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A athirst whale mid - gulp , a lazy sea gull ride a sea polo-neck , an adorable - yet - deadly mini devilfish and a grouping of alien - looking Pisces babies fused to bollock were some of the star topology of a late ocean picture taking competition .
The stunning images were among those abruptly - list at the 2024 Ocean Photographer of the Year awards . The winners of the competition , which is run by Oceanographic Magazine and shop by the Swiss watch party Blancpain , were announced Thursday ( Sept. 12 ) at an event in London ’s Somerset House .
This photo of wide-eyed midshipman fish babies sitting on top of luminous embryonic sacs was the winner in the Ocean Portfolio category.
In full , more than 80 picture were short - listed across 10 categories , and you may see the good ones below .
Related : Under the sea : 50 breathtaking range from our oceans
The standout figure of speech was a high - definition shooter of a Bryde ’s whale ( Balaenoptera edeni ) about to gulp down a monumental " sweetener ball " of Pisces the Fishes . PhotographerRafael Fernández Caballerocaptured the stunning gibe in Baja California , Mexico , and took home first place in the Ocean Photographer of the Year category .
All the short-listed photos from the competition were displayed on the big screen in London’s Piccadilly Circus shortly before the winners were announced.
" A feeding frenzy is the biggest show on earth for me , " Fernández Caballero said in astatement . " The highlight was thiswhalecoming out of nowhere with its mouth astray open . " But there was a wide range of other coinage involved in the feast , which was likely caused bythe late El Niño upshot , they added .
One of the standout image short - listed in the Fine Art category was a shot fromEnric Genershowing a lonesome seagull casually sitting on aturtle ’s shell swim in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea .
After five hour of glance over the empty sea for something to shoot , Gener spotted a seagull with its legs out of the water supply and was shocked when he realized it was brook on a sea polo-neck .
The lunging Bryde’s whale was crowned winner in the eponymous Ocean Photographer of the Year award.
" I settle to jump into the water , thinking I would get the turtle dead because it was n’t moving , " Gener enounce in astatement . " When I got close enough , I saw its face submerged and realise that the sea polo-neck was alive . "
The runner - up in the Ocean Portfolio category wasKatherine Lu , who captured a peculiar inscrutable - sea picture in the Philippines . It shows a juvenile poisonous substance ocellate octopus ( Amphioctopus mototi ) found on a pyrosome , a free - be adrift compound wight made up of individual - cell urochordate embedded in a gelatinous " tunic . "
— Swarm of rainbow - color starfish devour sea lion clay on seafloor
A sea turtle-surfing seagull was a standout image in the Fine Art category.
— Sea tartar dad glues his brood to his tail end for safekeeping , stunning prototype show
— Eerie pic captures whales hunted off Greenland lying in their watery grave accent
" Each night during the perpendicular migration , deep - sea creature like this octopus migrate upward to the lighter , shallow waters to tip and avoid predators before descending back into the depth by morning , " Lu said in astatement . But hitching a ride on the pyrosome makes this day-by-day migration much well-fixed , she added .
This diddy yet deadly octopus was photographed hitching a ride through the water column at night.
The tinyoctopus , which was around 0.8 column inch ( 2 cm ) magniloquent , contains the same toxin as puritanic - knell octopuses ( Hapalochlaena ) , which areamong the deadliest animals on Earth .
First topographic point in the Ocean Portfolio class went toShane Gross , who photographed a bizarre bedding material of baby plainfin midshipman fish ( Porichthys notatus ) off the slide of British Columbia , Canada . The wide - eyed juvenile sat atop glow orange yolk theca , which they were still attached to at the time .
The vulnerable younglings remain tie to their eggs and " are defend over by their father until they are big enough to drown out from under the rock they are live on on , " Grossexplainedin a statement . Once they leave their den , thefishwill drown off into the abstruse sea and wo n’t return to the shallow until it is their turn to spawn , Gross added .
This eel-out-of-water in the Seychelles was a standout in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year category.
In the Wildlife Photographer of the Year class , Gross was also short - list for an middle - catch ikon of a peppered moray eel ( Gymnothorax pictus ) lie slumped over stone between two intertidal kitty on D’Arros Island in the Seychelles .
A distich of pocket-size eels can also be seen slither out of water in the foreground . " Their ability to come completely out of the water system is awing and surprising , " Grosssaid .
you’re able to check out more of the amazing image below .
This photo of a sleepy polar bear napping on ice flows in Svalbard, Norway was short-listed in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year category.(Image credit: Florian Ledoux)
This sobering image of a dead fin whale in Iceland was the winner in the Conservation (Impact) category. The whale was killed by commerical whalers in 2022.(Image credit: Frederik Brogaard)
This image of a shipwreck balancing on the seafloor in The Bahamas was the winner in the Adventure category.(Image credit: Tobias Friedrich)
This stunning shot of a schooling scuba diver was short-listed in the Adventure category.(Image credit: Ben Yavar)
This snap of a sea turtle being released in the Seychelles claimed first place in the Conservation (Hope) category.(Image credit: Shane Gross)
