Ocean Photographer of the Year accessibility - Wildlife

The Ocean Wildlife Photographer of the Year is awarded to the photographer who most successfully translates the story and beauty of a particular species into an arresting image.

Winner Manuel Castellanos Raboso

Manuel is from Toledo, Spain. He studied design and computer science. Photographing underwater since 2020.

Location Baja California Sur, Mexico 
Equipment Canon EOS 5D Mk IV, Canon EF 8-15mm f/f4 fisheye USM lens, 200dl Ikelite housing, 8 inch Dome 
Settings 1/400, f/8, ISO 500

Wall text
A triumphant mahi-mahi or common dolphinfish proudly displays its catch amidst a feeding frenzy. “Its vibrant hues shimmer brilliantly under the refracted sunlight against the stunning blue of the Pacific Ocean,” says Castellanos Raboso. “The bait ball was semi-static, allowing us to spend some time in the water with these fish, moving like torpedoes in front of us.”

About The Image 
The photo site was accessed by boat, the image was taken while snorkelling in 27 degree water, with visibility of around 30-40 metres.

Mahi Mahi have long bodies with a large, protruding forehead and a forked tail. Its dorsal fin, the fin on its back, starts slightly behind the eyes and runs the length of their bodies. They are golden-green-ish and silver, with iridescent blue to black spots on their sides. They grow to around 90 cms in length and weigh around 20kgs. The word Mahimahi comes from the Hawaiian for ‘very strong’ as they are strong swimmers. They live near the surface.

Proudly central in the image, beneath the ocean and extremely close to the surface, a side-on Mahi Mahi, dotted with black spots, is glowing yellow, caught by the sun’s rays. Its body curves around to the left. Its head is higher than its tail. In the Mahi Mahi’s jaws is a small silver fish. Its white underbelly faces up. A red wound gapes behind its head from a previous bite mark.

On either side of the Mahi Mahi’s thin head are round, black and yellow eyes. Above its head the green-speckled, black dorsal rises like a mohawk, disappearing at the curve in its back, and reappearing halfway down its body, tapering before its tail. It’s iridescent, yellow tail splits into two, a wide V. Under its belly, a similarly bright, long frill flexes and curls. On its side is a narrow fin and under its chin are two more splayed fins, protruding from a central point like hard flat whiskers.

Behind the Mahi Mahi’s head is a flurry of activity. On our left, just below the surface a ball of feeding, silver, fish cluster together. Around them the water churns silver and white. To the right of the Mahi Mahi ‘s head, is white with drifting bubbles, like dust leaving the fish-flurry.

Seventeen other Mahi Mahi, all at differing angles, navigate the food-filled, brilliantly blue water in a loose semicircle around the central, iridescent fish. Rippling shadows in the top left hint at a boat on the water, and the Mahi Mahi darting below it near a patch of fizzing silver bubbles have darker bodies. Underneath the bright, central fish and on our right, other Mahi Mahi are silver with a streak of green-ish-yellow on their sides.

Diagonal rays of milky sunlight penetrate the deep, blue water. All around is flecked with light-coloured debris.

The underside of the water’s surface fills the top half of the image. Refracted light ripples and bends into glassy, overlapping sections of silver and blue. Above the big, yellow Mahi Mahi are yellow blobs, interspersed with wriggling blue curves, its colouring mirrored and fractured into a wobbling yellow and blue mosaic, by the motion of the ocean. 

The ocean continues past the edges of the work in all directions.

Second place photographer of the Year Award

Rafael Fernandez Caballero,

Location Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Please touch the image

Wall text for this image: “As we gaze at this marine iguana, with half of its body submerged in the waters and the other half emerging above the surface, it’s impossible not to marvel at the uniqueness of these creatures,” says Fernández Caballero. “Native to the Galápagos Islands, marine iguanas are a striking example of nature’s incredible adaptability.”

This majestic lizard supports itself on knobbly rock, one of many below the water. Its leathery body is off-white and orange, with patches of dark and light brown. Down its back its dark brown spikes are mottled with off-white and orange. The dark brown claw gripping the rock has white nails. The rocks below are browny-red and covered with green algae.

The water is shockingly clear, little particles float below the surface and some distance away the water is starting to turn a greenish blue.

Above the waterline littered with clear bubbles, the sky is filled with long grey clouds. Muted white sunlight shines through above the iguana’s head.

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