If you are an underwater photographer, and like to spend a bit of time on social media sites, then you may have seen plenty of comments about various competitions and the images that have done well in them recently. Many competition rules will state that any image that has been taken at the expense of marine life will be disqualified, but how do the judges and organisers prove that the marine life in the shot has been moved, harassed or manipulated? At the moment, the status quo seems to be that if they cannot prove it, then the image will be allowed. However, this sets a terrible example to other divers and underwater photographers and only encourages the practise of moving, usually macro critters, to more photographically pleasing places or poses.

Many may say “What is the problem?” it is only a shrimp, it was unlikely to have been hurt, there are more important things in life to worry about, all photographers do it.

A dive guide moves a wobbegong shark for a better shot for the underwater photographers in his group

All photographers do not do it!  As underwater photographers, we should care about the marine environment. It is our responsibility to show the great beauty we see beneath the waves in an honest and truthful way. The argument that there are more important issues going on in the world is just fatuous. Of course there are, but if we used this as reasoning for ignoring the smaller issues, then we belittle everything we do to protect marine life. Caring about the environment, marine life and how this is portrayed in the public domain is important to us.

What can we do? Well, competition organisers and judges can simply change their rules to say that any image suspected of any marine life fiddling will be disqualified. No proof needed. Yes, some people will have perfectly valid images disqualified, but soon would learn not to bother entering such images. For example, it is possible to come across an inflated pufferfish in the wild (it could have been recently licked by a dolphin!), but I would not enter the image into a competition, because I could not prove that it was not me that stressed the fish out. It is possible to find emperor or tiger shrimps in pleasing positions, riding nudibranchs and sea cucumbers for example, but the likelihood of some of these poses happening naturally fits into the same category as that fact that I might win the lottery. It can happen (please let it) but it is phenomenally unlikely. Maybe I should point out at this point that I have a Masters degree in animal behaviour, and so whilst this does not make me an expert in all marine species, it does give me some credibility to comment on such things.

These images should be removed by the organisers and judges, before the serious work of selecting a winner even begins. Underwater photographers can show that they care about these issues by not entering the competitions that fail at following this simple ethos, and complaining and demanding answers about this topic when they feel high environmental standards have not been met.

What can you do? Work with dive centres that do not reward this behaviour in their dive guides. The dive guides, usually in the Far East in our experience, do this because they know that a “good” image of a macro critter will get them a good tip. When we are travelling, we like to dive with centres that do not allow the guides to be tipped individually. Rather, they collect tips, and distribute them evenly among all the staff (those that fill tanks, man the shop, drive the boats etc.) One of our favourite dive centres in Indonesia will fire any member of staff that accepts a private tip and all divers are made aware of this at the beginning of their stay. At other centres, if we are taking a group, we will ask all the divers to tip at the beginning of the week. We give this envelope, with an excellent tip inside, to the centre manager and tell them that they can give it to the staff at the end of the week if no-one reports any dive guides moving critters while we are diving. If the guides are reported to have moved any marine life – the tip money goes to a marine charity instead. This has worked very well indeed!

To find out what support this movement has, Dr Alex Tattersall has setup a petition. It calls for a “cultural shift” that is “necessary at all levels” from “those with influence such as competition organisers and dive magazines” and that they “should promote more responsible UW photo behaviour”.

You can sign the petition here.

An emperor shrimp rides a gorgeous nudibranch with no manipulation of the critters

There are signatures and supporting comments from around the world. Dive Centres and guides have now also been included in the petition.

The reality is that everyone needs to get involved and try to ensure marine life of all shapes and sizes are well looked after. It must a collective movement by divers, underwater photographers, dive centre owners, dive guides, marine conservation charities, dive publications and competition officials.

Underwater Photographers have the ability to inspire people to protect our oceans. Many post images of amazing scenes, unusual animal behaviours, give us an insight in the world of rarely seen creatures, show us divers enjoying themselves. These images can make up our mind as to where to next travel to, they can be donated to marine charities to use in campaigns, or they can give us tips and ideas on how to next shoot a particular animal. They can also post images to raise awareness and promote conservation that are not pleasant to view, but necessary to share, such as images of dead sharks lying at the bottom of the ocean with their fins removed, plastic pollution, and ghost nets that carrying on killing for years.

We all need to get behind a more ecologically aware way of diving. This is one aspect of a much wider movement. As the new editors of underwater photography at Scubaverse, we will be doing our best to incorporate this ethos in the posts and competitions run on the site.