Picture hundreds of devil rays moving as one body, sunlight pouring down through the surface like light through a cathedral window, and a single photographer hanging in the blue trying to hold it all in one frame. That is the kind of moment that just won a prize at the United Nations.
On June 8, at the UN headquarters in New York, the winners of the 13th annual Photo Competition for United Nations World Oceans Day were announced. Hundreds of entries came in from photographers all over the world, amateurs and professionals alike, and a panel of judges narrowed it down to a handful of images across four categories. I went through every one of them this morning with my coffee, and I want to share the ones that stopped me.
This contest is run by DivePhotoGuide together with the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, and Nausicáa. The whole point is simple and close to my heart: use photography to show people how beautiful the ocean is, and why it is worth protecting. The 2026 winners came from nine different countries.
A diver, a sacred cave, and the overall winner
The new “Connecting Oceans” category went to Valentina Cucchiara of Italy, and it deserved it. Her image shows a diver suspended in the darkness of Cenote Nariz in Mexico, a single light cutting through an ancient underwater world the Maya called “Suhuy Ja,” or sacred water. These flooded caves feed the freshwater that keeps the whole Yucatán Peninsula alive.
What I love here is the patience. You do not stumble into a frame like this. You plan it, you wait, you trust the dark, and you let one beam of light do all the talking. That is the whole craft in one picture.
The faces of the sea
The “Big and Small Underwater Faces” category went to Kaushiik Subramaniam of the UK, who got nose to nose with a curious young gray whale in a lagoon in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The calf hung around for over an hour, close enough that he could dip his camera in and catch it looking right back at him. Anyone who has spent time on the water knows that kind of encounter is a gift. You cannot force it. You can only be ready.
Seascapes, above and below
The category closest to my own work is “Above Water Seascapes,” and the winner this year is not what you might expect. Bruce Sudweeks of the USA took it with two grizzly bear cubs at sunrise on Alaska’s Kodiak Island, playing in a river thick with salmon heading upstream to spawn. It is a reminder that the ocean’s reach goes far past the shoreline. Those salmon, that river, those bears, all of it is the sea reaching inland.
Then there is the image I keep coming back to. In the “Underwater Seascapes” category, the second place went to Bingqian Gao of the UK and China for a “fever” of Munk’s devil rays gliding through the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, lit by sun rays from above. It feels less like the ocean and more like outer space. These rays are listed as vulnerable, so a frame like this is part celebration and part plea.
And from the sky, Miesa Grobbelaar of South Africa and Australia took third in “Above Water Seascapes” with an aerial view of the seaweed farms off Nusa Lembongan, near Bali. Rows of green stretch across the water like a woven tapestry, the locals moving through it not fighting the ocean but working with it. As a composition it is pure abstract art, and it carries a quiet message about living alongside the sea instead of against it.
Why this one matters to me
I spend my life chasing the ocean’s power, the big waves, the cold dawns, the light that only shows up for a minute. What these winners remind me is how many faces that power has. A cave. A whale calf. A swarm of rays. A bear in a river. It is all the same ocean, and it is all worth protecting.
If a single photograph can make someone fall a little in love with the sea, it has done its job. That is what I try for with every print I make, and it is what these photographers pulled off on a world stage.
Photos by Valentina Cucchiara (Italy), Kaushiik Subramaniam (UK), Bruce Sudweeks (USA), Bingqian Gao (UK/China), and Miesa Grobbelaar (South Africa/Australia), via the Photo Competition for United Nations World Oceans Day and DivePhotoGuide.