Ocean Photographer of the Year accessibility - Conservation (Hope)

Ocean Conservation (Hope) Photographer of the Year The Ocean Conservation (Hope) Photographer of the Year is awarded to the photographer who most powerfully communicates a story of hope and recovery.

Winner Shane Gross - Seychelles

Equipment Nikon D500, Tokina 10-17mm lens, Aquatica housing, two Sea&Sea YS-D3 strobes Settings 1/320, f/14, ISO 200
Image size 143.5 x 143.5cm

A green sea turtle is released by a researcher after being caught while trying to catch sharks. “Acting quickly, the researchers untangled the turtle, took measurements, and tagged it before releasing her back where she was caught,” remembers Gross. “She is now an ambassador for her species.”

About the image 
The image was taken mid-afternoon on a calm and sunny day, whilst wading in knee-deep water. The site was accessed by boat

Shane Gross is a Canadian marine conservation photojournalist with 15 years experience, currently based in The Bahamas working in conservation. He is widely published around the world.

*Image taken off St. Joseph Atoll in the Seychelles as part of the Ocean Photography Storytelling Grant from the Save Our Seas Foundation. St Joseph Atoll is a ring of 16 islands on a shallow reef flat that surrounds a 3.5-kilometre-long lagoon.

Green sea turtles are one of the largest turtles, average turtle size is over a meter long and between 100 - 200kg, they can live up to 70 years. Their name derives from the green fat under their shell from their vegetarian diet of seagrasses and algae.

This is a bright, clear image of green sea turtle. Its paddle-like flippers are mid-stroke, extending up either side of its proportionally small, blunt head. Its head is turned slightly to our left. A man’s tanned, curled hand holds the turtle gently by a ridge behind its head in the front of its shell, in the act of guiding the creature. The man’s large fingers and clean white fingernails contrast with the blues and greens below the surface. Below his hand are the crisp browns and whites of the turtles colouring.

In the immediate foreground below the turtle is a bed of many round-tipped, coke-bottle coloured strands of sea grass, The seagrass has a slimy coating of algae and bubbles, it resembles sugar sprinkled on lollies. Flat-tipped seagrass fronds sway with the water’s movement. The water is clear closest to us and greenish further off.

The sea turtle has two symmetrical patches of glossy, chocolate brown on its rounded, off-white head. These are separated by a white line down the middle. Sunshine makes a bright spot on the brown surface. Organic brown horizontal striped markings, like eyebrows, mark each large, inky, oval shaped eye. The turtle’s eyes are surrounded by pale, circular wrinkles, it looks to the camera in the crystalline water.

Between its eyes is a small delicate nose, two nostril holes - indented, skeletal. Smudges of many-faceted brown follow the curves of its blunt face either side of its nose. A dab of darker colour, (as though painted by a finger tip) extends under the creature’s nose. Below, is its yellowish off-white, closed beak, and markings resembling a bottom lip give way to etched fine lines in the light- coloured skin of its chin.

Either side of the turtles head, in the alcove formed beneath its shell, its off-white, soft skin is criss-crossed by brown spots and wrinkles. The carapace or upper part of the shell that covers the turtle's back, hints at the same brown and cream patterning. Outstretched towards us, and angling upwards each flipper bears a cream-and-burnt-toast tessellated mosaic pattern. Two thirds of the way along each flipper on the front edge is a tiny, white claw.

A bony ridge behind each flipper fastens the bottom and the top of the shell together, yellowing at intermittent points down its sides.

A creamy underside bears markings like a chest-plate, carved into sections. A line extends down the hard centre of its belly and disappears in the shadow before its tail. A pattern of irregular polygons fans out either side, as though carved into the smooth underbelly. Its front is higher than its rear in the water, the rest of the turtle’s body obscured. Behind, at left, is a man’s carf.

Activity above is refracted through the greenish water. A wide, rippling half circle of clear blue sky surrounds the turtle’s flipper and head. Outlined against the blue is a distorted, white clad human torso, the head covered by blue and black fabric, one arm in a long-sleeved white shirt is extending into the water.

A recent fin stroke right to left, has left behind a curve of horizontal ripples, like a brush stroke across the half circle of blue.

Caught by the drag of motion, at right, are two floating leaves. One is amber, wide and curled, the other V shaped, green and light brown.

Extending beyond the half circle of blue-sky, all-around the sea turtle’s body, the water is sprinkled with illuminated flecks and bubbles.

Between photographer Gross’s lens and the gently lowering turtle’s face in the shallows, the water is crisp and clear.

Ocean Conservation (Hope) Photographer of the Year The Ocean Conservation (Hope) Photographer of the Year is awarded to the photographer who most powerfully communicates a story of hope and recovery.

Winner Shane Gross

Please feel free to touch and explore

A green sea turtle is being released into the crystalline Seychelles waters. Below the water is a bed of many round-tipped, coke-bottle coloured strands of sea grass with a coating of algae and bubbles.

This is the final touch panel included in the exhibition.