Meet the Winners of the
Fifth Annual Ocean in Focus
Photo Contest
Congratulations to Andy Murch for his grand prize winning photo essay titled "Gillnets: An Indiscriminate Fishery," chosen from a group of six finalists.
Finalists were selected for their inspiring photos depicting an ocean conservation issue, and were then asked to compose photo essays illuminating the complexity of these issues through photos and text. For his essay, Murch focused on the wasteful practice of gillnet fishing, specifically in the halibut fishery of Baja California.
Grand Prize Winning Images and Essays
 "Gillnets: An Indiscriminate Fishery" by Andy Murch
"On the day that I talked my way onto a fishing panga out of Laguna Manuela Fishing Camp, the crew filled the entire boat with shark and ray bycatch. Four soupfin sharks (listed as globally vulnerable) and a handful of brown smoothhound sharks were all dead upon retrieval but many of the rays were still swimming strongly; still clearly viable enough to survive if the fishermen could be convinced to release them...Hidden within all that bycatch (that would not even cover fuel for the day) was a single halibut, the intended catch.."
Read the full essay >>
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Finalists' Images and Essays
 "Salt" by Mohammad Hasan
"Cyclone Aila hit Gabura on 27 May, 2009, and claimed 330 lives on its way while 8,208 or more remain missing to date."
View the full essay >> |
 "Deepwater Horizon" by Ron Wooten
"Awash in oil, they swam along the surface, undulating behemoths spouting and writhing in the water."
View the full essay >> |
 "Philippines 'Pa-aling' Compressor Diving" by Alex Hofford
"On the morning that I awoke to witness marine wildlife being rounded up on an industrial scale, I was 250 miles from land... "
View the full essay >> |
 "Mangroves"
by Matthew D. Potenski
"Spend enough time out in the mangrove-lined lagoon, and the mysteries of this alien world will start to open up to you... "
View the full essay >> |
 "Tonnara, an Ancient World" by Alessio Viora
"Deep down 35 meters in the nets we can admire many of these larger tuna, swimming like silver rockets in the blue... but in the nets we also see too many other innocent species get trapped."
View the full essay >> |
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