DIVE PACIFIC 178 Sept-Nov 2021
Featuring Whale Shark at the door! (?), the threats from WWII wrecks in the Pacific, climate change impacts on kelp forests and coral reefs, new columns, superb u/w/photos and more
Featuring Whale Shark at the door! (?), the threats from WWII wrecks in the Pacific, climate change impacts on kelp forests and coral reefs, new columns, superb u/w/photos and more
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The gripping end by Wei Fu, Thailand,<br />
Highly commended<br />
Clutched in the coils of a golden tree snake,<br />
a red-spotted tokay gecko clamps onto its<br />
attacker’s head in a last attempt at defence.<br />
Named for their call, tokay geckos are up to 40<br />
cm long, feisty and have powerful jaws. But<br />
they are also a favourite prey of the golden<br />
tree snake which also hunts lizards, amphibians,<br />
birds and even bats; its one of five snakes<br />
that can ‘fly’, expanding its ribs and flattening<br />
its body to glide from branch to branch.<br />
Wei was photographing birds at a park near<br />
his home in Bangkok, Thailand, when he heard<br />
the loud croaking and hissing of the gecko<br />
being approached by the golden tree snake.<br />
Within minutes the snake had dislodged the<br />
gecko and squeezing it to death then began<br />
the laborious process of swallowing the gecko<br />
whole.<br />
Canon EOS 7 Mark II + Tamron SP 150–600mm<br />
f5–6.3 G2 lens; 1/800 sec at f7.1; ISO 1000.<br />
Toxic design by Gheorghe Popa, Romania<br />
Highly commended<br />
This eye-catching detail of a small river in the<br />
Geamana Valley, within Romania’s Apuseni<br />
Mountains, took Gheorghe by surprise though<br />
he had been visiting the region for several years<br />
using his drone to capture images of the valley’s<br />
ever changing patterns. But these designs,<br />
perhaps made sharp by recent heavy rain, are<br />
the result of an ugly truth.<br />
In the late 1970s, more<br />
than 400 families living<br />
in Geamana were forced<br />
to leave to make way for<br />
waste flowing from the<br />
nearby Rosia Poieni mine,<br />
a mine exploiting one of<br />
the largest deposits of<br />
copper ore and gold in<br />
Europe. The picturesque<br />
valley became a ‘tailings<br />
pond’ filled with an acidic<br />
cocktail, containing pyrite<br />
(fool’s gold), iron and other<br />
heavy metals, laced with<br />
cyanide which infiltrated<br />
the groundwater and<br />
threatened waterways more<br />
widely.<br />
The settlement was gradually engulfed with<br />
millions of tons of toxic waste, leaving just the<br />
old church tower protruding and the sludge still<br />
piling up.<br />
DJI Mavic 2 Pro + Hasselblad L1D-20c + 28mm f2.8<br />
lens; 1/60 sec at f11; ISO 100<br />
www.dive-pacific.com 41
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