The Nature Conservancy is proud to announce the winners of our 2025 contest.
I keep going back to this image by Miesa Grobbelaar, taken earlier this year in Tonga, a tiny island in the South Pacific. You can see divers working in the water to free a humpback whale entangled in a rusty chain, while light filtering through the surface illuminates the top half of the whale.
I lived in Tonga and have been to Ha'apai to visit friends. I even swam with whales on another island in the Kingdom called 'Eua. There is nothing that can easily describe the feeling of a whalesong vibrating through your body as you swim alongside them. The photographer named the piece "Tauhi" which is Tongan for "to take care of" or "tend to."
The first time I learned of the word it was part of 'tauhi vā,' the Tongan concept of taking care of relational spaces between people and places, and yes, animals too. The idea shaped my service in several ways and is something that continues to be an important part of my life.
I still notice the small acts that hold relationships together, the brief moments showing the care we give with no expectation in return. Seeing people free that whale felt like tauhi captured in one instant. But it has ripple effects, and there's a mighty ocean with so many of us working and tending to our relationship with it waters and the creatures that call it home.
