Photographer Page

Kirsten Luce

In a previously unpublished image, tourists pose for photographs with Asian elephants on a beach in Phuket, Thailand. In their June 2019 story, photographer Kirsten Luce and writer Natasha Daly set out to look behind the curtain of the thriving wildlife tourism industry, to see how animals at various attractions—including some that emphasize their humane care of animals—are treated once the selfie-taking crowds have gone.

Trucks haul boats loaded with gillnets into the water on the beach at San Felipe, a Mexican fishing town on the Gulf of California. Its marina has a boat ramp, but some fishermen prefer to use this as a put-in, where permits are less likely to be scrutinized.

In 2011, the Zetas cartel, inflamed by an American drug operation and seeking revenge against members believed to be informants, rampaged through Allende and neighbouring towns near the Texas border, killing at least one hundred. For this stricken community, the Day of the Dead holiday, when Mexicans parade in honor of their ancestors, has taken on extra poignancy.

This young captive-raised totoaba being evaluated and returned to a pen likely will end up on a dinner plate in a Mexican restaurant.

College students in an offshore aquaculture class supervised by instructor Raul Herrera Gutierrez (far left) use nets to scoop up captive totoaba to weigh and count them.

Students studying aquaculture at the Autonomous University of Baja California, in Ensenada, conduct a totoaba census at this offshore fish pen in San Felipe where juveniles are bred.

Farmed juvenile totoaba brought from a university hatchery are released into the Gulf of California at San Felipe as part of an ongoing effort to replenish wild populations.

Corvina killed using the ike jime method are drained of their blood, making their flesh appear whiter and reducing bacteria, according to Julio César Mercado.

Julio César Mercado, who buys sustainably caught fish, shows fishermen how to stab a corvina in its brain to paralyze it and cause brain death. This ike jime method is considered to be humane and improve the taste of the fish. Mercado is willing to pay a premium price for fish caught with a hook and line rather than a net.

San Felipe fishermen who have used gillnets for generations say no alternative exists for them to earn a viable living from the sea.