A seal with a face like that was always going to do well.
Photographer Nicole Pellegrino won the People’s Choice category in this year’s Ocean Conservancy Photo Contest with an image taken on a bright sunny day at the shore of Long Beach in New York.
The contest is held during National Ocean Month in June in the United States. Ocean Conservancy says the competition highlights moments that “evoke a strong emotional response [and] make the viewer feel a connection to the ocean,” as the nonprofit’s outreach manager Megan Bennett told Smithsonian Magazine.
This year, more than 1,000 “ocean lovers” entered, according to the winner announcement.
The grand prize went to Richard Rothstein for Walrus Nursing, taken in Norway. Rothstein photographed two female walruses sitting protectively around a small calf.
“We remained a very respectable distance and did not approach,” Rothstein said in the statement. “The walruses seemed to completely tolerate our presence as there appeared to be no alteration of their natural behavior.”
Contest judge and two-time winner Angela Farmer praised the image’s “tenderness,” calling it a “quiet, intimate family portrait set against the fragile backdrop of the sea ice these animals depend on.”
Abbey Road ¾, by French marine ecologist and photographer Mathilde Chevallay, received an honorable mention. The image shows three emperor penguins waddling in a single line in the sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Islands.
Bill Ehman also received an honorable mention for Existing Together, which shows two humpback whales and a paddleboarder in Hawaii.
The Staff Choice award went to Rowan Dear for The Lone Ranger, a close-up image of a large male giant cuttlefish. The photograph was taken during mating season, when most male giant cuttlefish fight and bully each other to establish dominance and win over the female.
Farmer called the image “an absolute showstopper,the sunburst breaking through the surface turns an ordinary dive into something almost cinematic.”
“The cuttlefish’s intricate textures and shifting purple-to-copper tones are stunning, and the way the light rays guide your eye right down to it shows real mastery of natural underwater lighting.”
David Fleetham received an honorable mention for Manatee, taken at Three Sisters Spring in Crystal River, Florida. The image shows the sun illuminating a Florida manatee from behind.
Laura Murchie’s Curiosity, taken in French Polynesia, also received an honorable mention. The image shows two dolphins, with one peeking out from behind the other.
Nature Reclaimed by Bingqian Gao won an honorable mention for its image of a small seahorse clinging to an algae-coated mooring rope in Dominica.
Akira Asahina also received an honorable mention for The Silver Ocean Within the Ocean, which shows a diver swimming next to a huge school of fish in Okinawa, Japan.
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