Ocean Photographer of the Year 2023: Winners and runners-up
- Published
The Ocean Photographer of the Year celebrates some of the most incredible wildlife and wonders underwater taken by professional and amateur photographers. The winner of this year's competition, marine biologist and amateur photographer Jialing Cai took this image of a paper nautilus - which is related to octopuses - floating on a piece of ocean debris following a volcanic eruption in the Philippines.
Andrei Savin was named runner-up with his amazing image of a crab sat in the middle of a sea anemone.
Third place was awarded to Alvaro Herrero Lopez-Beltran for his image highlighting the impact humans are having on ocean wildlife, as a whale is seen swimming while entangled on rubbish.
Winning the Young Photographer category is Jarvis Smallman from western Australia who took this photo of a bodyboarder paddling out to sea while big storm clouds block the sun.
Aaron Sanders from England came second in the Young Photographer category for his picture showing a small common squid shooting a jet of ink into the water.
Although not a winner, this photo by Peter Marshall was highly commended in the The Human Connection Award category looking at people, the planet and the ocean. The picture shows local children in Indonesia playing in the water with homemade wooden goggles held together by fishing line.
Highly commended in the Ocean Adventure category, this photo shows an an intentionally sunk plane wreck near to Jordan in the Red Sea. You can see how massive the plane is compared to the scuba diver swimming next to the cockpit.
For the winners of Ocean Conservation photos, the award is split into two categories – Impact and Hope. Florian Ledoux won the impact category with his image of a polar bear cub in Norway contending with fragile, melting ice.
This photo of a manatee - sometimes called a sea cow - enjoying the crystal-clear waters of the Homosassa River in Florida, was taken by Sylvie Ayer and won the conservation hope award. All this year’s photos will be on display at a 5-month-long exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, Australia from November.
- Published11 October 2022