A Bird’s Head Seascape image Gallery is a thing of beauty.  It’s essentially a portfolio compiled of 12 images, GREAT images, all taken exclusively within the Bird’s Head Seascape.  Some of the world’s leading underwater image makers have contributed.  Check out Galleries by Alex Mustard, Tobias Friedrich, Allison Vitsky Sallmon, Alex Tattersall, Mark Strickland, Stephen Frink, Michele Hall, Shawn Heinrichs, Imran Ahmad, Douglas Seifert, to name just a VERY few.  There are also Galleries by lesser known but equally talented photographers…like many of you!  Viewing each Gallery is like perusing a chapter in the best “coffee table” book ever!  And anyone can submit, just get in touch for details.

Charlotte leaves her home in SE Misool. Photo by Mark Erdmann/CI.

Our most recent Gallery is by Dr. Mark Erdmann, who many of you know for his decades of work that helped create the Bird’s Head Seascape.  More recently, Mark has been working on a “re-wilding” initiative called ReShark and its StAR Project, whose goal is to release 100’s of leopard shark (Stegostoma tigrinum) pups into the wilds of Raja Ampat over the coming years.

“Leaving Home”, Camille says so long to the nursery and begins life in the wild

His ReShark Gallery (click link to view) is comprised of images taken in the course of a single week during ReShark’s first release of the shark pups in 2024.  In Mark’s words “Having the opportunity to photograph six leopard shark pup releases in a week in Raja Ampat (3 sharks each in SE Misool and Dampier Strait) was an exceptionally satisfying moment nearly a decade in the making!”  (see our previous post about the release by clicking, StAR Project successfully completes first 2024 release…)

Nesha Ichida, StAR Project manager with Seren, one of the pups released in the Dampier Strait