{"id":65344,"date":"2025-07-14T16:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/65344\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T16:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:47:13","slug":"the-winners-of-shark-photographer-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/65344\/","title":{"rendered":"The Winners of Shark Photographer of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>Photo credit: Martin Broen, Julian Hebenstreit, and Mizy. <\/p>\n

The Shark Trust has announced the winners of its Shark Photographer of the Year contest on Shark Awareness Day (July 14). <\/p>\n

The overall winner is a shot of an Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark (also known as Zebra Shark) taken in Australia by photographer Julian Hebenstreit. <\/p>\n

The judges praised Hebenstreit\u2019s photo for its \u201cvivid contrast\u201d and \u201csense of drama.\u201d Hebenstreit has won a package of accommodation and shark diving in The Bahamas courtesy of Diverse Travel and The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. He also receives the Shark Trust Shark Photographer of the Year 2025 trophy. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Shark Photographer of the Year \u2013 Julian Hebenstreit. <\/p>\n

Shark Trust is a UK-based charity; it crowned a British Isles Winner and an Overseas Winner. These awards went to Hector Clarke and Martin Broen, respectively. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Overseas Winner \u2013 Martin Broen. Martin\u2019s shot is an eye-catching split-shot. Where the camera captures subjects both above and below the water. It depicts the mobular ray migration in Mexico in dramatic black and white. Martin said: \u201cBelow the surface, a dense school of rays forms a luminous, geometric ballet, their bodies catching shafts of sunlight filtering through the ocean. Above, a small boat with observers floats quietly, a silent witness to one of nature\u2019s most graceful spectacles.\u201d
\n \"A<\/a>British Isles Winner \u2013 Hector Clarke. A Small Spotter Catshark lying on a mass of brittle stars in Loch Carron, Scotland highlights just why our seabed is so important to many species, including sharks and rays. Hector said \u201cI found this individual resting on a bed of brittle starfish at around twenty metres depth. It seemed very comfortable with my presence, allowing me to get exceptionally close. I like how this image captures the density and diversity of life in this area, all the way from the multicoloured brittle stars to the exquisitely patterned catshark.\u201d \"Underwater<\/a>Oceanics Programme Winner \u2013 Byron Conroy. A Silky Shark at the surface in Cuba. He said \u201cTo tell the story of these sharks I used a slow shutter speed to get some natural movement into the image. This also allowed me to use Snell\u2019s window at sunset to burn in some beautiful colours from the sunset above and show the relationship these sharks have with the surface. A memorable experience, amongst the best large animal encounters I have had.\u201d \"A<\/a>Oceanics Programme Runner Up \u2013 La\u0301szlo\u0301 Fo\u0308ldi. <\/p>\n

\u201cSharks have been in our ocean for over 400 million years. Now, the survival of
many species is in danger. This extinction crisis is avoidable if we act to address
the primary threat: overfishing. The Shark Trust works globally to improve the
conservation status of sharks, skates and rays. Advocating for policy changes.
And generating collective action to support our goals.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Mediterranean Programme Winner \u2013 Linda Mazza. The Mediterranean Sea is a hotspot of extinction risk for sharks and rays. A complex body of water home to nearly 80 species of shark and ray, of which at least 53% are at risk of extinction. Surrounded by 22 different countries across 3 continents, and home to over 77,000 small boats, the Mediterranean Sea is subject to a broad range of diverse fisheries pressures. Working through a network of regional partners, the Mediterranean Programme spans policy engagement, species-specific recovery programmes, and community engagement. \"A<\/a>Mediterranean Programme Runer up -Andrej A. Gajic\u0301 \"A<\/a>Living with Sharks Winner \u2013 Gillian Marsh. A Blue Shark off the coast of Cornwall with an underwater photographer. She said \u201cThe blue sharks were bold and curious, and we four snorkelers had a lot of good interactions with them, but I particularly like the interaction in this image. It\u2019s tempting to imagine the shark is asking the photographer, \u201cHave you got my best side?\u201d
\n \"A<\/a>Living with Sharks Runner Up \u2013 La\u0301szlo\u0301 Fo\u0308ldi \"A<\/a>British Isles Runner Up \u2013 James Lea \"A<\/a>British Isles Runner Up \u2013 Colin Garrett \"A<\/a>Overseas Runner Up \u2013 Galice Hoarau \"A<\/a>Overseas Runner Up -Vadim Belakhov \"A<\/a>Highly Commended. Solo spotty traveller. Young whale shark. Huvadhoo blue, Maldives. | Mizy \"A<\/a>Highly Commended. Caribean Reef Shark \u2013 Jardines de la Reina, Cuba. | Martin Broen
\n \"A<\/a>Highly Commended. Thresher Shark Philippines Malapascua. | Megan Shea Graff \"A<\/a>Highly Commended. Wobbegong, Rajaampat, Indonesia. |Galice Hoarau \"A<\/a>Young Shark Photographer of the Year \u2013 Panitbhand Paribatra Na Ayudhya. <\/p>\n

Entries came in from 34 countries and represented 76 different species of shark, ray, skate, and chimera. An exhibition of the finalists\u2019 images is currently on display in Plymouth, the home of the Shark Trust. They\u2019ll remain there until the end of the month as part of the Shark Month celebrations going on in Britain\u2019s Ocean City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo credit: Martin Broen, Julian Hebenstreit, and Mizy. The Shark Trust has announced the winners of its Shark…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":65345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,46482,1759,46483,930,46484,2415,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-65344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-marinelife","13":"tag-nature","14":"tag-oceanphotography","15":"tag-oceans","16":"tag-sharkphotography","17":"tag-sharks","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114852609782683731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}