On the first evening, I initially photographed, and then joined, teams of volunteers cooling and hydrating 84 whales and preparing them for the fast-rising midnight tide. Numerous mass whale strandings have occurred in New Zealand since records began in 1840, and Farewell Spit is one of the most frequent locations for those involving long-finned pilot whales. The ship remains on the reef today, its fate undecided. Every day a specialist team of salvors were winched on to the boat by helicopter to slowly pump out the remaining oil and remove stacked containers. Environment minister Nick Smith and officials flew in to assess and manage the clean-up. Following the grounding of the MV Rena container-ship on the Astrolab reef off the coast of Tauranga, thousands of animals fell victim to the oil, including little blue penguins that were treated in the Wildlife Recovery Centre. Simcox says that although large-scale commercial fishing has come to dominate the fishing scene in New Zealand, smaller operators such as Imlach fish around the clock in Cook Strait and remain an important part of the industry. Craig Simcox, a photographer for the Dominion Post, made this photo story over the course of two and a half days aboard a fishing trawler crewed by skipper George Imlach and deck hand Craig Cox. In March, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s whaling programme was unscientific and should cease immediately. Styling themselves as pirates for the environment, Sea Shepherd’s tactics included closely following Japanese ships to prevent the transfer of whales from harpoon vessels to the processing ship. Japan had intended to take 1035 whales from the area for research purposes, but managed just 287 due to Sea Shepherd’s intervention. “You’ve got to stay quite a while before people start to not notice you.” Three Sea Shepherd vessels travelled to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary over the summer of 2013/2014 to disrupt Japanese whaling activities for the tenth year in a row. He knew the success of the series depended on access, so he negotiated complete freedom backstage and attended two long days of dress rehearsals at Sky City Theatre as well as the event itself, he says. Auckland photojournalist Peter Meecham always thought beauty pageants had plenty of photographic potential, so when an opportunity arose to document Miss Universe for Sunday magazine, he seized it-shooting an entire photo essay rather than the “two or three” pictures the accompanying story required.
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