Photo Contest Winners

On Friday night we announced the 10 finalists and the Grand Prize winner of the Photo Contest to raise awareness for the Micronesia Challenge. Here are a few of the top 10:

Leslie Ware won the Grand Prize with his photo of a Fairy Tern flying in front of some Flame Trees. He won a one night stay at Aqua Resort and lunch for two at Grand Hotel.

He also had two other photos chosen as top 10 finalists:

These next two photos were taken by Takahiro Noguchi. If I had been a judge, I would have chosen the picture of the fish as the Grand Prize winner (Sorry, Les).

Laura Williams from Division of Fish & Wildlife submitted this photo of Bikkia tetrandra:

I'm not sure if the judges have a sense of humor or if this is just a coincidence, but Harry Blalock's photo of a hermit crab was chosen as a finalist:

This photo of Yoshimi Yanagasawa and her Mom was also chosen:

Aya Matsumoto had two photos in the top 10:

Here are two of the winning photographers accepting their Beautify CNMI prize packs:

Each Beautify CNMI giftpack includes one of our turtle bags, two t-shirts, several bumper stickers, and a limited edition Beautify CNMI mug.

They are limited edition because I dropped the bag they were in and about 1/4 of them broke.

Oops.

The top 10 finalists and 10 Honorable Mentions were on display at our event at the Grand Hotel on Friday.

After the announcement of the winners we had a public forum hosted by Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council (that's me). Over 30 people participated, including several public school teachers. Dr. Peter Houk, Biologist from Division of Environmental Quality, and Greg Moretti, Marine Protected Area Specialist from NOAA, presented on some of the work they are doing concerning the Micronesia Challenge.

Afterwards we had a long question & answer session.

The event was a success.

Thank you, Aqua Resort, Grand Hotel,and Marianas RC&D for providing prizes!

Thank you, Grand Hotel for hosting the event!

Thank you, Marianas RC&D for paying!

Micronesia Challenge Photo Contest

There will be a forum on the Micronesia Challenge this Friday at 5 PM at the Grand Hotel in Susupe. I'm looking for fishermen, students, and divers to attend!

I'm helping the Micronesia Challenge Outreach Committee by putting together a photo contest. I went ahead and reserved http://www.micronesiachallenge.com/, set up a blog at micronesiachallenge.blogspot.com, directed the website url to the blog url, and started posting the pictures.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

We are going to announce the winners on Friday at Grand Hotel, which is followed by a Micronesia Challenge panel discussion.

Announcing the Micronesia Challenge Photo Contest

Micronesia Challenge Photo Contest

In 2006, Governor Benigno Fitial joined the leaders of Palau, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands to sign the Declaration of Commitment to the Micronesia Challenge. He pledged that the CNMI would work "to effectively conserve 30% of our near shore resources and 20% of our forest resources by 2020."

A CNMI Outreach & Education Committee is charged with publicly promoting the goals and activities of the Micronesia Challenge. Composed of representatives from government, environmental non-profits, and other members of the community, the Committee is seeking photographs to use in outreach materials.

In order to obtain as wide a variety of high quality photos as possible about the CNMI, the Committee hereby announces the “Micronesia Challenge Photo Contest”.

Rules:

•Photos must relate to the Micronesia Challenge and must be taken within the CNMI.

•Photos can be professional or amateur. The content of the photos is up to the artist.

•Photos can be underwater, terrestrial, or aerial, can be natural and/or include wildlife, flora, or different types of people such as children, locals, and tourists in different settings. Other possible photos can show the effects on the environment of poor management and good management practices.

•Suggested themes from past and present campaigns that may help the artist come up with ideas include:

1.What we do on the land can affect our marine environment
2.More Fish, Less Pollution
3.Let Our Islands Shine
4.Our Environment: Our Health, Our Future.

•Photos must be digital and emailed to angelovillagomez@gmail.com.

•Each artist is allowed to submit up to 10 photos.

•Photos become the property of the Micronesia Challenge Outreach and Education Committee.

•The best photos will be showcased on a website with appropriate photo credit give to the contributing artist.

Prizes are yet to be announced, but the top 10 artists will receive a Beautify CNMI gift pack.

Contest ends August 20th at 5 PM, followed by the announcement of the winners August 24th at a Happy Hour Panel Discussion with government and non-government officials involved with the implementation of the Challenge. If you have any questions, please contact Angelo Villagomez at 483-1078.