The photo competition is promoted by the MPA Engage project, an initiative co-financed by the European Interreg Med programme that aims to strategically manage protected marine areas for mitigating the effects of change on the Mediterranean.
The MPA Engage international project has launched the first edition of ‘4Pictures4Mediterranean', a photo competition hosted by Instagram that offers participants prestigious prizes and the opportunity to show their work in exhibitions focused on the impacts of climate change. All sea photographers are encouraged, from now till December 31st to participate.
“We are looking for pictures that showcase the beauty of the marine protected areas but also their fragility”, says Manuela D'Amen, co-organizer of the photo contest on behalf of the Zoological Station of Naples Anton Dohrn.
These precious photographic evidences will allow the organization of different exhibitions aimed at displaying the sea natural capital, the human impacts on the fragile marine ecosystems and the stories of managers and citizens who get involved to value and protect them.
Using the hashtag #MPAcontest, the photo competition seeks to promote the importance of marine protected areas in the fight against climate change and other human threats across the whole Mediterranean.
The photo contest invites submissions of photos taken in any of the Mediterranean marine protected areas in four categories:
- “Natural values”, in which will be included photos that show the beauty and the value of sea biodiversity and of coastal Mediterranean habitats.
- “Impact”, a category aiming to disclose the effects of climate change on biological, geological, and social aspects (e.g. invasive species, mass mortalities events, algal blooms, coastal erosion, extreme storms).
- “Action”, that will contain photos explaining how people and organizations take action to mitigate, counteract or adapt to consequences of climate change.
- “Old Mediterranean”, gather old pictures form the grandparents’ drawer for illustrating how much our sea has changed in its both social and natural aspects.
The winners of the four categories will be rewarded with high-quality diving gear branded Scubapro or with a Vaquita Paralenz, the underwater camera with extraordinary performance. You can spot a full description of prizes on the following link).
The competition is free and open to both professional and amateur photographers. To enter the photo contest, participants should post on their Instagram account one or more photos, accompanied by the hashtag #Mpacontest and the tag @Mpaengage by the end of 2020. Official rules available here.)
About MPA Engage
The MPA Engage project aims to strategically manage protected marine areas for mitigating the effects of change on the Mediterranean. The activities of monitoring, vulnerability assessment and citizen science will be developed in the seven marine protected areas partners of the project, located in six nations bordering the Mediterranean. The results obtained will allow identifying the best practices to be capitalized at the European level. The project, led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), involves different partners, universities, research institutes, local and national public institutions, representatives of the private sector and OGN and, through specific actions also engages citizens, divers and fishermen.