Finding Bright Spots in Dark Conditions - Editorial

National Wildlife, August-Sept, 1999

Yva Momatiuk and John Eastcott knew they were taking a gamble. Four years ago, the husband-and-wife photojournalist team financed a trip from their home in upstate New York to the Pribilof Islands of Alaska to gather information and take photographs of the colonies of northern fur seals that breed in the region during summer.

'We knew there would be a lot of obstacles to getting good photos of the animals, but we didn't realize just how big they would be,' recalls Eastcott, noting that the seals are darkly colored, the background in their rookeries tends to be dark and the sky is often filled with dark clouds. 'Everything sort of blends together, plus there are restrictions on how close you can get to the colonies because fur seals are protected by federal law. We'd sit for hours at a time, waiting for photo opportunities.'

Momatiuk and Eastcott were on a mission, however. In addition to photographing the animals' behavior, the couple wanted to help young Native Alaskans in the Pribilofs learn more about local traditions by documenting Aleut ties to northern fur seals. They returned at their own expense the following two summers to complete the task.

Some of their work from those three trips is displayed in this issue in 'The Art of Bullying,' an article that examines how violence actually helps produce social harmony in a fur seal colony. For all of their efforts, Momatiuk and Eastcott were honored earlier this year by the nonprofit Alaska Conservation Foundation for excellence in still photography.

'I only wish that magazine readers could somehow press a button on the opening page of the article to activate the wonderfully furious noises of a seal rookery,' says Momatiuk. 'It is a sound I will never forget.'

The Editors