Anemone fish seemingly gaze up at the horrors of a ghost fishing net that has covered their entire reef. “In this image, you see the inhabitants of the reef looking at this human destruction which would quite quickly stifle and destroy their entre existence,” says photographer Henley Spiers. A fleet of dive operators removed the net shortly after this image was taken.

A mangrove sapling stands tall as its ecosystem is pulled down around it. It was buried the next day. “The irony of this shot,” says photographer Matt Potenski, “is that I was taking a journalist to this area to see some pristine mangroves and how juvenile lemon sharks use the area as a refuge.”

A polar bear surveys the icy waters north of Svalbard. “In previous work I have shown, from above, how a polar bear can use sea ice to live,” says photographer Florian Ledoux. “This image shows how a polar bear can use an iceberg to hunt. There were several seals in the area, and the bear was actively looking at the water, waiting to make its move.”

A ghost net completely covers Kimud Shoal, Cebu, Philippines. “We visited this area in the hope of seeing hammerhead sharks,” says photographer Henley Spiers. “That hope was quickly dashed as we came across a scene that was simply horrific. We swam for 60 minutes without coming to the end of the ghost net.” Dive operators from Malapascua removed the net shortly after this photograph was taken.

Fisherman haul in a purse seine net full of tuna in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. “We were between recreational dives and saw the fisherman hauling in the day’s catch,” says photographer Shane Gross. “I asked permission from our boat captain to get in the water. He asked the fisherman and we got the ok.” Gross eventually had to exit the water as the visibility disappeared due to the volume of blood and fish oil in the water.

Survivor. A blue shark clearly displays two hooks protruding from its mouth, two lucky escapes. Photographed off the coast of Rhode Island, photographer Ron Watkins says, “I’d dived with blue sharks off the coast of Southern California in similar conditions, but none ever had hooks like this shark”.

A starving polar bear looks out to sea, waiting for the ice to return. “I was scouting the shoreline when I saw the polar bear on a distant cliff,” says photographer Martin Berg. “The summer had been unusually warm, and the pack ice was further north. Many polar bears, including this one, were stranded ashore.”

Walruses huddle on a small patch of land, northeast of Svalbard. With the continued loss of stable sea ice due to climate change, walrus populations are at risk. The species feeds in shallow water, where sea ice plays a critical role in sustaining a healthy food web. The species is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

A beached sperm whale on the ‘Razende Bol’ sandbank, southwest of Texel Island, Netherlands, a common beaching spot for numerous whale species in the area. “I try to visit and photograph every stranded whale in the Netherlands,” says photographer Jeroen Hoekendijk. “This location is very inaccessible. I had only visited it once before, when a humpback whale got stranded on the same sandbank only six days before.”

A shark is tangled in the reeled gillnet of an illegal fishing boat caught operating within Liberia’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Photographer Melissa Romao boarded the boat as part of a Sea Shepherd team working with the Liberian government and coastguard. She was tasked with capturing photographic evidence of the ship’s illegal activity.

Marlin and sea lions work a bait ball. “Each year in autumn, mackerel and sardines migrate south along the coast of the Californian Peninsula in Mexico,” says photographer Hannes Klostermann. “They are followed by an armada of predators, the most magnificent of which is the striped marlin. California sea lions, however, often compete with them for feeding opportunities.”

A silky shark in Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen marine reserve. “I was trying to capture the crazy action of diving with silky sharks in this area,” says photographer Ron Watkins. “I set my shutter speed to 1/10th of a second and aperture to F/16 and spun the camera as the shark quickly approached to imply motion in the photograph.”

Orcas surf rough water in Norway. “This moment took place above the Arctic Circle,” says photographer Todd Thimios, “A combination of impossible circumstances and years in the Arctic allowed for this very brief moment to come together – in borderline dangerous weather and fading light.”

Swimmer and environmental activist Lewis Pugh swimming off Antarctica. “We were deep into the Antarctic Peninsula for Lewis’s long distance swim,” says Olle Nordell, expedition photographer for the Lewis Pugh Foundation. “After scouting the bay for a good spot, I positioned myself in a zodiac. My window was small. As Lewis passed me, I framed him with the blue fringe of the glacier.”

A surfer at the remote Shipstern Bluff in Tasmania. “Gigantic swells have battered the towering cliffs at Shipstern for millennia,” says photographer Lance Morgan. “The fractured rock walls have slowly succumbed to the wind and waves, and piece by piece, created one of the most dangerous waves in the world. This part of the world is raw, rugged and cold, and help is a long way away.”

Striped marlins gather in large numbers to feed. “In autumn, striped marlins can often be seen in large numbers in the area around Magdalena Bay, Mexico, where they feed on sardine and mackerel,” says photographer Hannes Klostermann. “I swam with this particular bait ball for more than two hours, with marlins and sea lions hunting right in front of me.”

Paddle boarders float above a reef at sunset. “This image is one of a series of images aimed at demonstrating the innate bond humans have with the ocean, whether we are physically in it or just floating on the surface,” says photographer Grant Thomas. “In creating this picture, timing was everything; I had to shoot exactly at low tide to be close enough to the reef, while simultaneously capturing the sun as it hit the horizon.”

A pair of small pantropical spotted dolphins ride the pressure wave created by a pygmy blue whale, a subspecies of the largest animal to have ever lived on our planet. “This image gives a powerful perspective of all creatures great and small,” says photographer Scott Wilson, “and illustrates the shared experience and social bonds between them.”

Waves crash on the shore at the aptly named Diamond Beach, Iceland, creating an image full of texture and vibrant hues. “The challenge,” says photographer Eric Wittkopf, “was running towards the shore break, using a long exposure of one-second, and then getting back to safety before the swell hit me.”

A remora shifts position on a humpback whale. Photographer Craig Parry was hoping to capture a close-up portrait of the whale’s eye when a suckerfish decided to move, providing him with a rare opportunity for a dynamic little-and-large behavioural shot. He has been visiting Vava’u, Tonga, for six years, spending more than 400 hours in the water in search of the perfect eye contact shot.

A polar bear scans the ocean for prey from the vantage point of an iceberg. “This polar bear was walking along the top of a large iceberg in front of the Austfonna ice cap, Svalbard,” says photographer Florian Ledoux. “It was hunting – looking for seals in the water.”

Two technical divers descend into the Blue Abyss, Mexico. This site is accessed by an hour-long underwater scooter ride and a 20-minute swim through a shallow cave system. “You pop through a hole and suddenly the floor drops out to around 70m,” says photographer SJ Bennett. The two divers pictured are at depths of approximately 15m and 30m deep.

Western toad tadpoles photographed off Vancouver Island, British Columbia. ”I had this particular image, with the back ambient lighting, in mind for several years,” says photographer Maxwell Hohn, who captured the image while on expedition as part of a four year project on the species. “This particular mid-morning proved to be perfect.”

A freediver swims below a breaking wave off Rurutu Island, Autrales, French Polynesia. “We had actually spent nine hours looking for humpback whales and decided to have a quick look at the breaking waves,” says photographer Fred Buyle. “I try to be instinctive in the way I shoot, taking 90% of my images without planning them.”

Staghorn corals exposed at low tide, the Milky Way visible in the distance. It took photographer Sirachai Arunrugstichai a year to capture the image from the time he first visualised it: “I stumbled upon this pristine intertidal reef while working on a story. I wanted to capture the exposed corals during spring tide with the Milky Way in the same frame. I waited for 10 months for the Milky Way and the corals to fit in the same frame.”

A diver poses beneath the ice of Lake Baikal, the coldest lake in the world. Photographer Alfred Minnaar was in Siberia, Russia to photograph members of a recreational dive club who hadn’t missed a Saturday dive for 20 years. The average temperature of the lake was 1 degrees Celsius, with topside temperatures ranging from -5 degrees Celsius to -20 degrees Celsius.

An aggregation of mobula rays in clear waters off Baja California Sur, Mexico. “Mobula rays are incredibly sensitive to movement and sound,” says photographer Nadia Aly, “so I took this photo while freediving. We found this aggregation at a discreet location in mid-morning and stayed with it for four hours. The sun was shining and the ocean was gifting!”

A settling wunderpuss photographed at night during a blackwater dive in Anilao, Philippines. “Ninety percent of reef life starts out in this pelagic zone,” says photographer Henley Spiers. “During the day it stays relatively deep, and safe, only coming up to the surface at night to feed. I like to think the wunderpuss was chasing the shrimp that you also see in the bottom of the frame.”

A cave diver enters Little River Spring in Mexico during a flood. “During most floods there is a brief period, typically a few days, when the water level in the river and aquifer are nearly equal and the normally roaring flow of water in the cave slows to a trickle,” says photographer Jason Gulley. “As spring flow diminishes, rolling clouds of orange river water begin creeping slowly into the cave before the spring completely reverses flow and floodwaters pour into the aquifer.”

A researcher operates a 360-degree camera and sound recording system as waves and fish move around him, photographed off Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The equipment was being tested for a cetacean communications research programme that hopes to decode the language of sonar and clicks.

A Steller sea lion inquisitively peers into photographer Celia Kujala’s dome port off the coast of Hornby Island, British Columbia. “Steller sea lions are listed as near-threatened on the IUCN Red List,” says Kujala. “I hope this image makes people want to protect them and their ocean home.”

Predator and prey, photographed off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. “The sun was going down and the lighting was epic,” says photographer Tanner Mansell. “Evening thunderclouds were building, but light rays were still poking through here and there. Everything came together. When bull sharks attack, they extend their jaws. It was exciting to try to get that moment on camera. This is one of my all-time favourite moments, and all-time favourite shots.”

A humpback whale calf ‘breakdances’ in the warm waters of Tonga. Photographer Jono Allen captured this moment on the final day of a three-week trip searching for an intimate calf encounter. “We hadn’t had any luck during the entire season, and then all of a sudden on the last day we came across this wonderful and joyful calf,” says Allen.

A grey whale mother and calf are photographed in shallow waters on the Pacific coastline of Baja California Sur. “I didn’t want to bother the whales,” says photographer Jacopo Brunetti, who captured this image while out freediving, “so I just did one pass and took a single picture.” A number of other whale species, including humpbacks, migrate through Baja’s waters, often staying close to the shoreline.

Grant Thomas is an award-winning underwater photographer, writer, and expedition guide with a fascination for the natural world. Originally from the United Kingdom, he moved to Asia to work as a scuba-diving instructor. His work has taken him around the world, from the warm tropical waters of Indonesia to the glacier-covered landscape of the Arctic.

Florian is an award-winning wildlife photographer who works in the polar regions. He started his photographic career in the French Navy as a photo reporter. His passion for nature and later the High Arctic led him to pursue personal projects and his dreams of using his love for nature to document the polar regions. By using drones, Florian aspires to bring a new perspective to life in these remote places.