10th Celebrate the Sea Festival 2011 in Manado is joined by famous film makers and sea explorers

The biggest underwater water imagery festival in the Asia Pacific is headed to

The biggest underwater water imagery festival in the Asia Pacific is headed to North Sulawesi as the 10th Celebrate the Sea Festival 2011 is ready to bring the world’s underwater splendors to the shores of Manado, from September 23-25, 2011 at the Sintesa Peninsula Hotel.

Howard & Michelle Hall, world-renowned film makers for the astonishing IMAX 3D productions of Deep Sea and Coral Reef Adventure, are slated to attend the September festival to share their adventures, along with National Geographicโ€™s deep-sea explorer, Emory Kristof, acclaimed among the first to discover the wreck of the Titanic. Attendees can expect very extraordinary presentations from a host of celebrated underwater luminaries including Dr. Mark Erdmann, Leandro Blanco, Eric Bettens, Amanda Cotton, Steve Jones, Michael AW, Mathieu Meur, William Macdonald, and Indonesiaโ€™s very own award-winning underwater photographer, Ronny Rengkung.

In association with the World Festival of Underwater Pictures, Le Festival Mondial de l’Image Sous-Marine – Marseille โ€“ now in its 37th year, the Celebrate the Sea Festival is seen as the most important underwater film and photographic event in the world outside of Europe.

Staged at ten supporting resorts, the shootout competition, held from September 19-23 is one of the main highlights of Celebrate the Sea 2011. Competitors stand the chance to win prestigious medals for Outstanding Achievement, Merit of Excellence awards and the coveted title for the “Most Influential Shoot Out Underwater Photographer of the Year” with cash and holiday prize of US$5,000.

The Festivalโ€™s international underwater imagery competition also calls for entries from photographers and film makers to compete in the 7 categories of: Black and White print, Color Print, Portfolio of Festival, Trio, Slide Shows, short video, and feature length documentary. Highlights of the weekend also include screening of films and prints in the competition, slide shows competition, childrenโ€™s painting competition, photographic workshop, dive travels, and an exhibition of marine arts and craft.

As in previous festivals, the event is the platform for Ocean and Environment Australia to launch its annual sharkโ€™s conservation campaign. Over 5,000 children will compete in this year’s Celebrate the Sea art competition, and the finalists will be invited to compete in the final round to win the prestigious Ambassador for Sharks Award.

The Celebrate the Sea weekend at the scenic Sintesa Peninsula Hotel Manado will be packed with seminars on ocean conservation, climate change, underwater photographic workshops, photographic exhibition, and an international underwater film festival featuring winning films from the World Underwater Pictures Festival.

Joining the panel of speakers and judges, the splendor of underwater North Sulawesi will be discovered, most renowned for the Bunaken Marine National Park, located atop the apex of the coral triangle. Oceanic walls, soft coral canyons, extensive coral meadows, and intriguing muck dive locations offer unparalleled photographic opportunities found nowhere else in the world.

For detailed information, please log on to the event official website: http://www.celebratethesea.oneocean.com/.

To gain an idea of the wealth of underwater life in the seas around Manado, visit our photo essay: The Deep Water Paradise of Kalasey Seas off Manado.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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