The successful photographs from the thirteenth version of the Photo Competition for United Nations World Oceans Day have been just lately introduced, with the 2026 victors protecting themes from underwater botanical gardens to curious deep-sea creatures.
Organized by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, the competition coincided with the UN’s annual World Oceans Day this month, calling on photographers to spotlight the “beauty of the ocean” throughout a variety of classes.
New for the 2026 version was the Connecting Oceans class, with Valentina Cucchiara (Italy) taking the crown. She captured an awe-inspiring shot displaying a diver within the Cenote Nariz, a colossal subterranean aquifer in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
Cucchiara defined how the underwater cave system is the first supply of recent water sustaining the “sprawling jungles, diverse wildlife, and human communities” of the area.
Images taken in Mexico additionally gained the “Big and Small Underwater Faces” and “Underwater Seascapes” classes.
UK photographer Kaushiik Subramaniam got here first within the former with a close-up portrait of a semi-submerged grey whale (prime picture) taken throughout an “incredibly special encounter” off the coast of Baja, California.
And Ysabela Coll (Dominican Republic) gained the latter with a “dream-like” shot of an underwater botanical backyard teeming with colourful lilies and small fish (above).
The scene happened in one other cenote, with Coll saying that its magnificence is a reminder of our accountability to “protect these hidden ecosystems”.
Bruce Sudweeks (USA) captured the one successful scene from outdoors Mexico to say the Above Water Seascapes class. Shot on Alaska’s Kodiak Island, it exhibits two bear cubs “frolicking” in a river.
In a contrasting body of endearment and hazard, Sudweeks defined how the cubs will “effortlessly select” salmon from the river, denying the fish the possibility to breed.
You can view this yr’s winners of the Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day, together with winners from earlier competitions, on the World Oceans Day website.
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