{"id":3290,"date":"2026-09-10T04:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T04:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/seahorse-family-leads-the-2026-ocean-photographer-of-the-year-winners\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T04:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T04:51:09","slug":"seahorse-family-leads-the-2026-ocean-photographer-of-the-year-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/seahorse-family-leads-the-2026-ocean-photographer-of-the-year-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Seahorse Family Leads the 2026 Ocean Photographer of the Year Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As deep swells from an offshore hurricane coincided with king tides in Southern California, some beaches virtually disappeared in a matter of days, a stark reminder of how coasts are reshaped as oceans continue to warm and rise. Against this backdrop, Oceanographic magazine and Blancpain\u0019s annual Ocean Photographer of the Year competition turns attention to beloved, impressive, and little-seen aspects of the sea.<\/p>\n<p>The contest announced its 2026 winners this week, with top honors going to <strong>Julien Anton<\/strong> for a black-and-white portrait of an adult seahorse flanked by two very small juveniles in the shallow, seaweed-filled waters of <strong>Moorea, French Polynesia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align:left\">Highlights from this year\u0019s images<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Jenny Stock<\/strong>, winner of the <em>Female Fifty Fathoms Award<\/em> \u0014 which recognizes an overall practice that pushes the boundaries of women in ocean photography \u0014 captured, during a dusk dive in a Scottish sea loch, a torchlit seabed covered in thousands of brittle stars, and in Western Australia\u0019s <strong>Jurien Bay Marine Park<\/strong>, curious sea lion pups approaching the camera.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gergo Rugli<\/strong>, winner of the <em>Adventure<\/em> category, photographed dolphins riding the waves alongside surfers at <strong>Tamarama Beach, Sydney<\/strong>, during a powerful swell and offshore winds. Another scene shows a teenager at <strong>Bronte Ocean Pool, Sydney<\/strong>, as waves crash over the closed bathing site.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Matty Smith<\/strong>, a finalist in <em>Wildlife<\/em>, followed southern elephant seal pups exploring shallow rock pools on <strong>Sea Lion Island<\/strong> in the <strong>Falkland Islands<\/strong> as they tested their first movements in the water after weaning.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Steven Lopez<\/strong> offered a close look at a giant black sea bass in a <strong>Catalina Island<\/strong> kelp forest in Southern California, its eye surrounded by many parasitic copepods.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rui Filipe Cardoso Duarte<\/strong>, winner of the <em>Human Connection<\/em> category, documented volunteers, surfers, lifeguards, and conservation groups in <strong>Boa Vista, Cape Verde<\/strong>, working together to re-float stranded short-finned pilot whales.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sun Qingsheng<\/strong>, a <em>Human Connection<\/em> finalist, depicted thousands of fish-farming cages in <strong>Fujian Province, China<\/strong>, linked by floating walkways and small wooden huts to form a vast community at sea.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Andrea Michelutti<\/strong>, a <em>Wildlife<\/em> finalist, recorded a scorpionfish consuming a lizardfish near <strong>Anilao, Philippines<\/strong>, a stark moment of reef survival.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Taken together, the 2026 selections traverse wildlife behavior, human connection, and high-energy coastal scenes. In a year when erosion and extreme swells have underscored oceanic force along vulnerable shores, Ocean Photographer of the Year makes a compelling case for looking closely at the life, labor, and drama carried by the world\u0019s waters.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>V\u00eda <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2026\/09\/ocean-photographer-of-the-year-2026-winners\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thisiscolossal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oceanographic magazine and Blancpain\u2019s Ocean Photographer of the Year named Julien Anton the 2026 overall winner for a black-and-white seahorse portrait made in Moorea, French Polynesia, with category highlights including Jenny Stock (Female Fifty Fathoms Award), Gergo Rugli (Adventure), and Rui Filipe Cardoso Duarte (Human Connection). Finalists featured Matty Smith, Steven Lopez, Sun Qingsheng, and Andrea Michelutti.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happening-now"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}