Latest news with #Moorea
Forbes
24-07-2025
- General
- Forbes
12 Beautiful Winners Of The U.N. World Oceans Photo Competition
First Place Winner, Wonder: What Sustains Us category, Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Bearing the theme 'Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us,' the winning images of the 2025 12th annual United Nations World Oceans Photo Competition are an ode to our ocean's wonders and a call to not lose sight of them when determining their fate. The winning images of this photo contest were selected by an expert panel of judges from thousands of photos entered by professional and amateur photographers across four categories: Big and Small Underwater Faces, Underwater Seascapes, Above Water Seascapes and the new category of Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us inspired by the 2025 UN World Oceans Day theme. From strikingly amazing, weird and surprising animals to unreal seascapes, the winners offer a complex view of our oceans. The photo above – 1st place winner in the Wonder: What Sustains Us category and taken in 2024 in Mo'orea, French Polynesia -- captures the eye of a humpback whale named Sweet Girl, just days before her tragic death. Four days after American photographer Rachel Moore captured this intimate moment, she was struck and killed by a fast-moving ship. Her death serves as a heartbreaking reminder of the 20,000 whales lost to ship strikes every year. 'We are using her story to advocate for stronger protections, petitioning for stricter speed laws around Tahiti and Mo'orea during whale season," said Moore. "I hope Sweet Girl's legacy will spark real change to protect these incredible animals and prevent further senseless loss.' The contest is organized by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, DivePhotoGuide (DPG), Oceanic Global, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. The UN Photo Competition for World Oceans Day is free and open to photographers and artists from around the world who are invited 'to celebrate the ocean's essential wonder - from all the wonders it consists of to the wonder it ignites,' according to the organizers. 'The ocean's wonder is what draws us in and drives our desire to protect it. Wonder is the foundation of scientific knowledge, the allure behind exploration, the curiosity that drives innovation, and the seed of traditional wisdom.' World Ocean's Photo Competition First Place Winners 1st Place, Big and Small Underwater Faces category, Sea of Japan. This photo of a Japanese warbonnet was captured in the Sea of Japan, about 50 miles southwest of Vladivostok, Russia. 'I found the ornate fish at a depth of about 30 meters (100 feet), under the stern of a shipwreck,' Andre Nosik explains. 'This species does not appear to be afraid of divers. On the contrary, it seems to enjoy the attention,and it even tried to sit on the dome port of my camera.' 1st Place, Underwater Seascapes category. Raja Ampat, Indonesia. 'This year,' Dani Escayola explains, 'I had the incredible opportunity to visit a jellyfish lake during a live-aboard trip around southern Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Being surrounded by millions of jellyfish, which have evolved to lose their stinging ability due to the absence of predators, was one of the most breathtaking experiences I've ever had.' 1st Place, Above Water Seascapes category. Shark Bay, western Australia. A serene lake lies cradled by arid dunes, where a gentle stream breathes life into the heart of this extraordinary creation. Captured from an airplane on a remote stretch of coastline near Shark Bay in western Australia. Second Place Winners Of Ocean's Photo Competition 2nd Place, Wonder Sustaining What Sustains Us, Indonesia's Lembeh Strait. This juvenile pinnate batfish was photographed with a slow shutter speed, a 'snooted' light (to control the light beam for the shot) and deliberate camera panning to create a sense of motion. Juvenile pinnate batfish are known for their striking black bodies outlined in vibrant orange, a coloration they lose within a few months as they mature. I encountered this restless subject in the tropical waters of Indonesia's Lembeh Strait. 2nd Place, Big and Small Underwater Facess. Anilao, Philippines. On one of his many blackwater dives in Anilao, Philippines, Giacomo Marchine spotted something moving erratically at a depth of around 65 feet. It was about 10 to 15 centimeters in size, a rare blanket octopus and as he approached, it opened up its beautiful blanket, revealing a multicolored mantle. 'I felt truly privileged to have captured this fascinating deep-sea cephalopod," Marchione said.' Among the many unique characteristics of this fascinating deep-sea cephalopod, it exhibits some of the most extreme sexual size-dimorphism in nature, with females reaching up to two meters in length, while males typically remain about 2.4 cm. 2nd Place, Underwater Seascapes. This shot captures a school of rays resting at a cleaning station in Mauritius, where strong currents once attracted them regularly. "Some rays grew accustomed to divers, allowing close encounters like this," Gerald Rambert says. 'Sadly, after the severe bleaching that the reefs suffered last year, such gatherings have become rare, and we may not witness this again at the same spot.' 2nd Place, Above Water Seascapes category. Hermaness National Nature Reserve, Scotland. Northern gannets soar above the dramatic cliffs of Scotland's Hermaness National Nature Reserve, their sleek white bodies and black-tipped wings slicing through the Shetland winds. These seabirds, the largest in the North Atlantic, are renowned for their striking plunge-dives, reaching speeds up to 60 miles per hour as they hunt for fish beneath the waves. The cliffs of Hermaness provide ideal nesting sites, with updrafts aiding their take-off and landing. Each spring, thousands return to this rugged coastline, forming one of the U.K.'s most significant gannet colonies. A Shark Sanctuary And Other Photo Competition Winners 3rd Place, Wonder Sustaining What Sustains Us category. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba. Shot in Cuba's Jardines de la Reina, a protected shark sanctuary, this image captures a Caribbean reef shark weaving through a group of silky sharks near the surface. Using a slow shutter and strobes as the shark pivoted sharply, the motion blurred into a wave-like arc across its head, lit by the golden hues of sunset. The abundance and behavior of sharks here is a living symbol of what protected oceans can look like. 3rd place, Big and Small Underwater Faces category, Antarctic Peninsula. Trips to the Antarctic Peninsula always yield amazing encounters with leopard seals for Lars Von Ritter. 'Boldly approaching me and baring his teeth, this individual was keen to point out that this part of Antarctica was his territory," he said. "The picture was shot at dusk, resulting in the rather moody atmosphere.' 3rd Place, Underwater Seascapes category. 'La Rapadura,' northern coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands. 'La Rapadura' is a natural hidden treasure on the northern coast of Tenerife in the Spanish territory of the Canary Islands. Only discovered in 1996, it is one of the most astonishing underwater landscapes in the world, consistently ranking among the planet's best dive sites. These towering columns of basalt are the result of volcanic processes that occurred between 500,000 and a million years ago. The formation was created when a basaltic lava flow reached the ocean where, upon cooling and solidifying, it contracted, creating natural structures often compared to the pipes of church organs. Located in a region where marine life has been impacted by once-common illegal fishing practices, this stunning natural monument has both geological and ecological value, and scientists and underwater photographers are advocating for its protection. 3rd Place, Above Water Seascapes category, Paradise Harbour, Antarctic Peninsula. For Andrey Nosik, Paradise Harbour is one of the most beautiful places on the Antarctic Peninsula: 'When I visited, the sea was extremely calm, and I could witness a wonderfully clear reflection of the Suárez Glacier (aka Petzval Glacier) in the water.' All the winners and finalists of the 2025 UN Photo Competition for World Oceans Day, as well as from previous years, can be viewed via the virtual gallery. MORE FROM FORBES
ABC News
04-07-2025
- General
- ABC News
Tahiti prepares for its first Matari'i public holiday
Tahiti will mark Matari'i as a national public holiday for the first time In November, following in the footsteps of Matariki in Aotearoa. Matari'i refers to the same star cluster as Matariki. And for Tahitians, November 20 will mark the start of Matari'i i ni'a, the season of abundance, which lasts six months to be followed by Matari'i i raro, the season of scarcity. Te Māreikura Whakataka-Brightwell is a New Zealand artist who was born in Tahiti and raised in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, Gisborne, with whakapapa links to both countries. He spoke to RNZ's Matariki program from the island of Moorea. In Tahiti, there's been a series of cultural revival practices, and with the support of the likes of Professor Rangi Mātāmua, there is hope to bring these practices out into the public arena, he said. The people of Tahiti have always lived in accordance with Matari'i i ni'a and Matari'i i raro, with six months of abundance and six months of scarcity, he said. "Bringing that back into the public space is good to sort of recognise the ancestral practice of not only Matariki in terms of the abundance but also giving more credence to our tūpuna kōrero and mātauranga tuku iho." Mr Whakataka-Brightwell said there has been a little controversy around the new holiday as it replaces another public holiday, Internal Autonomy Day, on June 29, which marks the French annexation of Tahiti. But he said a lot of people in Tahiti like the shift towards having local practices represented in a holiday. Te Mareikura Whakataka Brightwell. ( Image: Te Mareikura Whakataka Brightwell ) There will be several public celebrations organised for the inaugural public holiday but most people on the islands will be holding more intimate ceremonies at home, he said. "A lot of people already had practices of celebrating Matariki which was more about now marking the season of abundance, so I think at a whānau level people will continue to do that," he said. "I think this will be a little bit more of an incentive for everything else to align to those sorts of celebrations." Many of the traditions surrounding Matari'i relate to the Arioi clan, whose ranks included artists, priests, navigators and diplomats who would celebrate the rituals of Matari'i, he said. "[Tahiti] it's an island of artists, it's an island of rejuvenation, so I'm pretty sure they'll be doing a lot of that and basing some of those traditions on the Arioi traditions." Mr Whakataka-Brightwell encouraged anyone with Māori heritage to make the pilgrimage to Tahiti at some point in their lives, as the place where many of the waka that carried Māori ancestors were launched. "I've always been a firm believer of particular people with whakapapa Māori to come back, hoki mai ki te whenua o Tahiti roa, Tahiti pāmamao," he said. "Those connections still exist. I mean, people still have the same last names as people in Aotearoa, and it's not very far away, so I would encourage everybody to explore their own connections but also hoki mai ki te whenua (return to the land)." RNZ
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I asked ChatGPT and Claude 4 to plan my vacation to Tahiti. Here's how they compared.
This post originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter. Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here. For this special holiday edition of AI Playground, I asked ChatGPT and Anthropic's powerful new Claude 4 chatbot for recommendations for my Tahitian trip. I'm on vacation with my wife and a group of friends to celebrate the birthday of one of our oldest friends, Theresa. We're staying in Moorea for about seven days. There are four couples ranging in age between roughly 50 and 60 years old. I requested suggestions such as activities during the day and evenings, along with restaurant and bar recommendations. Finally, I asked what would be the best event and location to celebrate Theresa's birthday. Then, I asked Theresa and another friend, Lisa, to review the AI responses. My buddies had already spent a ton of time planning this vacation, so they immediately knew whether the chatbots had done a good job, or not. Here's what they thought: Theresa, the birthday girl: Both chatbots gave similar recommendations, such as a cultural tour, 4x4 rentals, a lagoon cruise plus snorkeling, and what I hadn't even thought about: a sunset cruise on my birthday. ChatGPT recommended three restaurants that we booked: Rudy's, Moorea Beach Cafe, and the Manava Polynesian show. Claude recommended one place we booked, Cocobeach. Both recommended Holy Steak House, but it's a 40-minute taxi ride from our hotel, which seems not worth it when there are so many other restaurants nearer. I preferred the ChatGPT format of a day-by-day itinerary. Claude's seemed like it was too heavily focused on marketing from the Cook's Bay hotel. Lisa: ChatGPT's answer was more comprehensive, listing a sample daily itinerary with pricing estimates and source/reference links. There was overlap, but ChatGPT offered more options and parsed its suggestions in an easy-to-read bullet format. The icons were a bit gimmicky, or maybe just overused. The response from Claude was easier to read, and I preferred its visual layout, but it proposed a smaller selection of activities, restaurants, and other things to do. Neither site mentioned scuba diving as a possibility, despite the fact that there's excellent diving around Moorea and many of us are doing this on the trip. (She gave ChatGPT 4.5 stars out of 5. Claude got 3.5 stars from her.) Read the original article on Business Insider
RNZ News
29-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Tahiti prepares for its first Matari'i public holiday
Te Mareikura Whakataka Brightwell. Photo: Te Mareikura Whakataka Brightwell In November, Tahiti will mark Matari'i as a national public holiday for the first time, following in the footsteps of Matariki in Aotearoa. Matari'i refers to the same star cluster as Matariki. And for Tahitians, 20 November will mark the start of Matari'i i ni'a, the season of abundance, which lasts for six months to be followed by Matari'i i raro, the season of scarcity. Te Māreikura Whakataka-Brightwell is a New Zealand artist who was born in Tahiti and raised in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, Gisborne, with whakapapa links to both countries. He spoke to RNZ's Matariki programme from the island of Moorea. His father was the master carver Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell, and his grandfather was the renowned Tahitian navigator Francis Puara Cowan. In Tahiti, there's been a series of cultural revival practices, and with the support of the likes of Professor Rangi Mātāmua, there is hope to bring these practices out into the public arena, he said. The people of Tahiti have always lived in accordance with Matari'i i ni'a and Matari'i i raro, with six months of abundance and six months of scarcity, he said. "Bringing that back into the public space is good to sort of recognise the ancestral practice of not only Matariki in terms of the abundance but also giving more credence to our tūpuna kōrero and mātauranga tuku iho." Whakataka-Brightwell said there has been a little controversy around the new holiday as it replaces another public holiday, Internal Autonomy Day, on 29 June, which marks the French annexation of Tahiti. But he said a lot of people in Tahiti like the shift towards having local practices represented in a holiday. There will be several public celebrations organised for the inaugural public holiday but most people on the islands will be holding more intimate ceremonies at home, he said. "A lot of people already had practices of celebrating Matariki which was more about now marking the season of abundance, so I think at a whānau level people will continue to do that, I think this will be a little bit more of an incentive for everything else to align to those sorts of celebrations." Many of the traditions surrounding Matari'i relate to the Arioi clan, whose ranks included artists, priests, navigators and diplomats who would celebrate the rituals of Matari'i, he said. "[Tahiti] it's an island of artists, it's an island of rejuvenation, so I'm pretty sure they'll be doing a lot of that and basing some of those traditions on the Arioi traditions." Whakataka-Brightwell encouraged anyone with Māori heritage to make the pilgrimage to Tahiti at some point in their lives, as the place where many of the waka that carried Māori ancestors were launched. "I've always been a firm believer of particular people with whakapapa Māori to come back, hoki mai ki te whenua o Tahiti roa, Tahiti pāmamao. "Those connections still exist, I mean, people still have the same last names as people in Aotearoa, and it's not very far away, so I would encourage everybody to explore their own connections but also hoki mai ki te whenua (return to the land)." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
