marine park will help ensure that the scale of management appropriately matches the biological scale of important ecosystem processes such as dispersal and migration.  This can enhance the viability of fishing in the future.

Marine Bioregional Planning Process for All Australia’s Commonwealth Waters:

Australia’s marine bioregional planning program is designed to provide a clearer focus on the protection, conservation and sustainable use of Australia’s marine environment.  The underlying principle is ecologically sustainable development.  It is important to note that it focuses only on Australia’s ‘Commonwelath Waters’. These are the waters which exist outside a state or territories ‘waters’ (typically commonwealth waters start 3 nautical miles from the coast) which means waters directly adjacent to land remains the responsibility of individual states and territories and are not included in this process.

The Coral Sea falls withing the East Marine Bioregional Planning Region.

The planning program is designed to look at the region from an ecosystem level rather than individual habitats or species but instead, consider the ‘bigger picture’ in how these work together, their role in the marine environment and  relationships with human activities.  The larger purpose is to ensure these ecosystems ‘function effectively’.

“Marine Bioregional Plans are being developed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (national environment law) and will fulfill the Australian Government’s commitment to establishing a National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas as agreed by all Australian governments in 1998.

There are two major parts to the marine bioregional planning process: the identification of regional conservation priorities and the identification of marine reserves to be included in Australia’s National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas.”

Conservation priorities are identified within each planning area according by analysis of current conservation threats.  Australia’s National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (NRSMPA), aims to protect representative examples of the biodiversity and ecosystems in the various marine regions of Australia

Conservation groups supporting the proposal:

PEW environment group – Australia, Project Aware Foundation, Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Queensland Conservation Council and Cairns and Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC)

Eating ‘Tuna-friendly’ tuna will ensure we can continue to eat tuna into the future.  Choosing the right tuna brand means choosing a brand which favours (or uses entirely) the sustainable tuna species of ‘skipjack’.  In addition they will favour less destructive fishing practices with lower by-catch rates.

‘Dolphin-friendly’ canned tuna you buy at the supermarket may be caught:

• from overfished stocks
• from illegal fishing vessels or companies
• using methods which result in a high level of by-catch (such as dolphins, turtles, seabirds, sharks, sea snakes and more).

Greenpeace has made it simple to make a decision when contemplating a supermarket aisle full of choices thanks to their ‘Canned Tuna Guide’.  Of the four types of tuna fished throughout the World’s oceans three are currently overfished or still being overfished.  Greenpeace’s guide is ranked according to a company’s choice to use the sustainably fishable ‘skipjack’ species of tuna (over the three other overfished species) and also fishing practices in use by their suppliers (to avoid excessive by-catch).

Why is this important?  Because as populations increase, and tuna continues to be the highest selling seafood item in Australia, we need to be smarter about our choices as consumers if we want to continue to eat tuna.

A guide to sustainable canned tuna

Supermarkets and Sustainable Tuna from our Oceans

Brands were scored with the international Greenpeace tuna ranking system:

• > 70% Good. An acceptable sustainable an equitable tuna procurement policy has been obtained. Maintaining and improving these standards is essential.

• 40 – 70% Must improve. Initial measures have been taken to obtain a sustainable and equitable tuna procurement policy. More concrete steps are needed to reach an acceptable standard.

< 40% Very poor. Urgent action is required to improve tuna procurement.

Go to www.greenpeace.org.au/tuna for a complete explanation of the ranking of each canned tuna brand.

For more information on canned tuna in Australia please read the guide ‘Out of Stock, Out of Excuses’ by Greenpeace (click on image to the left to download pdf) more information can also be found at:

More Information on the State of Tuna Stocks:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (a global, non-profit partnership between the tuna industry, scientists, and the World Wide Fund for Nature), Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna, Pacific Ocean (eastern & western) bigeye tuna, and North Atlantic albacore tuna are all overfished. In April 2009 no stock of skipjack tuna (which makes up roughly 60 percent of all tuna fished worldwide) was considered to be overfished.

The following images are taken from the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation they help demonstrate the state of Tuna stocks in different areas of the World’s oceans.  Australia is located in the Western Pacific region.