2024 Get Into Your Sanctuary - Sanctuaries Around the World

Ocean connection can happen anywhere, not just in the National Marine Sanctuary System. This category portrays special places across the globe where you feel connected to the ocean and marine life found within it.

Below are the winners and honorable mentions for the Sanctuaries Around the World category. Thank you to all those who participated! Click each photograph to see the full version.

Please note that we may use any of the photos we received for this contest on our website, on social media, and in other NOAA and National Marine Sanctuary Foundation publications. We will provide credit to photographers whenever we use any of the photos. Organizations other than NOAA and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation may use photographs submitted in this contest to promote sustainable and responsible Views in the National Marine Sanctuary System. These photos are not for sale and are not for commercial use unless prior permission is arranged.

Freediver underwater in cavern with rays of sunlight. — **1st Place: Dan Shipp.** A freediver enjoys the afternoon rays in the shallows of Swallow's Cave, located in the exquisitely beautiful Vava'u Island group in the Kingdom of Tonga. It is a quiet corner of a pristine marine environment protected under the Vava'u Environmental Protection Association.

Atlantic puffin on land carrying a flower in its beak. — **2nd Place: Carolyn Copper.** Atlantic puffins (*Fratercula arctica*) are ocean-dependent birds that spend most of their lives on open water. The productive North Atlantic Canadian waters surrounding Newfoundland provide some of the best habitat for these beloved marine birds.

A handsome dark pinkish red seahorse male waits patiently for his nearby lady. — **3rd Place: Tamara Christian.** Lined seahorse male (*Hippocampus erectus*) in Blue Heron Bridge, Florida.

Back to category winners

Honorable Mentions

Looking through a cave, the sky is pink setting over the Golden Gate Bridge. — **Jay Huang.** A view of the Golden Gate Bridge inside a cave.

Green turtle breathes at surface of blue sea. — **Dan Shipp.** Green sea turtle (*Chelonia mydas*) surfaces for air in the shallows of Playa Punta Corola on San Cristobal in Galapagos, Ecuador.

Humpback whales bubble net feeding with the seagulls waiting on top to get a piece of the pie. — **Avi Anand.** Humpbacks (*Megaptera novaeangliae*) bubble net feeding in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Clark's anemone fish peers out from green anemone. — **Dan Shipp.** A Clark's anemone fish (*Amphiprion clarkii*) peers out from its host - a bubble tip anemone (*Entacmaea quadricolor*). Both species of animal help one another survive and thrive in an astonishing relationship known as symbiotic mutualism.

A fever of mobula rays migrating and feeding in the pelagic zone of the ocean. — **Nam Pham.** Munk's pygmy devil rays (*Mobula munkiana*) migrating near La Ventana, Baja California Sur.

A pair of sea lions playing at the rocky reef of La Reina. — **Nam Pham.** California sea lions (*Zalophus californianus*) playing at La Reina near La Ventana, Baja California Sur.

Humpback whale cuddles with mom right below the surface of the ocean. — **Ben Caswell.** Humpback whale calf (*Megaptera novaeangliae*) snuggles with mom in Vava'u, Tonga.

The sea lions play underwater at dusk. — **Dan Shipp.** Two adolescent sealions and mum (*Zalophus californianus*) approach the camera at San Cristobal Island Harbor in the Galapagos, Ecuador.

Sanderling running across the wet sand with water droplets on its feet with small waves breaking in the background. — **Caroline Baum.** Sanderling (*Calidris alba*) running across the wet sand with small waves breaking in Puerto Villamil on Isabela Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.

A newly hatched least tern baby trying to find shelter under its mama's belly. — **Jean Zuo.** Where is my spot, Ma? A newly hatched least tern (*Sternula antillarum*) baby trying to find shelter under its mama's belly.

Over/under shot of aggregation rays beneath the surface. — **Justin Wallace.** Mobula ray aggregation in La Paz, Mexico.

Humpback back fluke before its dive surrounded by sea gulls. — **Avi Anand.** Humpback whale (*Megaptera novaeangliae*) in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Puffin in flight gliding acrsss the water. — **Avi Anand.** Puffin (*Fratercula*) in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

A doctorfish looks at the viewer with what looks like a smile while sticking out of the mouth of a grinning lizardfish. Image rotated 90 degrees to give the perspective of the doctorfish. — **Gabriel Jensen.** The comically calm doctorfish (*Acanthurus chirurgus*) displays a remarkable defense mechanism with splayed pectoral and dorsal spines. Reminiscent of the ‘this is fine' meme even when facing predation by the lizardfish (*Synodontidae*).

A mother manatee and almost fully grown calf float in just a few feet of water with the baby nursing from the mother. — **Gabriel Jensen.** Getting close to the same size at its mother, this big baby Florida manatee (*Trichechus manatus latirostris*) continues to nurse from its mother's nutritious milk.

Two red goby fish face one another on a line of red coral. — **Dan Shipp.** Two whip coral gobies (*Bryaninops yongei*) face each other on a red whip coral (*Leptogorgia virgulata*) in the Namena Marine Reserve, Vanua Levu, Fiji.

Split level image of lionfish hunting shcooling fish at dusk. — **Dan Shipp.** The calm scene above water hides a frenetic story of ambush and survival below. This is an over/under image of lionfish (*Pterois lunulate*) hunting schooling baitfish, shot at dusk in waist-high water next to the Jean Michel Cousteau Jetty, Vanua Levu, Fiji.

Iguana looking at the camera with white salt crystals covering its face. — **Caroline Baum.** Galápagos marine iguana (*Amblyrhynchus cristatus*) with white salt crystals coverings its face.

Portrait of an octopus during night dive. — **Christophe Delage.** Octopus (*Octopus vulgaris*) in Parc National des Calanques, France.

Killer whale porpoising as it travels in Puget Sound. — **Mike Maddox .** Killer whale (*Orcinus orca*) in Puget Sound near Hansville, WA.

A tiny male Argonaut riding on a small, yellow jellyfish in the inky black waters of a night dive. — **Brandi Mueller.** A tiny male Argonaut (*Argonauta argo*), also called a paper nautilus, riding on a jellyfish during a blackwater night dive off Anilao, Philippines. Each night the world's largest vertical migration occurs, bringing interesting deep water marine life to the shallows.

A huge green sea turtle glides along the reef in clear blue water at Bunaken National Park. — **Brandi Mueller.** A lovely green sea turtle (*Chelonia mydas*) with a remora (*Remora remora*).on it's belly swimming along a healthy reef wall in Bunaken National Park, Indonesia.

A rough wave breakes on a rock just of the coast and a lighthouse on an island can be seen in the background. — **Peter Reinold.** Rough waves breaking along the Oregon Coastline with the Cape Arago Lighthouse in the background.

A bioluminescent larval founder with large stringers on its fins lunges forward over the inky darkness of the ocean at night. — **Gabriel Jensen.** Far at sea in the dead of night, the spotfin flounder (*Cyclopsetta fimbriata*) lives its larval life as a glamorous and bioluminescent super predator (of plankton) drifting in the open ocean.

A brown and white bird with blue feet flying with its wings spread diagonally across. — **Caroline Baum.** Blue-footed booby (*Sula nebouxii*) preparing to dive while flying near Puerto Villamil on Isabela Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.

A mother bird nesting on her baby on the beach. — **Jean Zuo.** A Black Skimmer (*Rynchops niger*) mama tucks her baby in at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, New York.

Vibrant fish swimming around a vibrant underwater bank. — **Bruce Sudweeks.** The abundant life around Richelieu Rock in Thailand.

School of striped fish in blur underwater. — **Dan Shipp.** Slow shutter speed of schooling strip-tailed damselfish (*Abudefduf sexfasciatus*) at Namena Marine Protected Area, Vanua Levu, Fiji.

A giant school of bigeye jacks feeding in the pelagic zone of the ocean. — **Nam Pham.** Bigeye jacks (*Caranx sexfasciatus*) schooling at Cabo Pulmo National Park, Baja California Sur.

A school of hundred or so silver fish swimming upward. Photo is in black and white. — **Michelle Taylor.** A school of sand eels (*Ammodytes tobianus*) in the Moray Firth, Scotland.