I have spent the over a decade in the company of Humpback whales and in this time I have learned a great deal about behaviour.
With all expeditions I aim to give back to the scientific and research community. This is in many forms such as providing fluke shots of whales for identification, donating footage to scientists and government bodies to help in conservation of a species.
All Humpback Fluke shots are available on dropbox for anyone to access and use as part of their research or in collaboration with other organisations. check out the Tongan Fluke Collective for more details
I am also happy to donate images to non-profit organisations or conservation groups upon request.
Organisations
Some of the organisations I donate images to for their campaign and educational materials include:
- Greenpeace
- IFAW
- Sea Shepherd
- WDCS
- HSI
Conservation & Support
Tonga Research – Tongan Fluke Collective Initiative
The Tongan Fluke Collective reaches out to professional photographers and the general public visiting Tonga for photographs of individual humpback whales, organizes these, and in collaboration with projects like the Antarctic Humpback Whale Catalog uses these for research. Our goal during the 2015 whale watching season will be to capture the most Flukes shots ever collected in a region by one collective group. In order to meet this challenge I will be donating $1 for every fluke shot taken, to benefit the local community. We will aim to donate funds to schools and hospitals to show our continued support for local prosperity and the importance of the whales that come to Tonga. With this incentive in mind I would also like to ask local businesses to match my donation to support the local community. Combining research and community is the next step in the evolution of the Tongan Fluke Collective which we hope will benefit Tonga and the whales.
Azores (Ongoing support for conservation)
As part of our Program in the Azores we donate imagery and video footage of behaviour to the government and all images are taken under a special permit granted by the Regiao Autonoma Dos Acores, Secretaria Regional Do Ambiente E Do Mar, Dreccao Regional do Ambiente.
We have also donated Identification images of mobula rays for scientific research.