Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026 Finalists

World
By Breaking News Nigeria
A freediver is surrounded by a vast school of sardines, seen from below.
© Benjamín Yávar / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Adventure. A free diver is surrounded by a school of sardines, which part to form a halo as they move around her.
An aerial view of waves crashing on a beach, with clear green water behind them.
© Daniela Tommasi / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Adventure. “Two surfers walk towards a favorite surf break on the Western Australian coast. Waves and rip currents create intricate, lace-like patterns in the water.”
A black-and-white image of an adult seahorse beside two much-smaller ones.
© Julien Anton / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Wildlife. “An adult seahorse pictured with newly born juveniles in the shallow seaweed-filled waters of Moorea, French Polynesia. While it is not known if these seahorses are related, their arrangement creates the impression of a farewell, as if the tiny seahorses have gathered around their father after he has released them into the world.“
A small crab protects its clutch of eggs.
© Andrea Michelutti / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Unseen: Hidden Worlds. “A harlequin crab rests at the entrance of a tubular sponge, carefully tending her cluster of orange eggs. By positioning herself in the current, she helps aerate and protect the developing embryos while keeping them close beneath her claws.”
A pod of dolphins swims, seen underwater.
© Marko Dimitrijevic / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Fine Art. “A superpod of spinner dolphins swims through deep water 20 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. While spinner dolphins are often seen in small groups, they can also gather in schools of hundreds of animals.”
Many floating buildings, surrounded by rafts supporting fish cages
© Qingsheng Sun / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Human Connection. “Thousands of fish-farming cages stretch across the sea, connected by floating walkways and small wooden huts to form a vast floating community. Extending for kilometers, this carefully organised aquaculture network supports local livelihoods while transforming the coastal landscape.”
A translucent shrimp shelters inside a larger marine creature.
© Maryline Renault / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Unseen: Hidden Worlds. “A translucent shrimp glows within the folds of a green tunicate in the volcanic waters of Tulamben, Indonesia. These small marine animals create shelter for tiny creatures living in the muck diving habitats often overlooked by divers.”
A dramatic view of a large crashing wave
© Ben Thouard / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Fine Art. “A powerful wave breaks off the coast of Tahiti, its lip shaped by offshore winds as sunlight turns the spray into a glowing veil. Shot from a jet ski using a long telephoto lens, a moment of ocean chaos is transformed into a carefully balanced landscape, reminiscent of the famous print ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.”
A small shrimp hides among the vertical spines of a sea urchin.
© Ajiex Dharma / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Unseen: Hidden Worlds. “A tiny urchin shrimp hides among the venomous spines of a sea urchin. The shrimp has adapted to align itself vertically, mimicking the shape and orientation of the sea urchin’s spines. This remarkable camouflage allows the shrimp to live safely within its host, gaining protection while leaving the urchin unharmed.”
The eye of an octopus, seen through netting in a lobster trap
© Eduardo Santana de Vega / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Conservation Impact. “An octopus peers from inside a lobster pot off the coast of southwest England. While the scene initially suggests an animal trapped, the reality is quite different. Octopuses often enter pots to feed on the crabs and lobsters inside before escaping again. Their recent population boom, linked to warming seas, is reshaping local ecosystems and fisheries.”
A freediver descends deep underwater into a sinkhole.
© Daan Verhoeven / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Adventure. “Freediver Arnaud Jerald descends into Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas during a successful world record attempt at the Vertical Blue competition. Photographed from more than 30 meters below, the image captures the scale of one of the world’s deepest marine sinkholes.”
A large red fish eats a smaller fish that is seen inside its open mouth.
© Andrea Michelutti / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Wildlife. “A scorpionfish consumes a lizardfish in a moment of hunting behavior, revealing the constant balance between survival and vulnerability on coral reefs.”
A pair of surfers float at the front of a wave as several dolphins leap from the surf around them.
© Gergo Rugli / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Adventure. “Dolphins ride the waves alongside surfers at Tamarama Beach, Sydney, during a powerful swell and offshore winds. The pod stayed with the surfers for more than an hour, moving through the lineup as naturally as the people around them.”
A stream of eggs flows away from a tube work on a coral outcrop.
© Lale Alev Ozten Low / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Unseen: Hidden Worlds. “During a coral spawning night dive, a Christmas tree worm releases a stream of tiny eggs from the coral surface where it lives. Christmas tree worms are tube-dwelling marine worms that use colorful feeding crowns to capture plankton from the water.”
A sea dragon swims past aquatic plants.
© Talia Greis / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Wildlife. “A juvenile weedy seadragon drifts among seagrass beneath Flinders Pier, Victoria, Australia. Unlike adults, young seadragons have darker coloring that helps them disappear among the vegetation. This individual was missing the appendages on its snout, a feature some seadragons lose over their lifetime.”
A striped fish with baby fish in its mouth
© Suliman Alatiqi / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Unseen: Hidden Worlds. “A male Banggai cardinalfish shelters newly hatched juveniles inside his mouth, continuing the parental care that follows a three-week incubation period. After hatching, the male may brood the young for another 10 days without feeding, protecting them from predators until they become more independent.”
A motion-blurred image of a surfer riding a wave, seen from below
© Ben Thouard / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Ocean Adventure. “A surfer races through the barrel of Teahupoʻo, French Polynesia, photographed from beneath the wave using a slow shutter speed. Rather than freezing the action, the technique blurs the rushing water while keeping the surfer as the focal point, conveying the incredible speed inside the wave.”
A diver swims near a huge sunfish.
© Anita Verde / Ocean Photographer of the Year Finalist, Human Connection: “A giant oceanic sunfish glides through the clear waters of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Encountered during the final hour of a 2025 sardine run expedition, the unusually pale fish approaches the freedivers on its own, while soft sunlight gives it a moon-like glow.”

To see all of the finalists, be sure to visit Oceanographic Magazine’s full gallery. Winners will be announced in September.

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