The Sundarban 
Grand and Itsy-bitsy Underwater Faces — third Location.
Trips to the Antarctic Peninsula continually yield extra special encounters with leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx). Boldly drawing terminate me and baring his teeth, this particular particular person was fascinating to showcase that this segment of Antarctica was his territory. This image was shot at dusk, resulting in the rather touchy atmosphere.
Credit ranking: Lars von Ritter Zahony (Germany) / World Ocean’s Day
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The striking see of a humpback whale named Candy Girl friends at the digicam. Magnificent four days later, she would be useless, hit by a dashing boat and one amongst the 20,000 whales killed by ship strikes each yr. Photographer Rachel Moore’s spell binding image (seen below) of Candy Girl earned prime honors at the 2025 United International locations World Oceans Day Photo Competitors.
Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us — Winner
This photo, taken in Mo’orea, French Polynesia in 2024, captures the see of a humpback whale named Candy Girl, honest days prior to her tragic loss of life. Four days after I captured this intimate 2nd, she was struck and killed by a instant-transferring ship. Her loss of life serves as a heartbreaking reminder of the 20,000 whales misplaced to ship strikes each yr. We are the utilization of her story to point out for stronger protections, petitioning for stricter tempo guidelines round Tahiti and Mo’orea all over whale season. I am hoping Candy Girl’s legacy will spark precise alternate to offer protection to these extra special animals and forestall further mindless loss.
Credit ranking: Rachel Moore (USA) / United International locations World Oceans Day www.unworldoceansday.org
Now in its twelfth yr, the rivals coordinated in collaboration between the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, DivePhotoGuide (DPG), Oceanic International, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Price of UNESCO. Every yr, hundreds of underwater photographers post images that judges award prizes for all over four classes: Grand and Itsy-bitsy Underwater Faces, Underwater Seascapes, Above Water Seascapes, and Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us.
This yr’s winning images encompass a intelligent leopard seal, a swarm of jellyfish, and a really grumpy taking a seek for Eastern warbonnet. Given our oceans’ unsafe remark, all rivals participants were required to tag a structure of 14 commitments concerning ethics in images.
Underwater Seascapes — Honorable Expose
With fully orcas as their pure predators, leopard seals are Antarctica’s most versatile hunters, preying on the whole lot from fish and cephalopods to penguins and other seals. Gentoo penguins are a liked menu item, and leopard seals might perchance perchance probably furthermore honest be noticed patrolling the waters round their colonies. For this shot, I ragged a split image to capture both worlds: the gentoo penguin colony in the background with the leopard seal on the hunt in the foreground.
Credit ranking: Lars von Ritter Zahony (Germany) / United International locations World Oceans Day www.unworldoceansday.org
Above Water Seascapes – Winner
A composed lake cradled by arid dunes, where a delicate budge breathes existence into the heart of Mother Earth’s creation: Captured from an airplane, this image reveals the extremely effective contrasts and hidden elegance where land and ocean meet, reminding us that the ocean is the offer of all existence and that the whole lot in nature is deeply related. The plot is a miles-off stretch of coastline terminate to Shark Bay, Western Australia.
Credit ranking: Leander Nardin (Austria) / United International locations World Oceans Day www.unworldoceansday.org
Above Water Seascapes — third Location
Paradise Harbour is one amongst the most ravishing places on the Antarctic Peninsula. After I visited, the sea was extremely unruffled, and I was lucky enough to seem for a wonderfully obvious reflection of the Suárez Glacier (aka Petzval Glacier) in the water. The fully space was the waves created by our speedboat, and the fully technique to capture the supreme reflection was to lie on the bottom of the boat whereas it moved in direction of the glacier.
Credit ranking: Andrey Nosik (Russia) / United International locations World Oceans Day www.unworldoceansday.org
Underwater Seascapes — third Location
“La Rapadura” is a pure hidden cherish on the northern flee of Tenerife, in the Spanish territory of the Canary Islands. Easiest learned in 1996, it is one amongst the most extra special underwater landscapes in the world, repeatedly rating amongst the planet’s ultimate dive websites. These towering columns of basalt are the result of volcanic processes that passed off between 500,000 and 1,000,000 years ago. The formation was created when a basaltic lava drift reached the ocean, where, upon cooling and solidifying, it contracted, constructing pure structures gradually in contrast to the pipes of church organs. Located in a build where marine existence has been impacted by as soon as identical outdated unlawful fishing practices, this gleaming pure monument has both geological and ecological payment, and scientists and underwater photographers are advocating for its security. (Mannequin: Yolanda Garcia)
Credit ranking: Pedro Carrillo (Spain) / United International locations World Oceans Day www.unworldoceansday.org
Underwater Seascapes — Winner
This yr, I had the extra special opportunity to search advice from a jellyfish lake all over a liveaboard shuttle round southern Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Being surrounded by millions of jellyfish, which own evolved to lose their stinging capacity for this reason of the absence of predators, was one amongst the most breathtaking experiences I’ve ever had.
Credit ranking: Dani Escayola (Spain) / United International locations World Oceans Day www.unworldoceansday.org
Underwater Seascapes — 2nd Location
This shot captures a university of rays resting at a cleaning location in Mauritius, where right currents as soon as attracted them on a recurring basis. Some rays grew accustomed to divers, » …
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