From plastic pollution to coral bleaching, the world’s marine environment is in serious trouble, so much so that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decided to declare an “ocean emergency” late last month.
Now, to show the importance of marine conservation, this annual contest, OCEAN CONSERVANCY PHOTO CONTEST 2022 , we have the response of the judges, artists and organizers of the photo contest who, like every year, surprise us and leave us speechless.
The ocean conservation nonprofit announced the winners of its annual photo contest in a blog post in the latest iteration of a 15-year tradition.
This year, a panel of four judges chose the Judge’s Choice winner from more than 1,300 photos ; four winners in the Human Impact, Marine Wildlife, Ocean Stories and Spectacular Seascapes categories; and five honorable mentions.
The overall winner was a work called “Surprise” , which was an example of patience paying off for photographer Alexandra Rose. Rose took an image of a sea lion going through a whirlwind of sardines while diving off Los Islotes, Panama, which is the first image to accompany this article.
“I wanted desperately to capture one of these pinnipeds going through a ball of fish but it all happens so fast and without planning it’s easy to miss these shots ,” Rose said in the blog post announcing the contest winners. “At the end of my dive, after watching this sea lioness swim in a figure eight around the same rocks, I finally timed correctly and positioned myself right in the middle of the fish and waited for it to come out. I think he was a bit surprised to see me!”
This year’s winning photograph is a perfect example of a ” right time” image.
Reference: Ocean Conservancy Annual Photo Contest
