Elodie Sandford Explorer 2019 - Catherine Kim Application Video

Описание: Catherine Kim won the Elodie Sandford Explorer Award for Amateur Photography for her 'Tara Bandu in Timor-Leste' expedition.

Catherine hails from the US state of Virginia. She is currently finishing her PhD in Coral Reef Ecology at the University of Queensland Australia. It was whilst carrying out fieldwork in Timor-Leste that she encountered Tara Bandu, an indigenous customary law of resource management. In recent years, Tara Bandu has been applied to marine resources such as coral reefs to create locally managed marine areas, which also serve as ecotourism zones generating income for the community. As an XL Catlin Oceans Scholar for her PhD, Catherine was a member of the field team that collected kilometres of coral reef imagery for outreach and scientific analysis in five countries: Timor-Leste, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Maldives, and Taiwan. Her PhD research in Timor-Leste involved collecting and analysing over 20,000 coral reef images, investigating coral reef crypto-faunal diversity, and conducting coral reef health surveys around the capital of Dili before and after the 2016 – 2017 global bleaching event.

Catherine plans to utilise 360-degree imagery of coral reef and other marine environments in Timor-Leste and share them with local communities who rely on these resources and are working to protect them.

Award supported by the friends and family of Elodie Sandford.