The finalist entries in the current Ocean Photographer of the Year competition were just revealed, featuring some of the best coastal, drone, and underwater photographs selected from more than 15,000 submissions. Contest organizers at Oceanographic Magazine were kind enough to share some of this year’s selections below—their full gallery can be seen here.
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Finalist, Wildlife. A giant Pacific octopus in the shallows, photographed in Russia. #
Finalist, Fine Art. A spotted eagle ray’s natural pattern, photographed in Quintana Roo, Mexico. #
Finalist, Adventure. Skilled free divers in Sri Lanka hang upside down beneath a boat, defying gravity and basking in their unique moment of underwater grace. #
Finalist, Conservation (Hope). A male polar bear and female polar bear rest after mating, high in the mountains in Svalbard, Norway. #
Finalist, Conservation (Hope). A southern stingray patrols a healthy seagrass meadow in the Bahamas. #
Finalist, Adventure. A surfer braves a big wave in front of a dense jungle that lines the ocean’s edge on Indonesia's Mentawai Islands. #
Finalist, Adventure. A scuba diver is dwarfed by the wreck of the Sea Trader, near Nassau in the Bahamas. #
Finalist, Fine Art. A mother and calf humpback whale pair are seen in the waters off Tahiti, where these whales migrate to from Antarctica to mate and give birth. #
Finalist, Fine Art. A seagull rests on top of a sea turtle shortly before they both continue their own path. “Spotting pelagic life in the Mediterranean Sea can be tough, because you usually spend hours without seeing a single splash,” said the photographer, Enric Adrian Gener. “After about five hours of searching, we spotted this seagull and noticed that its legs weren’t underwater. We approached slowly with the boat and suddenly realized that it was standing on a sea turtle. I decided to jump into the water, thinking I would find the turtle dead, because it wasn’t moving. When I got close enough, I saw its face underwater and realized that the sea turtle was alive. What a surreal scene!” #
Finalist, Wildlife. A fever of mobula rays seen from above in the Sea of Cortez. When the photographer’s drone inched closer, some rays started to jump out of the water, off Baja California Sur, Mexico. #
Finalist, Fine Art. A group of Adélie penguins are dwarfed by a colossal iceberg, seen in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. #
Finalist, Adventure. A free diver swims amid a shoal of sardines near Bohol, Philippines. #
Finalist, Wildlife. In Papua New Guinea’s Conflict Islands, conservation efforts have transformed former poachers into protectors, boosting turtle-hatchling numbers. Amid this success, a rare leucistic green sea turtle was found among the nests. “Using the surface of the calm water,” the photographer said, "I captured the striking reflection of the hatchling as it surfaced for air.” #
Finalist, Wildlife. A curious octopus looks out from its hiding place in waters off South Africa. #
Finalist, Wildlife. A marine iguana sits on a rock in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. #
Finalist, Fine Art. A close-up shot of a nurse shark’s eye, photographed in Tahiti, French Polynesia. #
Finalist, Young Photographer. A California moray eel pauses at the surface of its rapidly shrinking world as the tide goes out. #
Finalist, Human Connection. The Bamsebu whaling station in Svalbard, where hunters once exclusively targeted belugas. With beluga whaling now banned in Svalbard, piles of bones scattered along the shores remind visitors of the horrors of the past and the possibility of change. #
Finalist, Young Photographer. A perfectly camouflaged lizardfish with prey in its mouth, as seen in waters off Hawaii. #
Finalist, Wildlife. A breaching humpback whale on its migration path along the Australian coastline, as seen near New South Wales, Australia. #
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A collection of winning and honored images from this year’s nature-photo competition
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