Incredible sight to sea! Winners and runners-up of the Underwater Awards Australasia are revealed
The Underwater Awards Australasia 2026 announced its winners and runners-up on Saturday, with nine category winners chosen from hundreds of photo and video entries submitted by photographers worldwide. The competition, which welcomes images captured both within the Australasian region and in international waters, celebrates the beauty and fragility of marine ecosystems, with organisers describing the aim as capturing "the essence of this extraordinary realm" through striking underwater imagery.
Standout entries include a Bryde's whale feeding in Mexico's Magdalena Bay, a sea turtle at sunrise in Florida, and a leopard seal baring its teeth in Antarctica. Other notable shots feature two bottlenose dolphins cooperatively herding parrotfish in Western Australia, a juvenile whale shark surrounded by scuba divers off Koh Tao in Thailand, and a seal photographed in a kelp forest. Further images captured a humphead wrasse and lionfish on the Great Barrier Reef, seahorses in Victoria, a clownfish in the Philippines, and a diver examining a coral restoration project in Bali.
In short
- Underwater Awards Australasia 2026 winners revealed, nine categories judged
- Entries ranged from Antarctic seals to Mexican whales and Thai whale sharks
- Photos highlight both ocean beauty and wildlife tourism impacts
Explained simply
Underwater photography records marine life and habitats in their natural surroundings, from coral reefs and kelp forests to the open sea. The Underwater Awards Australasia is an annual competition open to photographers worldwide, with entries taken both in the Australasian region and elsewhere.
The awards cover a range of underwater subjects, including marine animals, habitats and human activity such as coral restoration. Images can help audiences see the variety of ocean life and the environments it depends on, as well as the pressures those environments face.