An olive ridley turtle ensnared by fishing gear, far offshore in the Pacific Ocean. “The more it struggled, the more tightly it became trapped,” says photographer Henley Spiers. “Moments after this image was captured, we were able to cut the turtle free. A happy outcome for this individual but one which is not shared by most of the turtles who are accidentally caught by fishing lines.”

A dead manatee floats in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. “More manatees died in the first eight months of 2021 than any other year on record,” says photographer Jason Gulley. “The fatality surge was triggered by the pollution-fueled collapse of seagrass beds, important manatee food sources, along Florida’s east coast. With nothing to eat, manatees starved to death.”

An endangered yellow-eyed penguin under a starry sky. “Unlike other penguin species which are social, the endangered yellow-eyed penguin leads a rather solitary lifestyle,” says photographer Kimball Chen. “After a full day of foraging out in the Pacific Ocean, a lone individual comes ashore to dry its wet feathers on an ancient petrified forest at Curio Bay, New Zealand. The tide pools reflect the green glow of a shooting star and the radiance of the Aurora Australis, while the Milky Way stretches above.”

Anchovy fishing boats photographed from above along the coastline of Phu Yen province, Vietnam. “Salted anchovy is the most important raw material for creating traditional Vietnamese fish sauce,” says photographer Thien Nguyen Ngoc. “But, anchovies are little fish with a big impact. When they’re overfished, the whales, salmon, seabirds and other marine predators that rely on them as a dietary staple face starvation and death.”

A dead gannet hangs from a piece of discarded fishing gear, used to build its nest. “In mating season, seabird colonies outnumber the human population of Shetland many times over,” says photographer Henley Spiers. “Northern gannets arrive in their thousands, with 25,000 nesting pairs turning the black cliffs on the Isle of Noss white. At times the enterprising birds will recycle discarded fishing gear to build nests, but this sometimes ends in tragedy with the gannets becoming fatally ensnared.”

Dead fish in a ghost net. “Diving in a protected area off Rio de Janeiro, we found this ghost net,” says photographer Rodrigo Thome. “As well as dead fish, we saw others trying to escape the net, without success. We cut some free, but many were too exhausted to survive. I used my camera to register some of the worst moments of my underwater life. Those fighting fish still haunt my dreams.”

A shark with a fishing hook and line protruding from its mouth. “Jupiter is a great place to dive with sharks,” says photographer Galice Hoarau. “Multiple species can be seen in significant numbers during a single dive. Unfortunately, human pressures are strong in the area and most individuals carry marks of their encounters with our species: hooks, fishing lines, broken jaws or bullet wounds.”

An emperor penguin chick stands on the edge of the ice-shelf, staring at the open water below. “This is a scene that should not be,” says photographer Stefan Christmann. “Typically, emperor penguin chicks fledge from the edge of the much lower sea ice. In this case however, a climate-change induced early break-up of the sea ice had forced the youngster to climb onto the ice shelf, where it needed to finish its molt. This image symbolises the uncertain future these magnificent birds are facing.”

A lizardfish tries to eat a cigarette filter. “This image illustrates the environmental issue of people carelessly disposing of trash and the harm that can be done to wildlife,” says photographer Steven Kovacs. “This small lizardfish mistook the cigarette butt drifting by in the current for a small fish and grabbed it. I decided to intervene and take away its catch, fearing it would ultimately kill the fish.”

A seahorse clings to a face mask. “When you dive at a point regularly, you have the opportunity to observe changes,” says photographer Nicholas Samaras. “I visit Stratoni, a small seaside village in the Halkidiki peninsula, regularly to observe and photograph the local seahorse population. The biggest recent change: COVID waste.”

A humpback whale dives into the blue, emitting a large amount of bubbles. “This image is of a male humpback that showed up to escort a mother and calf,” says photographer Daisuke Kurashima. “I desperately tried to catch its eye, but it quickly disappeared. The whale’s tail fin, showered in glittering bubbles which caught the sunlight, was so beautiful that it remains firmly in my memory.”

An American crocodile glides through the water at sunset at Gardens of the Queen, Cuba, a protected marine reserve since 1996. There is a healthy population of American crocodiles that live amongst the shallow mangroves here, the largest of them growing up to four and half metres.

A diver descends into a cenote. “Like in a science fiction movie, the unique physical conditions of the cenotes offer alien experiences and photo opportunities,” says photographer Martin Broen. “In this photo a narrow beam of sunlight pierces the hole in the ceiling of the flooded chamber, passes through the crystal-clear water and hits the hydrogen sulphide cloud at 32m below the surface, framing the diver, abducted by the light.”

The Farne islands in the UK are one of the best places in the world to dive with grey seals and this is largely due to the fact that they are protected under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970. This has allowed the seal population to grow enormously and it’s now estimated that there are more than 120,000 grey seals in Britain, representing 40% of the world’s population.

A manta ray, surrounded by a school of fish. “Freediving to the sand and laying as still as possible, the ray passed directly overhead as I captured this image,” says photographer Jake Wilton. “I believe this photograph conveys the message that a healthy ocean relies on all creatures, both large and small. People tend to focus on protecting the large iconic species while forgetting about the little guys which are just as, if not more, important to the ecosystem as a whole. If we are to save our oceans we must protect every species within it.”

A humpback whale calf crashes back into the ocean. “The humpback whale has one of the most powerful tails in the animal kingdom,” says photographer Scott Portelli. “A young humpback calf propels its three-tonne body from the water with a spectacular re-entry into liquid space. I watched as the baby whale started to propel itself from 10 metres below. As it leaped out of the water, I was inches away. Truly, a very close encounter.”

Sea lions swarm a diver. “Sea lions have been periodically culled for more than a century in British Columbia, with some now pushing for a cull of 25,000 animals,” says photographer Steve Woods. “When photographing them underwater, absolutely no bait or food is used, they simply want to play and interact. I have never observed this unique behaviour anywhere else in the world, which makes it even more devastating that they are under threat of a cull.”

A shiver of hammerhead sharks. “This is an image that will live forever in my memory,” says photographer Rodrigo Thome. “When you visit the iconic Darwin Island in the Galapagos, you expect big things. Huge whale sharks, schools of hammerheads, lots of fishes and marine life all around. But can you never understand what it is to be under a ceiling of sharks until you experience it. The emotions are unexplainable.”

A sperm whale and sargassum weed. “It is exhilarating being in the water with a 40 ton adult sperm whale barreling past you,” says photographer James Ferrara. “The bubble trail left behind by the whale’s head is a testament to its speed and power. The awkward elegance of his oversized head, minuscule eye, and non-proportional pectoral fins are framed beautifully by the sporadic sargassum weed drifting in the currents of the Caribbean.”

A common dolphin photographed in the Port Stephens Marine Park off Broughton Island. “This dolphin was expertly riding the pressure wave of a 52ft catamaran,” says photographer Gergo Rugli. “Around 40-50 common dolphins surrounded our boat and began riding the bow. I positioned myself in the net between the bows of the catamaran and started photographing them whilst I was hanging upside down from the moving boat.”

A Southern Bobtail Squid puts on a performance. “When I came across this Southern Bobtail Squid it seemed to take interest in its reflection in my camera lens port and began to dance with this curious and colourful display,” says photographer Matty Smith. “‘I’ve only witnessed this behaviour a couple of times in several years of diving at this spot, but on this occasion I managed to capture it before the animal vanished into the night.”

False killer whales, in black and white. “False killer whales are something of a mystery to the cetacean world,” says photographer Scott Portelli. “Encounters are rare and often brief. This female uses loud clicks and whistles to communicate her feelings to us. She releases a stream of bubbles to distract from the vulnerable calf she keeps close to her body.”

Emperor penguins at Snow Hill, Antarctica. “This picture showcases emperor penguins in their element, but don’t let the beauty of this picture fool you,” says photographer Nadia Aly. “These penguins are in trouble due to increased temperatures caused by climate change.”

A Southern Bottle Tail Squid in the palm of a hand. “It’s sometimes easy to forget the impact we can have on the environment and the creatures we share it with,” says photographer Matthew Bagley. “Using the alluring light of a dive torch during a night dive, it’s always surprising what comes out of the darkness.”

A cave diver is silhouetted against a colourful backdrop in cenote Chikin Ha. “The caves in the Mayan riviera have amazing chambers with pristine formations that have been preserved over millennia,” says photographer Martin Broen. “Tannic acid created by the decomposition of organic matter accumulates in the upper part of certain caves and modifies the colour of the light passing through based on its density, giving the surreal feeling of flying within a rainbow.”

A diver observes mating cuttlefish. “Hundreds of thousands of giant Australian cuttlefish gather each winter from May to August in the shallow waters of South Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf for their once-in-a-lifetime spawning event,” says photographer Scott Portelli. “The cuttlefish display an array of patterns, textures and colours to indicate their mating intentions.”

A fever of cownose rays. “These rays were spiralling and rubbing together throughout the water column,” says photographer Alex Kydd. “The behaviour documented is believed to be a mating or courtship behaviour. Having spent more than five years on Ningaloo Reef this was my first and only encounter with this species – a once in a lifetime.”

A freediver makes their way back to the surface. “Darkness gives way to a freediver who goes back and forth from the bottom of this cenote to the surface,” says photographer Fabrice Guerin. “This freshwater sinkhole, calm, clear and without current, is ideal for training.”

Coastal wolves play on a remote beach. “This was the first day of a coastal wolf expedition,” says photographer Steve Woods. “As we sat in our hides at dawn near a beached sperm whale, a pack of coastal wolves fanned out onto the beach in front of us and howled at the rainforest.”

Life beneath a frozen fjord. “This photo was taken on an expedition to photograph former freediving champion Anna von Boetticher with icebergs under a frozen fjord,” says photographer Tobias Friedrich. “We had to put all our equipment on a snowmobile to go out on the fjord, until we reached a point where the snowmobile could go no further. From there we had to pull the equipment on a sledge to the dive site.”

A sea nettle drifts in the shallows of Monterey Bay. “This image was taken during one of my first shore dives in Monterey,” says photographer Maxwel Hohn. “At the time there were thousands of sea nettles drifting into the shallows. The event was breath-taking! In an effort to try to avoid being stung by the jellies I ventured deep into a kelp forest where I came across this perfect opportunity of the sea nettle in the lush kelp with the sun beaming down from above.”

A surfer wipeout, as captured from below the surface. “I shot this image under the wave of Teahupo’o,” says photographer Ben Thouard. “I call this image ‘The fight’ as it visually describes the feeling of getting wiped out at Teahupo’o and fighting with the turbulence to make it back to the surface as your board drags you backward. This is the unseen part of surfing, yet so mesmerizing.”

Steven Kovacs was born in Canada and has had a fascination for the underwater world from a very young age. He started diving in the cold, rich waters surrounding Vancouver Island in 1999 and bought his underwater camera system in 2001. Shortly afterwards, he moved to his current base in Florida where he quickly developed a passion for macro photography, with a special emphasis on underwater behaviours.

Recently he has become an avid enthusiast of blackwater photography which entails drifting near the surface at night in very deep water to photograph rarely seen pelagic and deep water species that migrate to the surface under the cover of darkness.

Galice Hoarau is a marine evolutionary biologist based in Norway, 100km above the Arctic circle where he works on a wide range of marine species, from zooplankton to sharks, seaweeds and seagrasses. He uses his photos to share his lifelong fascination for the marine environment and raise awareness on marine biodiversity. His favorite subjects are big animals, Arctic and blackwater critters.