The Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future (Belize Fund) is hosting a Reef Resilien-see Scavenger Hunt Photo Contest to raise awareness and participate in Belize Reef Week on March 9th – 16th, 2024 under the theme, ‘Unite in the Coral Reef Fight: Learn, Teach, and Do What’s Right!’ by encouraging participants to explore and capture the beauty of our coral reefs while fostering a sense of responsibility towards their conservation.
How it Works:
Submit an original, royalty-free photo with no prior publication depicting coral reefs and marine conservation, demonstrating an impact or positive action on Belize’s coastal and marine as outlined below.
Daily Scavenger Hunt Topics:
Day 1 “Colours of the Reef” (March 11th)
- Capture vibrant and diverse colours found in coral reefs, including the various shades of corals, with or without other marine life. This theme highlights the beauty and biodiversity of the reef ecosystem.
Day 2 “Conservation in Action” (March 12th)
- Focus on activities and efforts that contribute to coral reef conservation. Capture scenes of clean-up initiatives, conservation projects, or sustainable practices that promote the well-being of the coral reefs.
Day 3 “Underwater Wonderland” (March 13th)
- Capture the mesmerizing beauty beneath the surface, this includes close-ups of marine life such as, but not limited to, fish, ray, sea turtle, shark, dolphin, lobster, conch, crocodile, manatee, and jellyfish.
Day 4 “Human Connection to the Reef” (March 14th)
- Showcase the relationship between communities and the coral reefs. Capture scenes of how people depend on the reef in activities like snorkelling, fishing, or participating in educational programs that promote responsible reef interactions.
Day 5 “ Changing Tides: Adaptation and Resilience” (March 15th)
- Capture images of environmental challenges, threats or stresses like climate change, bleaching, etc. that impact the coral reefs and marine life.
Rules and Guidelines:
- All submissions must be an original, royalty-free photo with no prior publication.
- Participants have the option to submit photos for the daily topics they’re interested in or for all the topics. Those who submit for daily topics are eligible to win ‘Best Photo of the Day’ judged by Belize Fund. All photos submitted per topic will be posted on the day for a chance to win ‘social media fan favourites’ for the photo with the most interactions. Only participants who submit photos for all topics will be considered for the overall scavenger hunt prizes.
- Participants may submit only one entry of a photo per topic taken within Belize.
- Photos must include a caption (max 50 words) with location, date, subject, and relevance.
- Photo showing faces or images of third parties, the contestant must declare that they have permission to publish the image by these third parties.
- Accepted file types: JPG, JPEG, or PNG.
- Open to all Belizean citizens or legal residents.
- High resolution (300 DPI or higher, minimum 1200 pixels on longest side, or 1MB).
- No blurry photos.
- Belize Fund will post submissions on our social media accounts.
- Participants must complete and submit an entrant form.
Judging Criteria:
- Creativity, uniqueness, personal, quality and originality.
- Depiction of the topics.
- Overall impression of the submission.
Prizes:
- Daily Topic Winners: $150 each for meeting judging criteria.
- Daily Social Media Engagement Prize: $50 for photos with the most interactions on Belize Fund’s Facebook and Instagram channels at 5pm.
- Scavenger Hunt Winners (‘Reef Resilien-see Ambassadors’): 1st place – $500, 2nd place – $400, 3rd place – $300.
How to submit: Email submissions to communications@belizefund.bz by February 29th, 2024.
Award Announcement: Winners will be announced daily. The overall scavenger hunt winners “Reef Resilien-see Ambassadors” on March 16th.
Disclaimer:
By submitting an entry, participants agree and grant permission for full use by the Belize Fund to be displayed, distributed, reproduced, and created as derivative works of the texts, in whole or in part, in any media currently existing or subsequently developed, for any educational, promotional, publicity, exhibition, archival, scholarly, or all other standard purposes of the Belize Fund’s communication activities and product development related to Belize coastal and marine environment.
