10 Winning Images From 2026 Underwater Photographer of the Year Awards That Celebrate Life Beneath Waves

Life on land is beautiful. Life under water is mysterious. Its dark, unfathomable depths, patrolled by otherworldly creatures, are a gaping portal of curiosity that humans can never get tired of exploring. This year’s Underwater Photographer Of The Year award brings to attention a potpourri of these mysterious, hidden sights and creatures that are as shy as they are ferocious. Out of 8,000 submissions from around the world, the grand prize went to a pair of southern seal pups in the Falkland Islands.

1. 'Rockpool Rookies' by Matty Smith (Australia)

Smith’s photograph captures the raw vulnerability and juvenile excitement expressed by two seal pups who must learn to navigate life on their own shortly after weaning from their mother’s milk. Elephant seal moms abandon their pups once they’re ready to go out into the world. The photograph, taken on Sealion Island in the Falklands, captures an adorable moment when the two pups are latching onto each other. It also won the Portrait category.

2. 'Happy Baby' by Cecile Gabillon Barats (France)

Barats has documented dozens of sperm whales, but this time, while guiding a tour in Dominica, she came across an individual that left an “unforgettable” impression on her brain and also on the judges who shortlisted her as the winner of the wide-angle category. While its mom dived away in search of food, this playful calf took the moment to interact with the humans that were spying on it with weird black equipment. Rolling upside-down, the calf approached the crew, opening its mouth wide open to expose its growing teeth. This image won the Wide Angle category.

3. 'Calm at the Heart of Turmoil' by SeongCheol Cho (Republic of Korea)

Somewhere in the waters of northeastern Bali, chaos erupts. Whorls of lumpy leaf-like structures swirl around, their feet latched to the seabed. Erratic corridors of thorny bushes tangle and overlap with each other, creating a mysterious portal dripping with a cryptic palette of blues, reds, greens, and pinks. In the midst of this chaos sleeps a tiny calm, a yellow-bodied commensal shrimp enfolded within the spiraling tangles of a whip coral. Cho had long hoped to capture a scene like this, so when the opportunity presented itself in Tulamben, they had to stop by to grab a shot. The image won the contest’s Macro category.

4. 'The Guns of the Nagato' by Niclas Andersson (Sweden)

Even destruction leaves a story. Andersson’s winning image from the Wrecks category might be telling one such story that dates back nearly 80 years. Nagato, one of the most decorated Japanese vessels in the country's naval history, was sunk as a target for the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon tests. "This image was carefully staged by a four-person team to maximize safety and reduce silt, since visibility can be limited and particles stir easily," according to Andersson.

5. 'Clownfish Hatchout' by Kazushige Horiguchi (Japan)

Late afternoon. Countless shutter presses. At last, the exact moment. A yellow-finned clownfish gazes at the audience while they curiously approach closer to catch a glimpse of her newly hatched eggs. Dozens of tiny, transparent tadpole-shaped bodies latched onto the ground, their baby eyes giving the look of black buttons trapped in little water balloons. The image bagged the top spot in the Behavior category.

6. 'Underwater Meteor Shower' by Dr. Tom Shlesinger (Israel)

For some organisms, reproduction is a grand event. Corals, for instance. "Like clockwork, thousands of corals across hundreds of kilometers synchronize to release egg-and-sperm bundles into the open sea," Shlesinger explained. The bundles sweep upward and start zipping through the sea. Shlesinger used a slow shutter speed to capture the rare spectacle that compelled judges to select it as the winner of the Coral Reefs category.

7. 'Coral Window' by Shunsuke Nakano (Japan)

Winner of the Black & White category, Nakano’s image captures a medley of contrasts off the coast of a Japanese island, unveiled by light seeping through the window of a wreck. Bushy clusters of Gorgonian corals materialize in two square patches that succeeded in catching the light. The clusters are fanned out like silhouettes of tree branches against the sky. In an open space on one side, a lone wrasse appears, gazing at the corals and punctuating the stillness with the illusion of movement.

8. 'Lunging Leopard' by Sam Blount (United States)

In what looks like a playful version of the movie Jaws, Blount records a precious moment that left his heart pulsing with an unforgettable thrill. Somewhere in the Antarctic, a leopard seal launched with full force towards him, its mouth shooting from the water like a gaping portal, conical teeth exposed, and eye justifying its predator status. "Watching that massive mouth lined with sharp teeth charge straight toward me is a thrill I'll never forget," he said. The picture got listed as the winner of the Up & Coming category.

9. 'Alpine Lookout' by Andrea Michelutti (Italy)

Michelutti became lucky to catch the rare sight of this crayfish in Italy’s Lake Cornino. Winning the Compact category, the image displays this crayfish sitting over a bed of aquatic grasses, the contrast of green and orange highlighted in the foreground. Meanwhile, above the sloshing blue surface of water appear mountains, like a pile of shimmering foam. While she snapped the scene, the fish swam towards her and started touching her wet lens.

10. 'The Roar' by Jack Ho (China)

Among dozens of water-dwelling animals known for their dramatic mouth-opening tactics, frogfish would probably be the number one. On a sandy seabed in Indonesia, Ho waited for at least 15 minutes to capture the perfect shot of this fish. The fish had been sitting on the bed, waiting for the prey. The moment came when it finally opened its mouth, likely to swallow a prey whole or fend off a predator prowling nearby. The shot was the winning image of the Smartphone category.

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