Ocean Photographer of the Year accessibility - Conservation (Impact)

Ocean Conservation (Impact) Photographer of the Year is awarded to the photographer who most effectively communicates any of the many perils facing the ocean today.

Winner Frederik Brogaard

Frederik Brogaard works as a professional diver and studies marine sciences. He lives in Denmark and often works in the polar regions.

Location Iceland 
Equipment DJI Mavic Air 2 drone 
Settings 1/2000, f/2.8, ISO 100 
Image size 143.5 x 143.5cms

Wall Text
The second biggest whale, the fin whale, waits for its turn to be butchered at a whaling plant in Iceland before getting sent to Japan. “Shortly after taking this image, the whale was hoisted up the ramp,” says Brogaard. “Public uproar has resulted in the cancellation of last year’s whaling season in Iceland. I hope this picture serves as inspiration to keep the public pressure on.”

The fin whale is the second largest whale species behind the blue whale. They weigh approximately 48 tonnes and can grow to 26m in length. It has a hooked dorsal fin, a v-shaped head and distinctive colouring—a black, grey, or brown back and sides, with a white underside.

On a grey, overcast day, against a backdrop of far off low hills, salt-stained industrial buildings and a steep, rocky, man-made shoreline, a recently culled fin whale lies on its side, half submerged in the sea. Its right side is exposed and bloodless rising out of the rippling, shallow black water. Its body is surrounded by gulls taking flight.

The dead fin whale angles diagonally across the image, tail furthest from us, resting at the bottom of a slick ramp ascending away to our right.

In the bottom left, the creature’s wide jaw sinks beneath the murky water and four landing gulls surround its head. From the tip of the fin whale’s snout, along its under carriage are expandable, feeding pleats. These score the white flesh with narrow lines.

The mammal’s top jaw is dark grey below the water. One almond-shaped eye, surrounded by a circle of white skin rests just above the waterline. A curved section of skin is missing above its eye. Marbled pinkish-white whale flesh is exposed to the sun.

Halfway up, a short, dark, side-fin lies flat and lifeless against its body. The small fin is white-tipped and scratched.

Creamy, pinky-white patches are scattered across the whale’s dark-grey back, where the skin has been torn free. The patchwork resembles crumbling paint off a damaged wall. A small, narrow red gash stands out, below its side fin and close to the water.

Ascending from a wide semi circular opening at the water’s edge is a dark-coloured ramp with white gutters either side. It stops abruptly on shore. Scraggy grey rocks and concrete either side of the ramp form high, breakwater walls.

A wire rope runs from the tip of the whale’s jaw, along its body to its red-soaked tail. The wire rope continues up the ramp.

Behind the break-water are a series of buildings. There are three silver, storage tanks. Two on our left and another closest to the ramp. Undulating, soft hills, finely dusted with green vegetation rise in the background, between and behind the tanks, giving way to a grey sky, crowded with clouds, at the very top of the image.

At left, one storage tank has a part of its shape cut off by the left edge. It has a rusty pipe running from top to bottom. In front of it, on the ground at the top of the breakwater, rendered miniscule by the scale of the tanks (and the whale), are piles of pallets, and a stack of white crates.

Diagonally in front of two of the tanks is a long, red and dented, 40 shipping container with a rusted, bright blue end. Stacked in front of the container are light-coloured, wooden box-crates. The second tank is rustier and further away. Brown and green hills rise behind it. Narrow stairs wind around its circumference, staining its side with rust.

In line with the fin whale’s tail and the ramp’s incline, separated from the other two tanks by the very tops of car rooves and three, thin power lines, (white against the mottled hills), is a third, silver tank directly ahead. It is part of a jumbled collection of on-shore buildings continuing around to our right beyond the breakwater.

Horizontal lines mark the tank’s circumference. Steep curving stairs ascend to the roof. A curving barrier rings the top edge. The storage tank looms large and obscures the hills.

To the right of the tank, is a building topped with a green chimney, various aerials, an angled section of red guttering and a tall, silver vent. The building’s side wall is obscured by white guttering on the ramp’s sides.

Continuing around, to the right of the ramp, and cut into the algae-crusted breakwater, are sharp-cornered, low white walls. Behind, on shore are rusty-cream ventilation units, white cogs of a large industrial winch, and part of a modern, corrugated multistorey warehouse.

Scores of seagulls exit the ramp, in motion towards us. Their presence adds an impression of fish-odour and offal. Wings flap as they fly over the quiet carcass, taking flight above the shallow black water as though recently spooked.

An orange beaked gull, its head level with its body and its wings outstretched, takes to the air on our immediate right. The closest thing to us and leaving the scene.

Ocean Conservation (Impact) Photographer of the Year is awarded to the photographer who most effectively communicates any of the many perils facing the ocean today.

Winner Frederik Brogaard.

Please feel free to touch and explore.

The second biggest whale, the fin whale, waits for its turn to be butchered at a whaling plant in Iceland. Against a backdrop of far off low hills, salt-stained industrial buildings and a steep, man-made shoreline the dead fin whale angles across the image, resting at the bottom of a slick ramp ascending away to our right. There are gulls in the air.

If you would like to listen to the full description, a tactile tile indicates the position of a QR code on the wall behind you.