Citizen Science and Conservation Photography

Overview

Underwater photographers have played a growing role in marine conservation — as visual advocates, as participants in citizen science programs, and as direct activists. Wetpixel served as a platform for conservation discussion from its earliest days, with a dedicated “Conservation and the Environment” forum (forum_id 42) and conservation-focused moderators. The intersection of photography and conservation became one of the site’s defining themes, particularly around shark protection, marine protected areas, species documentation, and the ethics of wildlife photography.

Conservation was not a side topic on Wetpixel; it was structural. The site appointed conservation-focused moderators, ran fundraising campaigns through merchandise sales, and used its editorial platform to mobilize the diving community around specific legislative actions. Over two decades, Wetpixel documented and participated in a shift: underwater photographers evolved from passive observers into active conservation agents whose images changed laws, funded sanctuaries, and built scientific databases.

History

Early conservation commitments (2004-2006)

Conservation appeared on Wetpixel well before it became a branded initiative. In 2004, Wetpixel covered Conservation International’s ambitious plan to consolidate marine protected areas across four Latin American nations in the Eastern Pacific (^[1]). In September 2005, Eric Cheng announced a new Scientific Photography forum dedicated to “using digital images as a scientific tool for recording data, communicating to peers, and supporting education/outreach projects for the public,” moderated by Dr. James B. Wood (^[2]).

By 2006, the site was covering the shark fin trade with increasing urgency. Articles addressed the hidden cost of shark fin soup (^[3]), calls to continue banning shark finning in U.S. waters (^[4]), and Neil Hammerschlag’s shark conservation page, which warned that “shark populations have decreased between 60 and 90 percent depending on species, in just the last 15 years” (^[5]). In December 2006, Dr. Luiz Rocha, Wetpixel’s science correspondent, wrote about conservation forum activity, noting that member Justin Ebert had posted images of fishermen taking fins and disposing of shark bodies in Indonesia, sparking an active community discussion (^[6]).

Reef protection also featured early. In April 2006, Dr. Rocha reported on Kiribati creating the third-largest marine protected area in the world to protect the Phoenix Islands (^[7]). That same year, Cheng covered the devastating barge accident at Sipadan that wiped out hundreds of meters of coral, drawing 10 passionate community comments about reef protection and government accountability (^[8]).

Community fundraising and direct action (2007)

In January 2007, Wetpixel launched several conservation fundraising initiatives. Through Divester/Wetpixel t-shirt sales, readers donated $300 to the Coral Reef Alliance (^[9]) and adopted “Cut-Tail,” a 16-foot male great white shark, through the Shark Trust, supporting the organization’s research and anti-finning campaigns (^[10]).

Also in January 2007, Cheng announced that Shawn Heinrichs had joined the moderating team specifically to “promote and lead discussions related to conservation and environmental issues” (^[11]). Heinrichs, described as “an independent videographer and filmmaker who specializes in underwater and adventure travel,” brought a dedicated conservation voice to Wetpixel’s leadership.

Throughout 2007, Wetpixel covered an extraordinary series of shark conservation actions: Amazon.com pulling shark fin products from inventory after community pressure (^[12]), Mexico passing a shark finning ban (^[13]), petitions to stop shark fin distribution (^[14]), shark fin soup being removed from Olympics menus (^[15]), Taiwan banning whale shark trade (^[16]), and CITES considering additional protected shark species (^[17]).

Shark conservation as a movement (2008-2013)

Shark conservation became the most prominent conservation topic on Wetpixel, driven by editorial coverage, community advocacy, and the power of underwater imagery.

Legislative campaigns. Cheng actively promoted the Shark Conservation Act of 2008, which was approved by the House Natural Resources Committee and aimed to strengthen the U.S. finning ban by closing enforcement loopholes and encouraging other countries to adopt shark conservation programs (^[18]). In 2009, Cheng rallied support for the Shark Conservation Act of 2009, directing readers to the World Society for the Protection of Animals website to write their senators (^[19]). In 2011, Wetpixel urgently mobilized readers to support Washington state’s shark fin ban bill (SB 5688), providing email templates and contact information for every committee member (^[20]).

Films that changed the conversation. Rob Stewart’s documentary Sharkwater (2006, theatrical 2007) galvanized the diving community. When the DVD launched in 2008, the celebration doubled as a fundraiser for Shark Savers, featuring Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (^[21]). Stewart’s later film Revolution (2012) was the first feature to platform the effects of ocean acidification. Wetpixel featured his ideaCity lecture in 2010 (^[22]).

Heinrichs and the rise of photographer-activists. Shawn Heinrichs’s conservation work through Wetpixel and beyond became increasingly prominent. In 2010, he documented shark finning in Mozambique through the film Shiver (^[23]). In 2011, he was awarded Sea Hero of the Year by Scuba Diving magazine, recognizing his years fighting shark finning and his instrumental role in creating a shark sanctuary in Raja Ampat. He pledged a portion of the $5,000 prize toward a ranger patrol boat for the sanctuary (^[24]). In 2013, he presented “Art Inspiring Action to Protect our Oceans” at TEDxBoulder, arguing that visual storytelling could change public perceptions of marine animals (^[25]).

Manta ray protection. In November 2011, the UN Convention on Migratory Species added the giant manta ray to Appendix I and II, obligating member countries to provide strict protections. The listing was driven partly by the fact that manta-based ecotourism generated an estimated US$100 million per year worldwide, making living mantas far more valuable than dead ones (^[26]). In 2013, Shark Savers and WildAid merged to combine their anti-shark-finning campaigns, noting that their “I’m FINished with Fins” campaign had launched in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan, and their SharksCount citizen science program would continue under the new organization (^[27]). In September 2014, CITES protections for five shark species and all manta rays formally came into force, requiring permits proving sustainable and legal harvest for international trade (^[28]).

Sea Shepherd at DEMA. At DEMA 2008, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society made a last-minute decision to exhibit, with Captain Paul Watson causing a buzz on the show floor. Cheng noted they also appeared at the Wetpixel/DPG cocktail party (^[29]).

Conservation photography as profession and practice (2007-2019)

The Blue Auction. In September 2007, Christie’s hosted “The Blue Auction” at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, organized by the Monaco-Asia Society and Conservation International. The auction featured twelve lots including species naming rights for a newly discovered Indonesian walking shark and a 10-day dive expedition to Bird’s Head, Indonesia with six Conservation International scientists (^[30]).

Bite-Back calendars. The UK-based Bite-Back shark conservation charity produced annual calendars featuring images from leading underwater photographers. The 2008 edition included work by David Doubilet, Doug Perrine, Brian Skerry, Norbert Wu, Chris Fallows, and Alex Mustard, with Doubilet noting that “Images have power — sometimes they are the single link that humans have with the sea” (^[31]). The calendar became an annual tradition, covered by Wetpixel through at least 2021, when Wetpixel Live discussed how Bite-Back had been “engaging people in the crucial front end of shark conservation” (^[32]).

Save Our Seas Foundation grant. In April 2014, the Save Our Seas Foundation launched a US$40,000 Marine Conservation Photography Grant, offering two winners US$2,000 each plus a paid three-week assignment to document a Foundation-supported project. Thomas P. Peschak, contributing photographer to National Geographic and the Foundation’s Director of Conservation, emphasized that “Budgets are continually shrinking, especially in the magazine world. It’s becoming economically harder, especially for less established photographers, to tell stories with real conservation value” (^[33]).

Shark Angels. Founded by Alison Kock, Kim McCoy, and Julie Andersen from three organizations (Save Our Seas, Sea Shepherd, and Shark Savers), Shark Angels combined their strengths in “awareness, education, science, grassroots activism, and enforcement” to combat myths about sharks (^[34]). The organization ran charity auctions and advocacy campaigns through the 2010s (^[35]).

Documentary filmmaking. Simon Spear’s The Fin Trail (announced 2011) traced shark fin supply chains from fishing grounds to consumer markets in China and Southeast Asia, backed by a panel of NGOs including the Shark Trust, Greenpeace, Project AWARE, and the Zoological Society of London (^[36]). Rick Morris, a veteran documentary producer, brought the Census of Marine Life to Wetpixel in 2010, noting that he and Cheng “discussed our desire to include more conservation and science content on Wetpixel” at Beneath the Sea (^[37]).

Ethics of wildlife photography

Wetpixel took a strong editorial stance on ethical wildlife photography. In 2017, Adam Hanlon published a two-part investigation into the ethics of octopus imagery, prompted by National Geographic photographer David Liittschwager removing octopuses from the wild to photograph them in aquariums. Lauren Siba, dive center manager at Critters@Lembeh Resort, documented how her resort refused Liittschwager’s request, and how National Geographic deleted critical comments about the practice. The article sparked extensive community debate about manipulation standards and the responsibility of prominent photographers to set ethical examples (^[38]).

Marine protected areas

Wetpixel tracked MPA expansions and setbacks worldwide across two decades:

• 2004: Conservation International announced an ambitious plan to consolidate MPAs across Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama (^[39]).
• 2006: Kiribati declared the Phoenix Islands as the third-largest MPA in the world (^[40]).
• 2017: Gabon announced Africa’s largest network of marine parks — 20 parks protecting over 20,500 square miles, covering more than a quarter of its coast, home to the world’s largest breeding populations of leatherback and olive ridley sea turtles (^[41]).
• 2018: The Seychelles announced two new MPAs covering 81,000 square miles, part of a debt conversion program with the Nature Conservancy that expanded protected waters from 0.04% to 30% (^[42]).
• 2018: Australian lawmakers enacted what opponents called “the largest unwinding of conservation zones in world history,” opening 80% of marine park waters to commercial fishing including a 26% reduction in Coral Sea protection. Wetpixel reported critically, with Hanlon describing the move as “railroaded through” via “deft political maneuvering” (^[43]).
• 2019: West Papua became Indonesia’s first conservation province, protecting the most intact marine ecosystems in the country (home to 1,800+ fish species and three-quarters of the world’s hard corals), and won Conservation International’s Global Conservation Hero Award (^[44]).
• 2021: Hawaii dedicated 30% of nearshore waters as marine management areas and banned intentionally capturing or killing sharks in state waters (^[45]).

Citizen science programs

Citizen science represented a natural convergence of underwater photography and conservation. Wetpixel covered several programs where divers’ photographs directly contributed to scientific knowledge:

Whale shark identification. A 2017 study in BioScience used an application developed by NASA for recognizing stars to automatically catalog whale sharks from photos uploaded by divers to the Wildbook for Whale Sharks database. Some 30,000 individual encounters with 6,000 sharks in 54 countries had been analyzed, revealing that juvenile males do not migrate much and that population estimates range wildly from 20,000 to 200,000 (^[46]).

Manta ray photo-ID. In 2015, the Bird’s Head Seascape and Indonesian Manta Project launched an online photo-ID database where divers could upload manta ray images. The software matched belly markings to identify individuals, building a comprehensive database of movements and population data. The project noted that “each photo [acts] like a piece of the puzzle” for species conservation (^[47]). Satellite tagging confirmed the first manta ray nursery in Southeast Asia in Raja Ampat’s Wayag Lagoon (^[48]).

Spot A Shark USA. In 2018, Tanya Houppermans wrote an extensive article for Wetpixel about the Spot A Shark USA program, which allowed divers to photograph sand tiger sharks and upload images for automated spot-pattern matching. The program, developed by the North Carolina Aquariums and partners, built a database of individual sharks to study population recovery, migratory patterns, and aggregation behavior. Houppermans noted that sand tigers have “the lowest reproductive rate of any shark species” and had experienced significant population decline in the 1980s-90s (^[49]).

Social media as research tool. A 2019 paper in Regional Studies in Marine Science documented how previously unknown interactions between Mediterranean morays and two cryptobenthic fish species were first observed by divers and then discovered in images shared via social media, emphasizing how “the combination of social media, underwater photography and citizen science can provide insights into the study of the marine environment” (^[50]).

Endangered species documentation

Abi Smigel Mullens was particularly active in conservation coverage as Wetpixel’s third-most-prolific article author:

• Vaquita rescue: The VaquitaCPR project successfully captured a vaquita porpoise calf — the first such rescue of the world’s most endangered marine mammal (estimated 30 remaining). The calf was released when it showed signs of stress, but the team called the mission a “conservation history” milestone (^[51]).
• Olive ridley turtles: Over 300 dead endangered olive ridley sea turtles were found entangled in ghost fishing nets off Oaxaca, Mexico (^[52]).
• Florida manatee: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the Florida manatee from endangered to “threatened” after populations rebounded from 5,000 to 6,620, though conservation groups like the Center for Biological Diversity called the decision “premature” (^[53]).
• Turtle conservationist murdered: Wetpixel covered the killing of 26-year-old Jairo Mora Sandoval in Costa Rica while patrolling leatherback turtle nests, highlighting the dangerous intersection of conservation and illegal wildlife trade (^[54]).
• Goliath grouper protection: Wetpixel ran multiple calls to action against Florida’s proposed “harvest” of critically endangered goliath groupers, providing letter templates and commissioner contact information. In 2022, the FWC ultimately established 1,000-foot exclusion zones around spawning sites (^[55]).

The tragedy of Rob Stewart (2017)

In February 2017, Rob Stewart died during a dive while filming his third documentary, Sharkwater Extinction. He was 37. Hanlon wrote that “Rob’s life was an inspiring example to us all of how one person’s passion can create a global movement for change” (^[56]). Stewart’s friends and fellow conservationists completed the film, which was released in February 2019, documenting how illegal shark finning remained rampant and how “100-150 million sharks are killed every year, but only about half of them are reported.” The website noted that Stewart’s first film Sharkwater had “changed laws and public policy worldwide [and] created hundreds of conservation groups,” with more than 90 countries banning shark finning or the trade of shark products (^[57]).

Ongoing shark fin legislation (2019-2021)

The fight against shark finning continued through the late 2010s and into the 2020s:

• 2019: Canada became the first G20 country to ban shark fin trade (^[58]). A U.S. shark fin ban bill passed through the House (^[59]).
• 2020: Florida’s governor signed the Kristin Jacobs Ocean Conservation Act banning import, export, and sale of most shark fins (^[60]).
• 2021: Hawaii banned intentionally capturing or killing sharks in state waters; a U.S. Senate bill banning transport, sale, or purchase of shark fins passed and returned to the House (^[61]). The UK announced its own shark fin ban (^[62]).
• 2021: Wetpixel mobilized against a potential lifting of the Maldives’ shark fishing ban, publishing a detailed call to action with email templates for the Ministry of Fisheries. A joint statement from concerned stakeholders cited seized shark fins at the airport and illegal drum fishing lines discovered by tourists (^[63]). The Maldives ultimately affirmed its ban (^[64]).

Wetpixel Live conservation episodes (2020-2021)

Wetpixel Live, the YouTube discussion series hosted by Adam Hanlon and Alex Mustard, dedicated multiple episodes to conservation:

• “Shark Conservation and Underwater Imaging” (March 2021), discussing published papers on shark population declines and how underwater photographers can use imagery for conservation (^[65]).
• “Shark Conservation and UW Image-Makers” (April 2021), addressing the Maldives shark ban controversy and how misinformation in campaigns can be counterproductive (^[66]).

Industry engagement

Camera manufacturers also engaged with conservation. In 2019, Canon USA partnered with the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School to plant coral fragments from a nursery onto a reef at Key Biscayne, Florida, creating the “Canon Reef” (^[67]).

Key Figures

Photographers as advocates

• Shawn Heinrichs — Emmy-winning filmmaker, Sea Hero of the Year 2011, helped create Raja Ampat shark sanctuary, TEDxBoulder speaker. Joined Wetpixel as conservation moderator in 2007.
• Rob Stewart — Canadian filmmaker whose Sharkwater (2006), Revolution (2012), and posthumous Sharkwater Extinction (2019) galvanized global shark conservation. Died during a dive in 2017.
• Dr. Luiz Rocha — California Academy of Sciences marine biologist who served as Wetpixel’s science correspondent, writing 36 articles in 2006 including several on conservation. Bridged scientific research and the photography community.
• Sylvia Earle — “Her Deepness,” Mission Blue founder, vocal advocate for MPAs.
• David Doubilet — Contributed to Bite-Back conservation calendars; his National Geographic work routinely combined visual storytelling with conservation messaging.
• Brian Skerry — National Geographic contract photographer; contributor to Bite-Back calendars. TED talk and Ocean Soul book brought marine conservation to mainstream audiences.
• Norbert Wu — Pew Fellow; contributor to conservation photography calendars and initiatives.
• Tanya Houppermans — Award-winning photographer and shark advocate who wrote the definitive Wetpixel article on Spot A Shark USA citizen science program.
• Randall Arauz — Costa Rican conservationist who won the Goldman Environmental Prize for halting shark finning in Costa Rica. Covered on Wetpixel in 2011 (^[68]).

Organizations

• Sea Shepherd Conservation Society — Covered at DEMA 2008; Cheng served as head photographer for Antarctic anti-whaling campaigns.
• Save Our Seas Foundation — Launched the Marine Conservation Photography Grant in 2014 (US$40,000); Thomas Peschak served as Director of Conservation.
• PEW Charitable Trusts — Shark conservation work globally; Norbert Wu was a Pew Fellow.
• Bite-Back — UK shark conservation charity that produced annual photography calendars featuring top underwater photographers, covered on Wetpixel from 2007 through 2021.
• Shark Savers / WildAid — Founded in 2007; merged in 2013 to combine the “I’m FINished with Fins” campaign and SharksCount citizen science program.
• Shark Angels — Cross-organizational initiative combining Save Our Seas, Sea Shepherd, and Shark Savers members for grassroots shark advocacy.
• Conservation International — Partnered with West Papua, Raja Ampat manta research, and the Blue Auction at Christie’s.
• Shark Trust — UK-based organization supported by Wetpixel reader fundraising (great white shark adoption program).
• Manta Trust / Indonesian Manta Project — Built photo-ID databases for manta ray conservation in Raja Ampat.
• Coral Reef Alliance — Received donations from Wetpixel/Divester t-shirt sales in 2007.

Impact

The Wetpixel community demonstrated that underwater photographers are uniquely positioned for conservation:

1. Visual evidence: Photographers documented conditions that scientists could not always observe firsthand — reef destruction at Sipadan, shark finning operations in Indonesia, ghost net entanglements off Mexico.
2. Public engagement: Images of charismatic marine life built public support for protection measures. Doubilet’s observation that “Images have power — sometimes they are the single link that humans have with the sea” captured this principle.
3. Species identification: Diver photographs directly fed citizen science databases for whale sharks (30,000+ encounters cataloged via NASA-derived algorithms), manta rays (Bird’s Head photo-ID), and sand tiger sharks (Spot A Shark USA).
4. Policy influence: Films like Sharkwater and Sharkwater Extinction directly influenced shark fin legislation worldwide. Stewart’s first film alone was credited with helping establish finning bans or trade restrictions in 90+ countries.
5. Economic argument: Manta ray ecotourism (valued at US$100 million/year worldwide) demonstrated the economic superiority of living marine ecosystems over extractive use, a key argument in CITES and CMS protections.
6. Direct advocacy: Wetpixel functioned as a mobilization platform, providing email templates, legislator contacts, and calls to action for shark fin bans, goliath grouper protection, and Maldives fishing ban defense.
7. Ethical standards: The site’s editorial stance on wildlife photography ethics — rejecting animal manipulation for imagery — set standards for the broader community.

The Coral Bleaching Crisis of 2015-2017 further demonstrated this impact, as underwater photographers documented the devastation in real time, contributing to public awareness and scientific documentation.

References