Raine Island - Nature's Cradle on the Edge of the Coral Sea
Satellite Web Cast From Turtle Heaven and Hell
Raine Island is a miniscule speck of coral and sand hanging on the edge of Australia's continental shelf. Lost in the vast maze of the remote northern Great Barrier Reef system the island lies isolated by the 80 miles between it and the mainland, the reefs to the West, and to the East, by the vast emptiness of the Coral Sea.
One of Nature's marvels is that every year thousands of green turtles migrate to their natal beach on this island to lay their eggs and ensure the survival of the species. Closed to all except government-permitted scientific research expeditions, Raine Island is a nature preserve and the largest marine sea bird rookery in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area and possibly Australia. Most importantly though, Raine Island is the worlds most prolific nesting site for the endangered green turtle (80,000 come here in a good year to nest and lay their eggs).
Raine Island is also a very small place - 800 meters by 400 meters at high tide. So many turtles come here to nest that in their zeal to nest and due to the lack of use able real estate they frequently dig up each others nests only hours after the nest has been laid. Scientists tell stories of recently laid turtle eggs rolling down the beach as one turtle digs up the recently laid eggs of another.
The other half of the story is that when the turtles make the annual migration so do sharks which come from all over the Coral Sea, including the tropical seas' most voracious predator, the tiger shark. Tiger sharks appear in great numbers at Raine Island at the same time as the peak turtle nesting period....to feast.
This year, for the first time, a team of scientists and film makers shooting a coproduction Natural History New Zealand Ltd. and National Geographic Television will be there to document the natural history drama which takes place as the turtles arrive and make their way through the shark gauntlet surrounding the island to lay their eggs. They are shooting a documentary with the working title Raine Island: Nature's War Zone. The team will be at the island during two expeditions: one in December and the second in Jan./Feb. With unprecedented access and permission to remain at the island longer then anyone before, the team will have an excellent opportunity to capture never before documented behaviors.
I will be there under contract to one of the producers, Natural History New Zealand Ltd. documenting the work of the team and capturing all of the wildlife action on the island and underwater. In addition to my usual Nikon film systems I will be shooting a digital portfolio for Nikon with the new D100 camera system. Underwater I'll be using the new Sea & Sea housing for the D100. Images will to be transmitted by satellite to the creative folks at Nikon and pdnonline, assuming the gods of technology smile on our project. The web portfolio will appear in Nikon's On The Road Again, feature in the Nikon Center web site at NikonNet.com and is scheduled for web release in late January during the second expedition.
We will also be sending images and text back to this web site. I hope to be able to send back a journal entry at least every other day and hopefully every day. We will log a week of journal entries and then entries will be archived to a link.
Come along on the journey and see what is happening at the edge of Australia's continental shelf where it drops off into the deep blue of the Coral Sea... where the sharks have stripes and the turtles have scars. Come visit Nature's War Zone!
You will have the chance to meet leading scientists and intrepid filmmakers and check out how they carry out their research projects and investigate and capture new behaviors on film. You can send us an email with questions and we'll get back to you with answers about the wildlife at the island and the film making process.
Putting together a project like this requires considerable resources under the best of conditions. To pull together the many different pieces to make the whole, I called on a number of companies for support to help document the unique wildlife drama which takes place at Raine Island. Below are the logos of the companies which, I am proud to write, had the creative vision to see the tremendous value in telling the Raine Island story and have chosen to support my efforts and, indirectly the efforts of the entire team . A detailed description of the companies and their generous support for my project can be found at the Sponsors Page. Please visit.
© 2002, Paul Sutherland Photography LLC. All images and text on this and every other page on this web site are protected by US and international copyright law. No unauthorized of any kind whatsoever is permitted.
Photo Captions:
Top: A green turtle, like those to be found at Raine Island, on the move in the deep.
Middle: The view N by NE in late afternoon light from the top of the light beacon tower - first built in 1844.
Bottom: Production Director, Jeremy Hogarth discussing the anatomy of a turtle skull with Ranger Ian Bell.