An Appreciation of Animals
By Mike Miller
I hunted when I was young. I shot and killed animals and birds for sport. I felt no empathy for them and never thought about what I was doing beyond the immediate experience. There were always more animals. What I did seemed to make no difference.
When I got older, I became a scuba diver. I dove in Monterey Bay many times. Sometimes I dove in the Hopkins Marine Sanctuary, which is adjacent to the Aquarium. I dove initially as a sporting activity, to enjoy the effort of diving, of swimming underwater and to speed through the kelp forests.
Eventually, I started to enjoy the underwater environment. I observed the fish, the many invertebrate animals, the kelp and the occasional sea lion or harbor seal. I noticed that the fish in the Sanctuary were much less wary of divers than the fish in other places. They did not disappear as I approached. Divers are noisy underwater. Yet the fish in the sanctuary did not flee while those in other parts of the bay quickly disappeared. I learned that spear fishing was not allowed in the sanctuary and therefore the fish were not afraid. I began to look at the world from perspectives other than my own.
© 2016 Mike Miller – Manta Ray (Maldive Islands)
My wife and I went to Africa in 1999 for safari in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. I was in the midst of large animals living in their world. I saw lions kill a warthog. That’s how they lived… and died, a very different world. I saw that the human world of cities, development and money was not the only world.
I saw a truck full of soldiers in Botswana. They were after poachers. The people in the Okavango wanted the animals protected because they had learned that foreigners would come to see them. The poachers wanted quick profits. The army and the poachers battled with increasingly heavy weapons.
I knew then the animal world was threatened by poachers, by development, and by people. The grace of the animals allowed me to see that we all need to protect them. Since then, I have photographed animals both under water and on land to show their existence, to advocate their importance to us all and to enlist support for their survival.
© 2016 Mike Miller – Sharks (Papua New Guinea)
Mike Miller will be showing his images at the Art Ark Gallery from June 2 – July 17, 2016. Register for the opening reception on June 3 (5 – 9PM)