James Morgan Photography

Among the Kazakh Eagle Hunters

james — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 11:29:51 +0000

I’m digging through the archives today selecting images for an upcoming exhibition in Almaty, Kazakhstan. A couple of years ago I remember sitting on a bus in my boxer shorts, sweating, being watched by an entire bus full of Mongolians making the long trip from the Bayan Olgii region of Western Mongolia back to Ulan Bataar, the capital. It was -20 degrees outside and I was sitting on a radiator with a sheep on my lap. The journey took almost a week non-stop.

The view from Kwanduk’s house, Altai Mountains, Mongolia.
I had been in Bayan Olgii, deep in the Altai Mountains to shoot a feature on Kazakh Eagle Hunters. These diaspora Kazakhs had come over the border at the time that the Soviet Empire had pushed down into Kazakhstan. As Kazakh culture gradually dwindled in Soviet Kazakhstan, these people kept hold of all their traditional cultures. Kwanduk, whose family the story focused on, owned two magnificent golden eagles and would go out early in the morning hunting rabbits, foxes, wolves and marmots. The fur is used to make the infamous Kazakh hats, whilst the meat is fed to the eagles.

In the evening the family would sit around and play dombra, cooking mutton and melting ice water. Soon after the trip I made a short multimedia piece:

Looking through this old hard drive I wonder why I don’t have more images but I remember now that I only took one 4gb memory card with me, which probably would have been enough for about 120 frames. Amazing how much things have changed in just two years. I wonder if that bus journey still takes as long….

To see more of James Morgan’s award-winning photography, visit his website. For more updates, please join his Facebook group.

Sea Planes, Dutch Explorers and Suffocated Coral

james — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:19:39 +0000

When you take a commercial flight there are all sorts of things that you're not allowed to do. The majority of which seem enormously superficial, considering everyone onboard has already consented to launching themselves into the sky in a big metal box. Besides, who wants to be careful opening the overhead compartments when you can watch the universe expanding and contracting outside your window.

I experienced no such conflict of interests, however, flying in Dutch explorer Max Ammer's homemade experimental sea plane this morning. All I had to do was read the dials and pull the wing flap lever up and down as he bellowed at me through the headset. After that, it was just a case of trying to complete the job at hand without falling out.

Gam Bay, Raja Ampat archipelago, West Papua

Kabui Bay is a spectacular lagoon in Raja Ampat, off the north west coast of the island of New Guinea. Its crystal clear waters and dramatic coastline lie at the heart of the Coral Triangle's biodiversity. This protected stretch of ocean is an essential breeding ground for the area, populating fish stocks and feeding dolphins, rays and dugongs as they travel up the coast.

But recently, roads have begun snaking their way around the bay sending thick red sediment running into the ocean. 'They're crazy' Max tells me through the headset, 'these roads don't even go anywhere'. And he's right. We fly low along one road that starts at a tiny village on the coast, it snakes inland for about 2 miles and then abruptly stops. The other irony, of course, is that people live in small stilt houses over the water -- there are no cars in the village. Or anywhere near for that matter. People here travel by boat, or they walk.

A new and completely unusable road snakes down towards Kabui Bay, Raja Ampat

As Max takes me along the east coast of the bay, I can see where the ocean is stained red, and where the current is dragging the sediment further out into the open ocean. The coastal corals here have already been suffocated he tells me. I saw Kabui Bay from underwater when I was working here about two years ago, and the knowledge that some of those coral gardens are gone leaves me feeling helpless.

Sediment run-off smothers corals in Kabui Bay, Raja Ampat

Max brings the plane down between two reefs in front of Kri Island, he's visibly angry at what we've just seen. Max has lived in Raja Ampat for almost 20 years and he relies on its spectacular natural beauty for some kind of spiritual sustenance. But he's not the only one, there are 87 villages scattered throughout the region all of whom depend directly on the continuing abundance of the area's reefs and oceans.

For more information on The Coral Triangle, its wonders and horrors, please visit my website.

To see more of James Morgan's award-winning photography, visit his website. For more updates, please join his facebook group.

Ibu Ani and the Coral Triangle

james — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:35:53 +0000

I met Ibu Ani back in February. Ani is one of the Bajau Laut, an ethnic group who have traditionally roamed the waters of the coral triangle living solely off what the ocean provides.

Ani lives on her boat with her son Ramdan. She was married before, she tells me, but her husband, like so many other Bajau men of her generation, was killed by decompression sickness after diving on compressor. Ani herself is fairly immobile, the toll of long years living at sea, so she relies on Ramdan to provide all her food. Much of Ani's life is spent singing to herself at the back of her boat whilst Ramdan forages for sea cucumbers and hunts with his hand-made speargun. She tells me she dreams one day she'll get an engine so she can go back to Torosiaje (a nearby Bajau settlement) -- at the moment it's a four day row.

For more information on The Coral Triangle, its wonders and horrors, please visit: http://thecoraltriangle.com.To see more of James Morgan's award-winning photography, visit his website. For more updates, please join his facebook group.

The Live Fish Trade and the Coral Triangle

james — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:29:08 +0000

Every year $1 billion dollars worth of reef fish are exported -- alive -- from The Coral Triangle to Hong Kong.The majority of these fish come from remote islands in Indonesia where Chinese companies have encouraged local fishermen to use potassium cyanide in order to increase their catch.

The fish are held in huge nets underwater before being shipped to holding facilities on hub islands such as Bali and Sulawesi. Then begins their journey; they are flown on to Hong Kong where they are unpacked, put in the back of trucks and taken to wet fish markets, they are then bought and taken to live fish restaurants where they wait in tanks until a customer chooses them -- by which stage they can sell for a hundred times what the fisherman was originally paid.

The trade originally concentrated on Napolean Wrasse which are now almost extinct, now it has moved on to focus on red spotted grouper, believed by the Chinese to bring good luck. The reality is that the trade, in it's current state, brings nothing but huge environmental destruction and a trail of human bodies in its wake.There are alternatives, Pak Heru, who works closely with WWF, runs a live fish export company that refuses to accept fish caught with cyanide. Pak Heru is concerned for both the future of his industry and the future of The Coral Triangle's oceans.

For more information on The Coral Triangle, its wonders and horrors, please visit: http://thecoraltriangle.com.To see more of James Morgan's award-winning photography, visit his website. For more updates, please join his facebook group.

Cyanide Fishing in the Coral Triangle

james — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:50:39 +0000

A big issue in the Coral Triangle at the moment is cyanide fishing.

Driven largely by China's insatiable appetite for live reef fish, children as young as ten are routinely diving to depths of 30/40 meters, breathing air that is pumped down to them through a hose, and paralyzing fish using a lethal mixture of potassium cyanide.

The use of cyanide is crippling precious coral ecosystems whilst the associated use of compressors is crippling its practitioners.Decompression sickness (the bends) and compressor-related accidents are commonly cited as being the primary cause of premature death in marine communities throughout the Coral Triangle.

Potassium cyanide is squirted directly at target fish species such as grouper or Napoleon wrasse, paralyzing them and enabling them to be collected alive. The cyanide then gets in to currents and will travel for miles along a reef wall, killing coral and wreaking havoc on marine life.

To see more of James Morgan's award-winning photography, visit his website. For more updates, please join his facebook group.

Fishing with Dynamite in the Coral Triangle

james — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:15:10 +0000

Destructive fishing in The Coral Triangle is having an enormous impact on both marine and human life.In order to increase their catches many fishermen operating within the coral triangle are making improvised explosives. Grinding up match heads and combining them with sand and fertilizer. The concoction is then put in an empty soft drink bottle, lit and thrown onto reefs where it decimates coral, killing all the fish within its blast radius.

Pak Usurin demonstrates how to make a fertiliser bomb

This practice has arisen as a result of rapidly declining fish stocks. As the number of fish decreases, fishermen are turning to more and more destructive measures in order to feed themselves and their families.Not only is this practice turning the area's coral gardens into barren wastelands, it is also taking its toll on the individuals who inhabit the region. I met Ibu Hanisa in Mola village in Wakatobi, South Sulawesi. Ibu Hanisa used to make fertiliser bombs which she would then sell on to fisherman from the local area. One day as she was working a bomb went off in her hands. She lost both hands and the sight in one of her eyes. Her story is by no means uncommon.

Ibu Hanisa used to make fertiliser bombs. Wakatobi, Indonesia.

For more information on The Coral Triangle, its wonders and horrors, please visit: http://thecoraltriangle.comTo see more of James Morgan's award-winning photography, visit his website. For more updates, please join his facebook group

Kep Wayag, Raja Ampat, Indonesia

james — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:47:39 +0000

A couple more images from the The Coral Triangle with an extract from my journal....

"This morning we stopped in at the village of Saweo, just three hours south of Kep Wayag, to meet the village elder and record him telling some folk tales in his dying language, Kawe.

Pak Lucas Ayello recounts folk tales in Saweo Village, Raja Ampat.

"We arrived here in Wayag around midday. I was sitting up at the bow as we pulled into the bay. I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of the world in my lifetime -- but I've never seen a place as beautiful as this. The sea is a mixing pot of colours I've never seen before, vast schools of fish fill the sea under the boat and Wayag, a collection of jungle-covered islets rises up out of the water, fringed by white sand beaches and guarded by black tip reef sharks.

I lugged all my equipment up to the top of one of the islets and shot a landscape of the entire bay. No one lives on Wayag, it's a designated conservation area, and it's staffed by 5 or 6 locals from Saweo who patrol it to stop illegal fishing. The area is a potential gold mine for shark finners and long liners. We spent the rest of the day underwater, free diving the endless miles of reef that fill the sea between these islands. Unfortunately the boat leaves tomorrow and if we don't go with them we'll probably be stuck here for the next few months, which doesn't sound like such a bad thing right now...

Kep Wayag, a series of uninhabited islands, rises out of the most biodiverse waters on the planet, Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

More on the coral triangle hereTo see more of James Morgan's award-winning photography, visit his website. For more updates, please join his facebook group

Welcome to the Coral Triangle

james — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:00:39 +0000

I've spent the last couple of years traveling the world as a freelance photojournalist and have been fortunate enough to witness, participate in and photograph some truly incredible moments -- from living with eagle hunters in Mongolia to helping indigenous groups fight to keep hold of their land in the Amazon.

I'm now settling into a long term project looking at the Coral Triangle -- the most biodiverse marine ecosystem on the planet. Described by scientists as being the underwater equivalent of the Amazon, this spectacular tract of ocean contains 76% of the world's coral species. But it's incredibly vulnerable -- global warming, overfishing and increased pressure from the outside world are pushing these beautiful waters to their limit.

This short video below gives a good introduction to The Coral Triangle.

People of the Coral Triangle from James Morgan Photography.

I hope that by going behind the scenes of some of the more interesting images resulting from my work in this incredible region, people will be inspired to join our Coral Triangle Facebook page, visit thecoraltriangle.com and hopefully get involved in some of our campaigns.To see more of James Morgan's award-winning photography, visit his website. For more updates, please join his Facebook group.