£2,000 and two model new cameras got as prizes within the annual marine environmental journal competitors, plus £1,000 given to charity
Gorgeous photos and compelling storytelling about sailors’ adventures and their distinctive views of the marine atmosphere got here to the fore on this 12 months’s Brian Black Memorial Award.
Run for a fifth 12 months, as soon as once more in partnership with antifouling specialist Coppercoat, the award celebrates how correct journalism in regards to the marine atmosphere can deliver to life tales that have to be heard. For the primary time, the award included two images competitions for adults and juniors, the latter run together with The Week Junior journal. The theme of the award this 12 months was ‘Our Altering Seas’.
The principle article competitors, with a money prize of £2,000, together with publication in Yachting Month-to-month, and a shocking brass and wooden engraved compass, was gained by Katherine Knight, who wrote about her expertise when she discovered herself in Dunvullaig Bay on the shores of Loch Craignish in Scotland because the Covid pandemic compelled everybody to remain put.
Over time she turned involved in regards to the state of the seagrass there, however quite than doing nothing, she dived in, and received concerned in surveying, fundraising and now planting new seagrass meadows which, after numerous years’ care, are thriving as soon as once more, functioning as a nursery for fish and wildlife and locking in carbon.
‘I’m honored and delighted to obtain the Brian Black Memorial Award. Thanks for the chance to inform my story about crusing and seagrass, that are two of the issues that I’m most obsessed with. I hope that this evokes individuals to get out, have adventures on their crusing boat, and likewise take into consideration how they will deliver constructive motion for conservation into what they’re doing.’
The grownup picture competitors, with the prize of a Canon R50 mirrorless digicam equipment, was gained by Kirstin Jones, who captured a putting picture of discarded fishing gear completely entagling her boat. Crusing in Barbuda within the Caribbean, her boat was caught within the nets in tough seas, however she managed to sail the metal 43-foot yacht slowly with out engine right into a sheltered anchorage the place it took over an hour to clear the hull and propeller.
Kirstin Jones mentioned: ‘Thanks a lot for giving me this award. It’s a privilege to be provided such a implausible alternative to boost consciousness of a really actual risk to our oceans. Over 500,000 tonnes of nets, strains, traps, and so forth, enter our seas every year. There, this “ghost gear” entangles wildlife, damages the seabed, breaks down into microplastics and, as we skilled first-hand, presents a hazard to navigation.’
The judges included Sarah Brown (Brian Black’s daughter), his granddaughter Penny Black, conservation professional Dr Bob Brown, and offshore racing sailor Mike Golding OBE, in addition to the Yachting Month-to-month and The Week Junior editorial groups. Explaining their resolution, the judges commented: ‘It’s an incredible picture as it’s so uncommon to have a photograph of a ship on this scenario that’s nicely composed, in clear water, with putting colors, that rapidly tells a posh story.
The junior picture competitors prize of a Canon 2000D SLR was gained by Arabella Alexander (10). The judges touch upon ‘her fantastically composed shot of pure processes at work as a driftwood log slowly erodes on the seashore at Charmouth, discovering magnificence in an object that might be simply ignored.’
Arabella mentioned: ‘I didn’t count on to win this prize and I can’t imagine I’ve. I sit up for having a correct digicam to take footage with and to share my view of the attractive pure world. Thanks a lot.’
The runners up have been Victoria Waddington (9) and Joshua Rowell (9) for his or her photographs of a jellyfish and a loggerhead turtle respectively.
Presenting the awards, sailor Mike Golding OBE commented: ‘The world’s oceans are all linked, and the best way we deal with them has a world impression. Training, one individual at a time, exhibiting them what impression their actions can have on the atmosphere beneath the water’s floor, can have a huge effect, and remodel complete ecosystems for the higher. For that motive, journalism and storytelling is essential in making seen and accessible one thing that’s typically distant and inaccessible.’
About Brian and Lesley Black
The Brian Black Memorial Award was established in 2020 in reminiscence of Brian and Lesley Black, who handed away in 2019 and 2018, and the award was began by their household and Yachting Month-to-month. Brian was a journalist, movie maker, broadcaster for a few years in Northern Eire. He was a passionate naturalist, and a daring sailor who frequently took his small boats as much as excessive latitudes, and documented local weather change earlier than that was a family time period. His spouse Lesley was a trailblazing sailor in her personal proper, who was the primary feminine commodore of a northern irish yacht membership, and sailed independently and with Brian on many adventures
About Coppercoat
The award was made doable by the help of Coppercoat. For the final 35 years, Coppercoat has provided an award-winning various to self-ablating antifouls which might be costly and time-consuming to use yearly, whereas additionally leaching uncontrolled quantities of the poisonous biocides into the marine atmosphere.
Exams by crusing magazines, industrial operators and for offshore installations have repeatedly discovered Coppercoat to be the best-performing product with a negligible impression on the waters it’s in. The corporate continuously works to enhance its product, packaging and operations to additional cut back its footprint, and is delighted to help this initiative to advertise wholesome seas.
Ewan Clark, director of Coppercoat, mentioned: ‘The staff at Coppercoat is delighted to help the Brian Black Memorial Award. The idea of utilizing crusing boats to discover the pure world, and to take action with minimal impression on the atmosphere, is totally aligned with our values. At Coppercoat, we stay satisfied that our product remains to be main the market on the subject of low-impact antifoul, and unbiased assessments have proven that Coppercoat’s impression.’
About Sea-Changers
Sea-Changers is a UK marine conservation charity, managed by a small staff of volunteers who love the UK’s seas, shores and wildlife. It offers grants to UK marine charities and non-profits for conservation and analysis initiatives. The charity works with companies and people to boost funds by way of bespoke company partnerships, on-line giving, eBay auctions, sponsored occasions and particular person donations. www.sea-changers.org.uk
About Yachting Month-to-month
Yachting Month-to-month is a UK primarily based crusing journal, overlaying yacht cruising across the British Isles, Europe and past. Established in 1906, it is without doubt one of the longest-running crusing publications, and covers all the things the cruising sailor must benefit from their time on the water.
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