The winners of this year’s Underwater Photographer of the Year contest were just announced, and the photographer Greg Lecoeur was named Underwater Photographer of the Year 2020 for his image of crabeater seals in Antarctica. More than 5,500 images were submitted by photographers from around the world. Prizes and commendations were handed out in categories including Wide Angle, Macro, Wrecks, Behavior, Portrait, Black and White, Compact, Up and Coming, Marine Conservation, and in British waters, Wide Angle, Living Together, Compact, and Macro Shots. UPY was once again kind enough to share some of this year’s honorees with us below, with captions written by the photographers.
Frozen Mobile Home: Category Winner and Underwater Photographer of the Year 2020. Massive and mysterious habitats, icebergs are dynamic kingdoms that support marine life. As they swing and rotate slowly through polar currents, icebergs fertilize the oceans by carrying nutrients from land that spark blooms of phytoplankton, fundamental to the carbon cycle. During an expedition in the Antarctic Peninsula with filmmaker Florian Fischer and free diver Guillaume Néry, we explored and documented the hidden face of this iceberg where crabeater seals have taken up residence among icebergs that drift at the whim of polar currents. #© Greg Lecoeur / UPY2020
Constellation of Eagle Rays: Runner-up, Black & White. A school of uniquely patterned spotted eagle rays passes beneath me on an unforgettable dive in the Maldives. Like most divers, I have always found these rays to be especially spellbinding, but also highly elusive! This school passed beneath me towards the end of our dive and it was one of those rare moments of huge admiration, as well as immense inspiration. #© Henley Spiers / UPY2020
Eyes: Runner-up, Macro. The unicorn shrimp usually lives around 200 to 300 meters deep, but they rise to about 40 meters due to breeding behavior. There are thousands to tens of thousands of shrimps but there are only a few suitable places to photograph them. The direction and density of the tide may vary depending on the direction, strength, and brightness in the ocean. #© Keigo Kawamura / UPY2020
Minke Wave: Third Place, Up & Coming. While working for a season on the Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, I had the privilege of photographing heaps of marine life. As a free diver, you mostly use the common angle facing downwards or upwards at the subject. This time, I wanted to try something different and let the wave frame the animal. Easier said than done, as open-ocean marine life isn’t trained very well and doesn’t respond to “stay.” Yet, very unsuspected, out of the blue (literally), this pod of six minke whales heads in my direction and starts their investigation. One individual in particular swims beside me and freezes at the surface. #© Ines Goovaerts / UPY2020
Unnatural Habitat: Highly Commended, Marine Conservation. Here, on Peleliu Island in Micronesia, a hermit crab has made use of a discarded metal can from Asia as a temporary, yet very unnatural home. Sadly, this is not the first encounter I have seen on these islands where these hermit crabs use discards for shelters and I have seen them using human discards ranging from plastic Keurig single-use coffee pods, to old metal bolts. #© Shane Keena / UPY2020
Shark Nursery: Category Winner, Up & Coming. The Bahamas has been a shark sanctuary since 2011 but mangroves aren’t protected yet and that’s where these lemon shark pups spend the first 5–8 years of their lives. I was standing in knee-high water, trying to hold my camera still, waiting for the sharks. Trying not to move when you have mosquitoes and sand flies buzzing around you was probably the part I struggled with the most at this moment. After less than an hour the little predators came closer and finally swam around my feet and my camera, bumping against me and trying to taste my strobes. #© Anita Kainrath / UPY2020
Goby Goodness: Category Winner, Macro. During the dive that I took this image on, I swam a grand total of about 30 meters. I dropped down from the surface and descended towards the shallow, pristine coral reef in the Cayman Islands when I spotted this little fella posing right at the top of a coral head. I noticed the purple sea fan in the background and suspected it would look pleasing with a shallow depth of field, a look I really like in macro photography. #© Hannes Klostermann / UPY2020
Last Dawn, Last Gasp: Category Winner and Marine Conservation Photographer of the Year 2020. This winter, I went diving with some local fishermen. At six in the morning I was already in the water, as the nets were raised at first light. During the dive I followed the path of the fishing nets from the bottom to the surface. As the fishermen quickly hauled on the nets, I tried to take some shots of trapped fish still suffering in the mesh, such as this tuna. #© Pasquale Vassallo / UPY2020
Fluo Fireworks Anemone: Runner-up, British Waters Compact. Over recent years, underwater fluorescence photography has become a passion of mine, particularly in British waters, and I now find myself choosing my fluorescence gear over my "normal" kit more often when diving. I never know quite what I’m going to find that will fluoresce under the blue (near UV) light but on this dive in Loch Fyne I had one target in mind and that was fireworks anemones. There were dozens of anemones at this site, all with varying patterns on their tentacles, which also translate into different fluorescence patterns when viewed under blue light. #© James Lynott / UPY2020
Saudi Titanic: Runner-up, Wrecks. This split shot of the Georgios shipwreck was taken in Saudi Arabia, along the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea. In 1978, this large cargo ship became stranded on a bed of corals and then had a large fire. The wreck is now known by many locals as the “Saudi Titanic” and sits halfway out of the water at the bow and in roughly 80 feet of water at the stern. There is a large school of tiny fish that live inside and there is abundant coral growth on the ship itself, which now serves as an artificial reef for many marine organisms. #© Renee Capozzola / UPY2020
Earthless: Third Place, Black & White. This image takes place in the Ring of Cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico where the ancient Mayans believed the underground rivers were a gateway to another world. In 2019 I was in Mexico, working on a photographic project about escaping gravity, inspired in part by the 50th anniversary of the moon landings. While searching for "another world" I followed Brazilian free diver and renowned conservationist, Flavia Eberhard, through a dark underwater passage and we emerged into this vast, unexplored space. #© Zena Holloway / UPY2020
Say Me: Runner-up, Behavior. This photo was taken in Tonga during a Nai'a liveaboard. On the second day, in the middle of lunch, the cruise director called us because there was a lot of whale action right around the boat. So in a fraction we climb out of the chair, jump into the wetsuit, swallowing the last bite, and dive into the water. A couple of young whales really want to play with us and minute after minute they get closer and closer. And it was during a free dive at 10 meters that I saw this whale coming so close to me: It looked at me very intensely and said "Hello" in one breath, exhaling so many bubbles. #© Paolo Isgro / UPY2020
Octopus Training: Category Winner, Behavior. At the end of a session of free diving, I noticed a soccer ball, in the distance and on the surface. Intrigued, I approached it, and then I noticed that below it was an octopus that was being pulled along by the current. I do not know what it was doing under the ball, but I think it is training for the next football World Cup! There was time for me to take a couple of shots before the octopus let go of the ball and dropped back to the seabed. #© Pasquale Vassallo / UPY2020
Like Water for Silk: Category Winner, British Waters Macro. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been photographing British freshwater habitats underwater. One of the stories that has captivated me is that of the common frog. During its lifetime it has an estimated 0.25% chance of survival. It morphs like no other creature and along the way, experiences the most fantastic journey. This tiny common froglet is less than 1 centimeter in length. It is so weightless, it can balance on single, silken stands of spirogyra. These algae filaments, an abundant and vital first link in freshwater food webs, reproduce rapidly, leading to thousands of individual strands. They are a simple life-form which combine into a tangled labyrinth known as water silk. #© Laura Storm / UPY2020
Elegant Elegans: Third Place, British Waters Macro. This gorgeous Okenia elegans nudibranch is considered to be a rare species in the U.K., but can be quite common around Torbay in south Devon. I came across this one crawling along the edge of a kelp frond, which gave me the perfect opportunity to find an angle that best shows off their outlandish colors. #© Dan Bolt / UPY2020
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