International Nature Photography Festival of the GDT 2009
Enjoy Lünen!
For the 17th time the Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen - GDT will open the International Nature Photography Festival in Lünen for wildlife photographers and visitors from all over the world. An exquisite series of lectures by national and international animal and wildlife photographers presenting the central idea of nature conservation in all its aspects awaits visitors at Europe’s most renowned festival of this kind. In addition to lectures, exhibitions and seminars, discussions will provide the opportunity to talk shop and present recent developments in the field of wildlife photography. Product presentations and an extensive photo market will provide for example information on the novelties of camera technology. The pleasant and international atmosphere offers numerous opportunities to engage in conversation with photographers from all over the world or to establish contacts with representatives of other European wildlife photographers’ associations.
PREVIEW LÜNEN 2009
Regionalgruppe Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
EAGLES, CRANES & MORE ...
… a journey through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
GDT regional group 9 / Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Eagles, cranes and the sea are three terms that are almost synonymous for the Land in Germany’s northeast. Each year thousands of tourists - among them quite a number of photographers - come to this region to experience what is believed to be unaltered habitat. These three terms certainly characterize the area, but there is a lot more to it.
Much more, the eagle, crane and sea are symbols for an extraordinary expanse, endless beaches, unspoilt nature and deep but vanishing forests with bog and marsh areas and their own special diversity of flowers and plants.
During the course of the seasons photographers of the regional group went around their familiar territory taking photographs, which resulted in this unique and complex presentation of the opposing aspects of Nature and landscape in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
About the regional group
In 1986 Erich Hoyer took the initiative to found a circle of Mecklenburg animal photographers. For the sake of form in the then GDR the small group of enthusiasts was integrated into the “Society for Nature and the Environment” of the Culture Association of the GDR.
Because of a long-standing friendship between Fritz Pölking and Erich Hoyer it was only a matter of time that in 1991 after the unification the idea was developed to include the Mecklenburg circle as regional group IX in the GDT. Up to this day some of the founder members from thirty years back are still actively taking part in the group’s activities.
Many of the group’s 33 members have gone through their archives to select photographs of the north-eastern region of Germany or have otherwise contributed to the preparation of this presentation with ideas, pieces of information and anecdotes.
http://gdt-rg9.de
Andy Rouse
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| Andy Rouse |
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AN ANDY ROUSE YEAR - Fun and Passion combined
I will present a variety of images from a very busy year in the life of a professional wildlife photographer. The message will be a simple one: as a wildlife photographer it is essential to follow your passions rather than the lure of a quick dollar. I always photograph what I want to and in the way that I want to, my ethics are never compromised. But I do learn new styles and will try to build on what I said during my last GDT presentation. Amongst the highlights of the talk will be my now famous drunken gorilla series and some spectacular tigers fighting. Also I will show some of my amazing starling patterns from the UK, Galapagos, Australia and some Arctic. I will have a conservation message throughout and will show how tourism is vital to give endangered species an economic value. The talk will be inspirational, packed with my best quality work and I will try to make it applicable and educational to all levels of photographers.
About Andy Rouse
Andy Rouse has now been a professional for 10 years and in that time he has achieved a lot. With 5 BBC awards in the past 4 years plus three Nature's Best awards in 2008, he has established himself as one of the most successful photographers around. His feet are kept firmly on the ground though as he spends much of his time passing on his knowledge to other photographers, as well as being involved in his own conservation projects. Always a maverick he has started his own conservation fund to raise money for small conservation projects that he is passionate about. In 2008 he raised £8000 for tiger conservation in India and donated £4500 from his own profits to fund two research projects in the UK and Rwanda. In 2009 he has started his own weekly internet TV show and has recently launched the Pro Stalker series of rucksacks for the serious nature photographer. Asked recently what his ambitions were, his response was simple: "In 20 years time I want to photograph the same endangered species that I do now and not just look at pictures of them in a museum. Wildlife needs to be seen and enjoyed and must never just be a memory".
www.andyrouse.co.uk/
Winfried Wisniewski
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| Winfried Wisniewski |
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SCANDINAVIA IN SUMMER
In the “old days” Scandinavia was a favourite destination for Central European wildlife photographers. To a great extent Fritz Steiniger’s in retrospect highly debatable division of Europe into “countries of culture in the south” such as Italy and Greece, and “countries of nature in the north”, such as Norway, Sweden and Finland, caused this preference. However, after the great surge of interest in southern and increasingly south-eastern European countries, a lot of wildlife photographers now rediscover their “old love” for Europe’s north. So in my first two years working with digital cameras I also spent several months photographing in Scandinavia after a long period of absence. Several times I visited three characteristic animal species in their habitat: the clandestine red-throated diver in the bogs of Central Sweden, the majestic white-tailed eagle at Norway’s rough shoreline and the brown bear in the heart of Finnish forests at the Russian border (although strictly speaking Finland is not a part of Scandinavia). I watched these animals closely and acquired a lot of new information. I also succeeded in photographing some typical and rare behaviour of these species: the red-throated diver’s fascinating take-off from the water’s surface, the eagle approaching its prey in the water and the bears living together in the forests und bogs of Finland. This resulted in some completely new photographs as they have not been presented before. Except for one, all photographs in this presentation are digital.
About Winfried Wisniewski
While in the beginning recording behaviour patterns or ecological context was the priority of his photographic activities, creative photography long since has reached the same significance in his work today. At present he takes great interest in the photographic presentation of movements and moods in nature leaving the beaten tracks to explore new ways of expression. Winfried Wisniewski’s photographic work displays an ability to freeze the one authentic moment. In this way he creates photographs which escape the documentary aspect of conventional wildlife photography to become symbolic pictures. His “blurred” images, having been freed of the object’s dominance, overcome the state of depiction almost completely and turn into a new reality of their own. He does take a little pride in the fact that wildlife photographers at home and abroad have followed his example. Winfried Wisniewski was one of the first wildlife photographers to have a successful exhibition at an art gallery, the gallery „art.ist“ in his native Castrop-Rauxel (Germany) with the subject “Blurriness – the photographer’s other view”.
He received many awards for his photographs. The Society of German Nature Photographers (GDT) voted him “GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 1995” for his photograph of chinstrap penguins on a blue iceberg. More than half a dozen times his pictures were rated „highly commended“ at the world’s largest wildlife photography contest, the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. In 2000 he came second in this contest in the category „Other Animals“. In 2006 he was the winner of the category “Mammals” in the contest “European Wildlife Photographer of the Year”. Winfried Wisniewski is GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2008 and 2009 and has been awarded the Fritz-Steiniger Medal of the GDT.
www.naturphoto-wisniewski.de
Jari Peltomäki
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| Jari Peltomäki |
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FROM TAIGA TO TUNDRA – With Owls
This talk will start from the snowy fields of Oulu on the west coast of Finland where owls are often hunting out in open in winter. And when spring arrives in April, we will continue to the taiga forest to follow breeding Great Grey Owls and other species of that beautiful habitat. We will finish the talk at the peak of summer with the nesting Snowy Owls in the tundra of Lapland.
Digital presentation with music and some birdcalls as background. Another version of this presentation was presented in Finlandia hall in Helsinki in October 2007 and in Vårgårda in autumn 2008. However, this one will be altered quite a lot with e.g. plenty of new images of winter Snowy Owls and Great Grey Owls. Structure is more or less the same, but plenty of very fresh images!
About Jari Peltomäki
Already in 1978 I got my first, manual and very sturdy Russian camera: a Zenit TTL. I also had a very poor 400 mm lens to go with it. Together with my birdwatcher friends we were practising bird photography mainly with black and white film. We even processed films ourselves and made prints but the results were not very impressive!
Today I wish I had kept some of my very first bird pictures, but I didn’t.
It was year 1989 when I started to work for WWF as a warden in the greatest wetland in Finland -Liminganlahti. During that time I worked many years as a chairman at the local nature conservation association. At Liminganlahti I started my own birdwatching tour company in 1992 and the company got the name Finnature Ltd.
Because of my work as a guide, I met plenty of foreign birdwatchers and wildlife photographers. That was the inspiration to restart my wildlife photography in a serious way. I was using a lot of slide film and I was travelling to many of the same countries where I had been birdwatching before.
The greatest boost to my wildlife photography was the change to a digital camera body in 2003. First I was using digital camera as it was a film camera, taking just a few images of each subject. Soon I realised that one of the main advantages of digital photography is that you are able to take more frames of fast moving subjects! This is great for action photography; birds in flight or birds fighting etc. With a digital camera you can also use higher ISO settings and that gives you so much more speed!
The fact that I am shooting nearly 200 000 frames in one year (which would be 5555 rolls of film!) causes also a problem. I have many hard drives full of data and it takes so much time to go through it all! If I kept only 10 % of the images, it would mean that I still need to process 20 000 images per year! Completely impossible for one person! Therefore, in future I will need to be more critical with my images and keep and process only “the best of the best”. You really don’t need duplicates of the good frames anymore, do you? However, I’ll love digital photography!
My favourite bird species is the Great Grey Owl. I think it is the sexiest bird species in Finland with a very characteristic facial pattern. I have spent a lot of time with these silent hunters of the taiga forest and I have managed to built a special relationship with some individuals!
Jari Peltomäki, Wildlife Photographer & Director Finnature Oy Ltd, www.finnature.fi, www.birdphoto.fi
Berndt Fischer
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| Berndt Fischer |
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COLOURS OF THE TROPICS – From Dry Forests to Rain Forests
“Colours of the Tropics” aims to present the beauty of tropical habitats by showing us the examples of the ecologically important Cerrado region in Brazil’s northeast and the rainforests of the Indonesian Archipelago. Both habitats are considered to be highly endangered; these photographs were only possible with the support of local conservation groups such as BOS. This photographical project resulted in a large illustrated book of the same title for which BOS founder Dr. Willie Smits wrote the preface. Over the past years the photographer’s work has been dominated by working towards the protection of the last tropical paradises on our planet. In the light of the current horrors of biofuel, Indonesia and Brazil are the hotspots of international conservation efforts
About Berndt Fischer
Berndt Fischer has been photographing wildlife and its natural habitat for more than 30 years. His standing leg is still firmly grounded in his Frankonian homeland and the cultural landscape of Europe, while with his free leg he his searching for new ways off the beaten tracks of photographic mass tourism on the southern hemisphere. Numerous books and reports document the work of this photographer, who has also consciously abandoned photography competitions for quite some time: “For us as wildlife photographers there are more important things to do than aiming at points, stars and trophies.”
www.berndtfischer.com
Manuel Presti
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| Manuel Presti |
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LIGHTS AND SHAPES – My Nature Impressions
This is a collection of my nature impressions from the last six years. During this time I have photographed little details such as dew drops, flowers, blades of grass but also insects, birds and mammals. In the process I almost always placed an importance on the quality of light to create photographs with a certain atmosphere. The photographs were taken in North and South America as well as in Europe and Africa. Rather than joining the photographs to a story by a specific theme or project, the mixture of music and photographs aims to grip the audience and give the opportunity to enjoy Nature’s vibrant beauty.
About Manuel Presti
Manuel Presti was born in Rome in 1967. His fascination for the natural world is rooted in his childhood and has developed and increased constantly. For thirty years he has been photographing birds, flowers and details of landscapes at home and abroad. Following extended stays in Germany and the US, he now lives in Italy. His photographic style is based on the emotional impression of a specific subject and aims to reduce the picture to its essence to highlight the colours, shapes and dynamics of Nature. His photographs have been awarded in international competitions (BBC, Glanzlichter, GDT, Nature’s Best) and have been published in various books and magazines.
www.wildlifephoto-presti.com
Paul Nicklen
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| Paul Nicklen |
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POLAR OBSESSION -
One photojournalists mission to create awareness about the warming Polar Regions
National Geographic Photographer Paul Nicklen presents a lecture on “Polar Obsession.” His lifelong journey to create awareness about the ends of the Earth.
Nowhere on our planet are the temperatures rising faster than at the North and South Poles. Current research reports that the Arctic could be free of summertime ice within the next 7 years, which would have dire consequences for polar bears and other species habituated to cold climates.
National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen, who has published ten stories in National Geographic, including an up-close and personal look at Antarctica's leopard seals in the November 2006 issue, will discuss some of his experiences as an extreme photographer and the chances he will take to capture compelling moments that will ultimately get people to care about the polar regions. Nicklen, who grew up in Canada's Baffin Island, focuses his photographic mission on celebrating the beauty of the lands and creatures at the ends of the earth to show the rest of us what is truly at stake in the ongoing debates over climate change.
About Paul Nicklen
I was very fortunate to grow up on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada where we were one of the few non-Inuit families living in a small settlement of 140 Inuit. The Inuit taught me how to survive in the Arctic, read the weather and, most of all, they taught me patience. As a kid, without television, radio, and computer games, my friends and I would spend all of our waking hours in the hills watching wildlife, weather and the light play shadow games across the landscape. At that young age, the seed to become a nature photographer was deeply planted.
In my fourth and final year of studying marine biology at the University of Victoria, I was having a very hard time preparing for my genetics final. The night before the exam, I had a huge revelation. Instead of studying, I wrote feverishly on scrap paper, outlining my career as a nature photographer, right down to the tiniest detail: species, locations, goals, dreams, travels and the list goes on. As expected, I failed the exam miserably but passed the course. But best of all, I had a blueprint for a career filled with passion and hard work. It is kind of eerie how much of what I wrote that night has come true.
As anticipated, I worked as a wildlife biologist for four years in the Northwest Territories. I was fortunate enough to work on numerous unique species such as lynx, grizzly bears and polar bears. Finally, with my feet firmly planted on the ground, I left for a three-month solo expedition into the high Arctic to live on the open tundra with the bears, wolves and open sky. That trip helped me confirm that I could better serve wildlife populations by becoming a nature photojournalist rather than a biologist.
My goal is to bridge the gap between scientific research and the public by producing stories for magazines such as National Geographic. Since 1994, I have been fortunate to see my work published in hundreds of magazines around the world. In the last few years, I have published seven stories in National Geographic Magazine: "Atlantic Salmon," July 2003, "Northern Exposure," January 2004, "Phoenix Islands," February 2004, “Where Currents Collide,” August 2006, “Deadly Beauty: Leopard Seals,” November 2006, “Life at the Edge,” June 2007, “Narwhals,” August 2007. Other stories are in the works and I will be on assignment for National Geographic for much of the next two years.
www.paulnicklen.com
Ingo Seehafer
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| Ingo Seehafer |
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NATURE KNOWS NO FRONTIERS
Germany, France, Switzerland – Three Countries, One River And An Abundance Of Nature
There are no border checks and language boundaries for animals and plants. Guided only by their own needs, they fly over mountain ranges, swim through rivers and traverse forests. In his presentation “Nature Without Frontiers” Ingo Seehafer presents the unbelievably diverse wildlife in the tri-border region of Germany, France and Switzerland.
Thousands of years ago the river Rhine shaped large areas of Central Europe. River regulation in the 19th Century caused the original water meadow to dry up forming a unique biotope in Europe with many plant and animal species particularly adapted to this habitat.
There are interesting landscapes within eyeshot of the river Rhine such as the Petite Camargue Alsacienne (The Little Camargue of Alsace) in France and the Markgräflerland region on the German side. Here we can still find kingfishers, tree frogs, pasque flowers and many orchid species. In the bordering Swiss region of northern Jura precipitous rock faces, varied forest habitats and blossomy neglected grasslands also present the photographer with particularly exciting flora and fauna.
Due to its harsh climate, the Black Forest, a low-mountain region created about 70 million years ago, still hosts ice-age immigrants. Therefore we often can meet the smallest European owl, the pygmy owl. But there are also more impressive birds, namely capercaillies. Constantly changing light conditions make the forest a unique photographic experience all year round.
Last but not least, there is the Kaiserstuhl, a sunny pocket of geologically younger volcanic origin. Because of its Mediterranean climate, humans worked the land from early on while at the same time a fascinating flora and fauna colonized the area as well. Treasures such as hoopoe, bee-eater, praying mantis and green lizard are some of the highlights that the Kaiserstuhl offers.
About Ingo Seehafer
Already as a young boy Ingo Seehafer dreamt of becoming a wildlife photographer. At first he roamed the countryside around his native town Düsseldorf (North Rhine-Westphalia) without a camera. But with time he came to learn so much about the behaviour of the animals he was watching that in the beginning of the 1980s he started photographing them. In 2002 he moved on to be a full-time professional photographer and now lives as a freelancer in Efringen-Kirchen, near Basel.
His photographic activities centre on the animals, plants and landscapes of the tri-border region Germany, France, Switzerland. For his most recent project he travels to the most beautiful regions of Spain several times per year. With his photographs he wishes above all to present the beauty of Nature.
www.seehafer-fotografie.de
Joel Sartore
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| Joel Satore |
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GROUNDED - A Reflection on the Use of Life and Land
Joel Sartore recounts not only the years spent on assignment shooting for National Geographic Magazine, but how his wife’s recent battle with breast cancer refocused and reconnected him to his family and with the reason he takes pictures in the first place; to show people the natural world, get them to care, and save the Earth.
About Joel Sartore
Joel Sartore brings a sense of humor and a mid-western work ethic to all of his National Geographic Magazine assignments. After more than 15 years and 26 stories with the National Geographic Society, Joel has covered everything from the remote Amazon rain forest to beer-drinking, mountain-racing fire fighters in the United Kingdom. Joel’s work focuses on endangered species, natural history and land use issues. His interest in wildlife started in childhood when he learned about the very last passenger pigeon from one of his mother’s Time-Life picture books. His first National Geographic assignments introduced him to nature photography, and also allowed him to see human impact on the environment first-hand. In his words, “It is folly to think that we can destroy one species and ecosystem after another and not affect humanity. When we save species, we’re actually saving ourselves.”
He has authored several books including Photographing Your Family, Face to Face with Grizzlies, and Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky. Besides the work he has done for National Geographic, Joel has completed assignments for Audubon Magazine, Time, Life, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and contributed to numerous book projects. Joel and his work have been the subject of several national broadcasts including National Geographic’s Explorer, the NBC Nightly News, NPR’s Weekend Edition and an hour-long PBS documentary. He is also a regular contributor on the CBS Sunday Morning Show with Charles Osgood.
Joel is always happy to return to home base from his travels around the world. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska
with his wife Kathy and their three children.
www.joelsartore.com
Dietmar Nill
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| Dietmar Nill |
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WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY – WHEN PICTURES ARE MOVING
1. White in Motion
2. Moving Pictures – A New Field of Activity in Wildlife Photography
3. Working with Film and Photo – New Possibilities through New Technology – High Speed Filming
This lecture consists of three parts in which Dietmar Nill’s topics range from classic wildlife photography to new techniques. With the aid of high speed photography (1000 pictures/sec) he reveals patterns of behaviour that have not been witnessed before.
About Dietmar Nill
Wildlife photographer, born March 16, 1956.
His photographic activities centre on wildlife photography and filming.
At the age of 16 Dietmar Nill became involved in wildlife photography. This was preceded by many years with NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union – Germany’s oldest environmental organisation, which back then centred on the protection of birds), checking nest boxes, birdwatching and a lot of time spent outdoors. From his love for nature Nill developed an extraordinary sensibility for his photographic subjects; he treats nature with greatest respect. This is also apparent in his voluntary work for nature conservation. His exceptional gift for observation, an eye for photographically interesting situations and his understanding of the behaviour of particular animals have led him throughout the years to become a successful photographer.
He was able to gradually withdraw from his job as a male nurse with the aim to live his dream as a professional photographer (since 1996).
For years he has been one of Germany’s top wildlife photographers and was awarded five times GDT Nature Photographer of the Year.
Many photographers take great inspiration and motivation from his pictures. In his workshops and during photography tours he shares his knowledge helping everyone to achieve good results.
Over the years Dietmar Nill has never settled with just taking perfect photographs – he is also always in search for something new and novel.
He has produced numerous calendars and books; his photographs can be found in every German and international magazine. He is author of several calendars and books; in particular his special field of interest, bats, he has photographically explored and recorded in many countries with scientific support.
Last year he travelled to Bulgaria working on commission for the organisation WWE (Wild Wonders of Europe). He is one of 60 photographers who photographically record various areas of Europe for WWE.
For one year he has now been working intensively on a long-cherished wish: making patterns of behaviour in nature even more visible to the human eye. He has discovered filming as another medium for his work with a growing interest in high speed filming, which proved to be an even greater challenge. The possibility to create 1 000 images per second opened up new possibilities to develop his creativity and to reveal patterns of behaviour in nature to all of us.
www.dietmar-nill.de
Cornelius Nelo
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| Cornelius Nelo |
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THE GREY SEAL – Play, Sex and Motherhood
Helgoland in winter is a true paradise for grey seals and wildlife photographers. You will not find another place where it is so easy to follow the exciting pupping spectacle. For nine years photographer Cornelius Nelo has been visiting the young but steadily growing seal colony. The life of individual animals and their sexual behaviour is at the centre of attention.
About Cornelius Nelo
Since 2002 I have been working on the seal project at regular intervals. Digital photography helped greatly to appreciate again subtle nuances of contrast and light atmosphere full of sad colours. I had lost enthusiasm for this kind of conditions years ago when I switched from black-and-white to Velvia colour films. But since it is possible to adjust contrast in colour photographs just as precisely as in the past in black-and-white photographs in the darkroom, I have discovered a completely new field. The grey seal has become a perfect subject for my new methods of working and thus I came to appreciate the Heligoland Dunes especially under an overcast winter sky. In these weather conditions wet grey seals in particular receive a remarkable three-dimensional quality that makes colours a superfluous aspect. In my photography sessions I now prepare equally for matter-of-fact black-and-white pictures and more atmospheric colour photographs. Both of which will be presented in this lecture, which will divide into a part on behavioural biology and quiet sequences accordingly.
www.corneliusnelo.com
Stefano Unterthiner
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| Stefano Unterthiner |
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THE KING'S ODYSSEY - The adventurous journey of the king penguin
“King Penguins return from the sea, alone or in small groups. Seen from the steep slopes of Possession Island, the penguins’ black and white silhouettes seem like fish that plough through the surface of the sea; they are agile and perfectly at home”. Thus begins the story of “Die Insel der Pinguine” (Terra Magica, 2009), the new book by nature photographer Stefano Unterthiner and the source of the photographs of his presentation. An epic voyage that tell the story of the long journey which king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) undertake The odyssey begins in November when penguins join together in large colonies in order to mate. The scene is set in the fascinating and inhospitable Crozet Archipelago, a remote group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean, a true refuge for thousands of birds. Countless dangers threaten the penguins: floods and storms, scavengers ever on the ready to attack a chick, orcas and other predators…
The exceptional photographs by Stefano Unterthiner show us the many incredible aspects of the life of king penguins, as well as albatrosses, cormorants, sea elephants and otters, all of whom live in this remote land where they feed and reproduce with one constant preoccupation: survival. The King’s Odyssey is a fascinating journey to the one of the far ends of our planet.
About Stefano Unterthiner
Stefano began serious photography at the age of 17, went on to study zoology, obtaining a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen, and then started his career as a professional photographer. His first assignment won him the prestigious “Mario Pastore” prize for best young environmental journalist.
Now Stefano is one of the most creative and productive wildlife photographers and his work is featured internationally in magazines such as: National Geographic, GEO, BBC Wildlife, Terre Sauvage, Animan, Airone. He is author of four photographic books, the latest of which is “The King’s Odyssey”, with a major exhibition of the pictures at the Natural History Museum, Turin.
He works mainly on projects focusing on conservation and endangered wildlife, in particular on human-nature interaction, and is the recipient of the “Premio Nazionale di Ecologia Luigiano D’oro” – an annual prize awarded to Italians for their conservation achievements. He is a regular prize-winner in the international Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and a Wild Wonders of Europe photographer.
www.stefanounterthiner.com
Dos Winkel
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| Dos Winkel |
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THE UNDERWATER WORLD - BEAUTY UNDER THREAT
Being an underwater photographer I have witnessed the dramatic change of the underwater world during the past 25 years. Mangrove trees and coral reefs are disappearing like snow in the sun. But they are, in fact, nurseries for many hundreds of fish species. At present there are 80 billion “official” kilograms of fish being caught every year (without illegal catches which are estimated to range around 30 billion kilograms and without dead or seriously mutilated by-catch, which is thrown back into the sea as it is considered worthless). About 75 percent of the overall fish population suffers from overfishing and they have no chance to reproduce. In addition there is the worldwide slaughter of sharks (the shark population has shrunk by 90 percent compared to the 1980s), which threatens the equilibrium of the eco-system immensely. On top of all that there is the recent hype about fish oil (depending on the type of fish, it takes twenty to one hundred kilograms of fish to produce one litre of fish oil, of which about one billion litres are produced every year) and it is clear to see for everyone that the prediction of British scientific journalist Charles Clover will not take long to come true: There will be no fish left.
I will present different underwater eco-systems such as rain forests, mangroves, high altitude mountain lakes and coral reefs und will discuss their problems.
About Dos Winkel
Dos Winkel was born in the Netherlands but lives in Belgium. He is an expert on orthopaedic medicine, sports medicine and manual therapy; he is a physiotherapist and was chairman of the International Academy of Orthopaedic Medicine (IAOM). Since the IAOM was founded, Dos has trained thousands of doctors and physiotherapists all over the world in non-invasive orthopaedic treatment. His experiences are documented in more than twenty books and over thirty documentaries.
In the past, Dos was a physiotherapist who was also engaged in underwater photography. Today he is truly dedicated to underwater photography. Accompanied by his wife Bertie he travels the world as far as India, the Amazon, Papua New Guinea and Antarctica. He took part in more than 120 expeditions and authored many books about the underwater world.
It is his personal interest to open up people’s minds, especially that of divers, to deal with this world of unreal beauty in a most responsible way. With his photographs he makes an incredibly diverse and beautiful world accessible to all of us and issues urgent appeals to fight overfishing, dioxins in fish oil, by-catches and so on. His detailed observations of the underwater world have been presented on numerous occasions in the BBC Wildlife and National Geographic Magazines.
www.dos-bertie-winkel.com
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