Complete the form below to create your account

This will be your public name in the community
We need this to keep you informed about your account

Mandatory data.

Why you'll love MyOMSYSTEM

All members get access to exclusive benefits:

  • Member community
  • Register products
  • Extended warranty
  • Monthly newsletter

The World Oceans Day 2019

Gender and Ocean – how are these two connected? Not at all – you might think. Quite much, however, is the answer. Gender and Ocean is this year’s topic for the World Oceans Day. Celebrate this day with us, find out more about why the world’s oceans are so impressive and
take part in a fantastic raffle.

Each year on the 8th of June, people all over the world celebrate the ocean and try their best to change its story. In doing so, they celebrate each and every life on this wonderful planet. Because no matter where you are and no matter how far you might be situated from any coastline, you are somehow connected to the ocean.

Why?

The oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and the source of all life. Not only do they hold over 95% of the planet’s water, they produce more than half of the oxygen in our atmosphere, are said to be important for 50% of the breaths we take and absorb a lot of carbon. But there’s more to it.

 Ann Karin Matberg • OM-D E-M1 • M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm F1.8 Fisheye 
• PT-EP11 • PPO-EP02 • 2 x UFL-3

In many ways, the ocean acts as a regulator of our climate. By soaking up the heat and transporting water of different temperatures all over the planet, it regulates the weather, the temperatures as well as rains and droughts in many places and it makes most parts habitable by keeping the balance. And speaking about habitation – the ocean does not only help to make our planet such a great home to us, it is also a home to the greatest abundance of life including some of the smallest and some of the biggest creatures there are. From critter to whales – there is a variety of life in the oceans that is hard to imagine from ashore and that we can only do our best to partly capture with our lenses.

Gender and Ocean - The oceans also provide us with food. That goes hand in hand with the fact that they create many jobs – not only for fishermen. From tourism and transport to water sports businesses: many industries and jobs are highly connected to and dependent on the ocean – and its condition. And it goes without saying that a (commercial) world – and our supermarkets – are quite hard to imagine without ocean freight.

Marcin Dobas – Exciting encounter with steller sea lions

Marcin Dobas • OM-D E-M1 Mark II • M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm F1.8 PRO
• PT-EP-14 • PPO-EP02 • UFL-3

For many divers, underwater encounters with marine mammals are an unforgettable experience. Whenever I meet a dolphin, a seal or an eared seal (Otariidae), I am sure that I have just met an incredibly intelligent creature which enjoys our encounter as much as I do.
The goal of my last photographic diving expedition was the coat of Kamchatka coast. To some of you, this idea may seem absurd. Everyone who starts diving dreams about the warm waters of the South Seas, the sun, the coral reefs and orange clownfish playing in the water.
The water around the peninsula of Kamchatka, however, is cold, the visibility is not good and the biodiversity is limited. So – why go there? […]

Read the whole story


Juan José Sáez Méndez - The great white shark

 Juan José Saéz • OM-D E-M1 Mark II • M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm F2.8 PRO
• PT-EP14 • PPO-E04 • 2 x UFL-3

On my second trip to Guadeloupe I wanted to capture the behaviour of the great white shark in my pictures. With the help of my results as well as the information provided by the scientists who work with these animals, I wanted to explain or rather express the importance that these special animals have in the ecosystem and show what is being done to protect them. 

The great white shark is an alpha predator that is at the top of the food chain and that, in theory, should not be at risk because it has barely any natural predators. Unfortunately, the great white shark is still on the red list of the worldwide endangered species due to direct or accidental catches in fishing nets, the constant pollution of the seas and the warming or narrowing of their natural habitat. This makes us humans their main predator. […]

Read the whole story

Karin Brussard  - Dolphins – my experience after waiting for 20 years!

 Karin Brussard • OM-D E-M1 MarkII • M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm F2.0
• PT-EP14 • PPO-E02

In the 20 years that I’ve been diving, I’ve taken a lot of photos; from seahorses measuring a mere centimetre to swimming elephants. But I’ve never encountered a dolphin. Until now.For this mission, we chose to search in a large area in the Bahamas which is home to around twenty dolphins. Everyone on the boat was on the lookout. As the hours passed, my hopes began to fade once again. There wasn’t a single dolphin fin to be seen across the wide expanse of water. My attention wandered after just two seconds, I gave up and went to do something else. […]

Read the whole story

What’s your story? 

To celebrate this very special day with you, we have prepared a raffle for you.
As first prize you can win a brand new TG-6 with its Underwater Case.
Second prize is the cool Tough Adventure Pack and the
Third prize is a practical H2O drink bottle


What to do:

  1. If you are not signed up yet as a MyOlympus user, quickly click here, register and refresh your browser or click here after having signed up. In case you are already signed up, log in here and you will get back to this page.
  2. Like this blogpost and think about your most impressive animal encounter/underwater experience so far.
  3. Write a short comment under this blogpost in which you describe this experience
    until June 22th, 2019. --> raffle is closed !


Please view our Terms & Conditions

Thank you very much for your participation.
Your Olympus Underwater Photography World

Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous
    A couple of years ago I had taken some diving lessons at one of the Maldive Islands and felt safe to follow a group of divers on a day trip into the Indian Ocean. I wanted to watch sharks at a feeding place in the sea and thought all the divers of the group wanted to watch the spectacle. As I didn´t have a compass, I simply followed two divers and noticed that they were having a different destination. So I made a U-turn close to the reef to watch at least part of the feeding. With a few small fish around me I felt quite lonesome until three midsized sharks turned up and approached me. And … they meant me. When they were very close, too close for me, they suddenly turned away in the direction of the feeding place. They must have taken me for the guy who regularly did the feeding. Happily I found the feeding place and several sharks at dinner, among them my three skark acquaintances.
  • Best dive was in Egypt where I was diving with buddy who kept disappearing from me, used a lot of air looking for him and needed to surface due to low air! We were diving on a reef and when surfacing I came up with a turtle swimming around me, unfortunately I had borrowed a workmates camera and was worried in case water leaked into it and left it on board dive boat!Frowning2
  • Helmet diving in Bermuda was amazing - and the first time I used my Tough 4! Fantastic pictures and the guy running the dive used the same camera!
  • Mi experiencia es bien corta (tres veces sólo, pero en tres mares u océanos diferentes), y sin ningún encuentro imprevisto, salvo las impresionantes visiones que tuve del mundo submarino. La primera vez fue un simple snorkel en el Mar Rojo, en Aqaba, Jordania. Jamás había visto semejante despliegue de color y especies marinas salvo en los documentales de la televisión. Mi segunda vez fue mi bautismo de submarinismo, en una isla griega del Egeo. Mis primeras impresiones de la vida submarina con todo el equipo de buceo al completo, pero perfectamente acompañado y dirigido por el responsable del grupo. Los ya expertos pudieron descender más y hacer una inmersión más completa. Y mi tercera vez fue en Cuba, en María La Gorda. Aquí ya pude descender unos cuantos metros y disfrutar más a fondo de toda esta experiencia submarina. Aquí sí que nos encontramos con barracudas, no muy cerca, pero imponiéndome todo su respeto. ¿Para cuándo la cuarta?!!!
  • Ich lebe am Meer und möchte nirgends anders sein. Meer Leben! <3
  • My most impressive animal encounter / underwater experience was when I went for a night dive off the coast of Thailand. It was amazing to see marine life in a different light; this was especially true when we put our torches away! We agitated the water and were surrounded by bioluminescent phytoplankton, being immersed in this really felt as though I am a visitor to a different world!
  • My best experience underwater was in Red Sea. It was my diving baptism and we were watching tropical fish, clown fishes and suddenly we see a turtle swimming near us and we could take some pictures, because he left quickly.
  • Merci Olympus de nous partager la photo. C'est si beau.
  • My most memorable underwater experience was seeing a stone fish slowly moving across a rock in the Maldives.
  • A while ago I fell in love with apnoea diving. The peacefulness under water is amazing. Diving down there only with air in my lungs, sitting on the ground and looking up there to the surface is such an unbelievable feeling.
  • Un encuentro con un pez luna de 2 m
  • Sauver les Océans c'est maintenant J'ai fais de la Plonger étant jeune , en mer et en spéléo c'est juste magnifique Il faut faire vite maintenant
  • I have only dived once, my diving baptism, so I haven't encountered with too many animals so far. I just saw a nice group of sardines, some octopusses and then, by far, the most wondeful animal I've ever seen: My wife.

Show more comments (14)