01/10/2016

Otter Training by Robert Marc Lehman, overall winner of MontPhoto 2016

Robert Marc Lehmann, overall winner of MontPhoto contest 2016.

Robert, born in Jena, Germany, in 1983, always had an affinity to water. People said he was able to swim before he could walk. Since he was a child his aim was to research sharks and whales. The German TV channel ZDF once called him a fish on two feet, a magazine from Hubert Burda media as The Jacques Cousteau of Thuringia.

Robert became the department head of the biggest aquarium in Europe in 2008 while he was still studying. Before that he trained seals in captivity. Nevertheless he started to question whether it was right to cage animals behind glass and bars. So he decided to go a different way…  I am still hunting - but with my camera.

As a marine biologist and scientific diver, Robert is always on an expedition. He travels around the world as an ambassador for oceans, always looking for new adventures, animals, people and stories. The protection of our biggest ecosystem is always his first priority. Taking pictures and filming under water, with just one breath, is what he loves the most.

Freediving allows me to take pictures and enjoy situations which you can only appreciate that way. Besides, I believe freediving is the most respectful way to get close to an animal under water. He regularly dives with sharks, whales, seals and all other kinds of water residents in all climate zones around the world.

Otter Training picture, is one of two otters I followed a couple of days in their re-wildering training in the jungle of Palawan. They were rescued as baby´s and now people are trying to release them back to the wild after an extensive training in the sea, jungle and freshwater areas. This animal is not a captive animal. It was wild, is trained for the wild and will be released back into nature. As these mammals are super agile and fast it was very hard to get a satisfying image or film.

I had hundreds of bad images out of focus or just half of one otter in frame. It was horrible! What adds to the frustration was the cold water I had to wait in for hours. As soon as I moved I had a big silt out from the decomposing leaves on the ground which resulted in zero visibility for at least 20 minutes. The river might be in a tropic region, but the water was just 10°C and after 3 hours without moving I was close to a hypothermia. I don´t even want to think about how many times I peed in my wetsuit to get warm for at least 10 seconds - but please don´t tell anyone.

Sometimes the otters jumped in and hunted little fish, frogs and mussels. In a second it was all over and I had to wait another half an hour or so. One of the otters just looked right into the camera before he jumped in the pond and that was the best thing that could happen. There was just me holding my breath right beneath the surface and praying to the god of wildlife photography that this creature jumps into the right place within the next 3 minutes before I pass out - and he did. Once. The two otters were very skeptical about the camera in the beginning but I just waited and waited. At the end they were all over the camera and used my dome port as a starting ramp to push themselves away from.

Together with a team of ex-elite soldiers and eco-warrior Pete Bethune, I went on a three-month mission to combat illegal wildlife trade, illegal fishing and the illegal logging of ancient forests in Asia. A dangerous adventure with great encounters, moments of fear and great team work. We rescued many animals, exposed environmental crimes and made a little more justice on earth. The story about the Asian small clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus ) was one part of the project: The Operatives - mission: Coral triangle.

I did not choose this image to compete against other photographers - I chose it to bring attention to these highly endangered creatures. This species is confirmed to be Vulnerable under criterion A2acde due to an inferred past population decline because of habitat loss and exploitation (IUCN). Anyway, thanks to the two people who chose this image for me and forced me to enter this competition;-)