UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
Ontario, Canada

23 May 2023

Your honor, lieutenant governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell, president and vice-chancellor Vivek Goel, Waterloo region chair Karen Redman, Mayor Dorothy McCabe, Mayor Berry Vrbanovic, members of the university board of governors, faculty and staff.

STUDENTS,

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; but we can do better, you and eye.

I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be here today, how privileged I feel to meet Some of the future stewards of the planet and brightest minds in Canada.

As an aside I’m also ridiculously jealous of your youth.
They say youth and education are wasted on the young… and a couple of things I can say from experience is that you absolutely miss your youth when your knees start to give way, your hair abandons you, stomach becomes less tolerant … and when, unlike pulling all-nighters at school, it suddenly takes 2 to 3 days to catch up on lost sleep!

Setting the stage, so-to-speak, I need to start out with good news and bad news.

Bad news: my generation and those before have left you a planet in chaos. With a myriad problems from political instability to poverty, hunger… the unforgiving effects of climate change. Plastic pollution… overuse of natural resources and unsustainable practices such as overfishing, runaway deforestation and an unhealthy thirst for fossil fuels.

For all of this I would like to say I’m sorry.

The good news is that if anyone can save the planet, put a stop to the harm we’re doing and bring in a healthy new dawn that would be you.

Jane Goodall firmly believes that youth and technology will save the world. So do I.

I thoroughly hope you will visit my exhibition The Living Sea.

The backdrop is daunting:

we’ve lost half of all coral reefs since the 1950s and are likely to lose 70-90% of what’s left in 20 years’ time.
Bleaching, a result of warming water, has affected over 70% of the great barrier reef and countless other reefs on the planet.

There has been a 72% decline in oceanic sharks over the past 40 years.

We’ve lost several species of dolphin in my lifetime, including the vaquita in Mexico and Yangtze River dolphin in China, and are about to lose northern right whales.

Plastic has been found in the gut of virtually every marine organism and in the most secluded and deepest parts of our oceans. We’re dumping a garbage truck of plastic into our seas every minute.

​

On a more cheerful note, the wonders of nature can be seen at The Living Sea.

A pair of loggerhead turtles uniting with a kiss in the Exumas.
A duo of spotted dolphins trailing sargassum from their fins and tails in Bimini.

The adventures and shenanigans of spinner dolphins at Sataya in Egypt.

An absolutely adorable humpback whale calf looking me right in the eye in Vava’u, Tonga.
A huge adult female doing the same but turning towards me, her fins outstretched and hovering vertical as she seems to peer into my soul.

Gorgeous and graceful manta rays swimming over a Polynesian reef or in the water column in Mexico.

A sea lion lounging in a chair next to a pool. Another sitting right inside the dive boat in the Galapagos.

Incredible coral and biodiversity in Raja Ampat.

A lone sperm whale calf, hanging at the surface, allowing me to swim all around it.

The watchful eye of a spinner dolphin in the light above me.

Stunning nudibranchs – sea slugs whose lungs sit like a bouquet of flowers on their backs.

Pygmy seahorses the size of your fingernails sitting on gorgonians.

Oceanic whitetip, Great hammerhead and silky sharks, lovely turtles, angelfish and triggerfish and pufferfish.

The most unbelievable encounters, unique organisms and magnificent sights of my adult life.
All are there and it’s a joy to share them with you.

The Living Sea is a dream come true for me and I hope you will love the images. More than anything, though, the goals of my work in conservation photography are to touch people, raise awareness, educate and spark change.

Generally, people don’t protect things they don’t care about or change their habits if they’re not aware of the problems and given solutions.

In the words of Baba Dioum, 'In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught’

Bringing you The Living Sea and meeting you is literally the privilege of a lifetime.

You wouldn’t believe the quantity of work that goes into mounting a show like this one. It’s very humbling to witness the work, professionalism and dedication and technical genius involved in putting up the show and transporting it across long distances.

It’s only because of ample help and enthusiasm that it’s possible.

There are so many people to thank!

My wonderful team of Patrick, Antonin, Nazir, Farrah and Izzy. The design company in Spain, Tau Diseno, who have now masterfully created and run something like 5 exhibitions.
The Tau folk might even convince you that some Spaniards are consummate professionals who don’t take endless and lengthy breaks or focus only on having fun.

Photo touch-up master Mike Lappin, who has improved dozens of images and who can make mistakes look like art.

My wife keeping the home fires burning, but not burning down the house while I’m away. For feeding the dogs and keeping the fish alive.

Mahmoud Eboo, president Ameerally Kassim-Lakha and the Ismaili Council for Canada. Tour guides and other volunteers… everyone behind the scenes and all the folk who will be responsible for aspects of the show in Canada. The performers of Child of the Ocean, which nearly makes me cry every time I hear it.

The people who blazed the Living Sea trails before Canada – amazing folk in Kenya, the UK and Portugal.

Being able to entrust the photographs and other material to my team, Tau and the Ismaili community is what allows me to do what I do – commune with animals and hunt images that tell stories – with peace of mind.

May you fall in love with my subjects, learn about their plight and consider ways to help.

Indeed, helping nature and helping humanity are not mutually exclusive. Climate change and plastic pollution are prime examples of this.

Jacques Cousteau and David Attenborough might remind us that whilst we once depended on nature to live and imagined the planet too large and resilient to do it harm, nature now depends entirely on us merely to survive.

The ocean provides us one of every two breaths we take… feeds or provides employment to hundreds of millions of people.

I’d like to reemphasize that the future of humanity and planet Earth are betting and depending on you. That your capacity for innovation, skills with technology and communication, will go an extremely long way. Your intelligence and determination will carry the rest.

Thank you.