Ocean in Focus Photo Contest Home 2009

SeaWeb's Marine Photobank and Project AWARE Foundation
2nd Annual

Ocean in Focus
Conservation Photography Contest

The Grand Prize will be awarded to Matthew Potenski. Though Potenski spends his days as the director of field operations at The Shark Research Institute, the winning photo features quite a different subject. His intentions, in June of this year, were to take journalists interested in mangroves into a small lagoon where sharks could be found. Rather than sharks, they stumbled upon this backhoe hard at work dredging the lagoon. His shot of a defiant, young mangrove shoot, standing alone in the path of human destruction is truly inspiring. After showing the image to local authorities in South Bimini, Bahamas, Potenski learned that no permits for the developers to dredge in the area could be found.

Read SeaWeb's interview with Grand Prize winner Matthew Potenski >>
View the prizes page to see what the winners receive >>

Winning photographers will receive the following prizes:

Grand Prize!

• Seven nights ocean-view accommodations at MATAVA, a premier eco-adventure resort in Fiji. Package includes 5 days 2 tank diving for two and 6 days unlimited shore diving for two as well as roundtrip airport transfers.
• Carbon Offsets through NativeEnergy from your home and car for one year plus carbon offset for one round-trip air flight.
• A DVD copy of A Sea Change, The journey of a man and his grandson to uncover the hard science of ocean acidification.

Ocean in Focus Photo Contest Home 2009