New Zealand Geographic is proud to be a sponsor of Southern Seabird Solutions, a trust established to promote fishing practices that avoid seabird deaths in Southern hemisphere fisheries.

Editor James Frankham was one of the judges of Southern Seabird Solution’s 2008 photo competition, along with ornithologist Chris Robertson and regular contributors Kim Westerskov and Rod Morris.

Photographing fast-moving seabirds from unstable fishing boats in often severe weather offers one of the most difficult challenges a photographer can face. The winning photographs presented New Zealand’s seabirds in a way we’ve never seen them before—powerful images that may contribute to the preservation of these seabirds under threat.

Cameron Long’s shot of a Salvin’s albatross in the Southern Ocean won the category open only to fishermen and their immediate families. The winner of the open category was Peter Langlands who framed two Gibson’s wandering albatrosses off Kaikoura. Steven Hirst won the young persons’ category with a photo which captured a black-backed gull in flight at a Christchurch estuary.

Finally Greg Tinney won the seabirds and fishing practices category with a photograph of a vessel in the Hokitika Canyon using a mitigation device to reduce the accidental capture of seabirds while fishing.

Southern Seabird Solutions Trustee Chair Bill Mansfield said at the announcement event, “The photo competition is a way to remind fishermen and the broader public that New Zealand is a very important place for seabirds. More albatross and petrel species breed in New Zealand than in any other country.”