Sunday, March 29, 2009

New prize in DEEP Indonesia

During the show DEEP Indonesia I was given the “Honorable Mention” prize in the “Environment and Conservation” category for this photo of a green turtle being open and showing the eggs inside.

The image can be strong for the heart fainted, but it shows the everyday reality in many beaches where turtles go to lay their eggs. Green Turtles are killed to obtain their green fat tissue which is used to make soup. Although this impacting photo may look cruel, it was actually taken during a scientific study in a keen act of mercy. The turtle was very sick and had been sitting on the sand for few days, without being able to move neither towards the sea or to dryer sand to lay eggs. She could bare breathe. Knowing that the animal only had few hours of agony left, the scientist decided to sacrifice her and made a necropsy “in situ” to determine the origin of the sickness.