From micro to whale-size, wonders of the sea on display

About a hundred photographs, selected from more than 15,000 entries, have gone on show at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

The overall winner of the award is Indonesia-based photographer Yury Ivanov, with a macro-lens picture of amphipods, which are known as the ladybugs of the sea.

The tiny crustaceans only measure about three millimetres long, and it took Ivanov six dives to capture the winning shot at a depth of 19 metres.

Australian wildlife photographer Craig Parry won the human connection category with a drone image of a 15-hour effort to rescue a stranded humpback whale on a NSW beach, which ultimately could not be saved.

Melbourne biologist Marcia Riederer won the fine art category with a black and white image of a dwarf minke whale, its eye fixed on the photographer.

Riederer was on a four-day dive boat trip on the Great Barrier Reef when she captured the shot on Ribbon Reef.

The whales visit the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef in winter, making it the only predictable gathering for the species in the world.

The whales appeared to be very curious about the humans holding on to a line in the water behind the boat, she said.

"They call their friends and say, 'Come and have a look, there's a really weird thing happening here', and all these whales come and check it out."

Photographer Ben Thouard won the adventure category with an image of rough surf at Nazare in Portugal.

"The wind came from the north, which made the surf tricky," Thouard said. 

"Not many surfers went out and it was hard to shoot anything because of the big sets, but eventually this moment occurred."

Japan's Takumi Oyama was the winner of the wildlife section, with an image of a female yellow pygmy goby releasing newly hatched larvae into the water from her mouth.

"In gobiid fishes, male parental care is common. In the yellow pygmy goby, however, the females also participate in parental hatching care," Oyama said.

The Female Fifty Fathoms Award for 2025 was awarded to Jialing Cai.

The competition is a chance to show off the wonders of the marine world, said Riederer, who donates her whale photographs to researchers who can identify and track individual animals.

She wants more people to care about nature, and urges people not to disregard the impact of even small changes.

"Sometimes we think it doesn't mean anything, but every little change in the right direction is a good thing," she said.

The exhibition is open at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Australian Associated Press