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Why dive in locations others can’t to seize pictures that present the pure world in all its glory? Steve Benjamin desires viewers to really feel one thing once they have a look at his pictures: surprise, terror, awe. He additionally helps scientists and conservationists spotlight points affecting our oceans.
He just lately labored on WildTrust’s newest quick movie, See Us, a part of the organisation’s marine marketing campaign On the Brink, which highlights South Africa’s ideally suited place as a lifeboat for shark and ray species in its waters and globally.
How did you get into underwater images?
I used to be born in Cape City. I’ve at all times been passionate in regards to the pure world, if not the oceans, bird- and wildlife. I began bodyboarding and spearfishing at a younger age. Throughout my adolescence, I volunteered on the Two Oceans Aquarium on a challenge on the holding tank when the aquarium was being constructed. This was organised by my main college trainer Russell Stevens, who now leads the Two Oceans Aquarium’s Schooling Centre staff.
I studied zoology and ichthyology on the College of Cape City (UCT). We coated all the pieces from mammals to bugs, physics, chemistry, math and science. A former Two Oceans Aquarium worker I’d met when volunteering, Maryke Musson, supplied me my first job fish farming in Hermanus. Then, I spent a yr working as a dive grasp with tiger sharks in Aliwal Shoal, KwaZulu-Natal. There, I met many influential photographers and filmmakers, amongst whom had been Thomas Peschak, an task photographer for Nationwide Geographic, and Roger Horrocks, an underwater cinematographer greatest identified for his work on Netflix’s award-winning documentary My Octopus Instructor.
Your most memorable assignments?
A spotlight was visiting Aldabra, Seychelles, a Marine Protected Space (MPA) and UNESCO World Heritage Web site, with Thomas. It’s a refuge for wildlife, dominated by large tortoises and the Aldabra rail, the last-surviving flightless chicken within the West Indian Ocean.
I travelled throughout Baha, Mexico, the place I dove with gray whales and large trevally in MPAs that the encircling communities sorted, form of a bottom-up strategy, with locals safeguarding the pure atmosphere so life may flourish.
I help Roger Horrocks with logistics and help. Normally, Netflix or the BBC will pay money for me, and I’ll be the man who brings their imaginative and prescient to life, checking out boats, crew, security measures and insurance coverage. The movie staff will fly out, and we’ll spend time in a location tackling a subject. We’ve captured feeding humpback whales off Cape City for Netflix’s Our Planet and browsing dolphins on the Transkei for Disney.
Why did you wish to become involved with See Us?
Lauren van Niekerk of WildTrust requested me to take part in a brief movie highlighting sharks and rays in two MPAs, Aliwal Shoal and Desk Mountain Nationwide Park in Cape City. WildTrust exhibits South African individuals the unbelievable biodiversity on our shoreline and can also be concerned in educating and uplifting African individuals, ladies particularly, in science, bringing our subsequent technology into the marine conservation area.
What are the important thing variations between the MPAs you explored, and what attracts sharks and rays there?
The ocean is colder in Cape City than in Durban, so that you’ll usually discover species comparable to cat sharks and nice whites among the many kelp forests. In KwaZulu-Natal, the place it’s hotter, we had been searching for blacktip sharks, bull sharks, hammerhead sharks and sting rays. The MPAs we explored are accessible, so you possibly can go scuba diving and see these creatures your self.
What number of species of sharks and rays did you discover, and did your findings match your expectations?
Regardless of the massive swell in Cape City, I discovered all of the catshark species I wished to point out Dive Grasp Thandeka Hlongwa: puffadder shyshark, darkish shyshark, pyjama shark, leopard cat shark. We additionally noticed a super-large, short-tailed ray on a take a look at dive after we had been getting Thandeka used to the water – she’s from KwaZulu-Natal, and that was the primary time she’d dived in Cape City.
Aliwal Shoal was stunning. We noticed a blacktip shark and one ray species, which was lower than I anticipated. I believed we’d’ve discovered a ragged-tooth, bull or tiger shark. We truly noticed fairly a couple of turtles, comparable to loggerheads and hawksbills.
How far did your schooling assist?
It offers me a greater sense of timeline, place and relationship between the ocean, species and habitats. It helps me perceive issues like water motion and the Agulhas Present, how and the place scientists place reserves and the way they defend marine life, and the evolutionary hyperlinks between creatures and appreciating they want sufficient area to develop. It’s not simply my schooling; it’s a grounding in science and continued communication with scientists.
Describe the feelings you skilled.
I’d already seen these locations, so witnessing Thandeka’s reactions on her first dive in Cape City was particular. She’s a Zulu girl who’s pursued her ardour for the ocean by doing issues exterior her cultural norms like studying to swim and understanding wildlife. My takeaway from making See Us was drawing inspiration from Thandeka’s journey and displaying these elements of South Africa to many of the nation who, like her, are younger, African and never at all times from the coast.
Why are sharks and rays probably the most threatened species on the planet?
People persecute sharks due to the concern they instill. Individuals don’t like hazard of their atmosphere, so that they normally take away high predators, for instance, by putting shark nets within the waters off the KwaZulu-Natal shoreline.
We additionally catch sharks for meals and recreationally. Moreover, a lot of their meals sources or reproductive habitats not exist. Most of our rivers and estuaries are struggling degradation, so that they’re not functioning appropriately.
Most sharks and rays solely produce a couple of younger per yr and take a really very long time to achieve maturity. They’re long-lived, sluggish reproducing creatures, which suggests they will’t deal with any persecution or elimination from their atmosphere. All of the above are detrimental to them.
Sharks migrate over nice distances and likewise want seasonal refuges. We would have giant MPAs, however sharks spend a whole lot of time exterior of them getting caught.
What do you wish to obtain with See Us?
I need viewers to understand MPAs and take into account seeing them themselves. I’d like them to attract inspiration from Thandeka to take a eager curiosity within the ocean and, finally, defend it.
Photos: Steve Benjamin, Mnqobi Zuma
To study extra about this marketing campaign, go to On the Brink
For extra data, go to Animal Ocean and Seal Snorkeling
Learn our interview with Thandeka Hlongwa, I Converse for the Sea, within the November 2023 situation of Getaway, on shelf from 13 October 2023.
Additionally Learn: On the Brink releases inspiring quick movie, See Us
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