In pictures: These are the top underwater photographs of the year

Dive into the results of the Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) 2024, with 13 different categories celebrating moments that happen beneath the surface of our Earth’s water.

While a stunning display of nature, each image brings with it a reminder of our changing climate. From rising temperatures to declining populations, our ocean bears the brunt of global warming, while simultaneously being a vital buffer – absorbing 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions and capturing 90% of the excess heat generated by these emissions.

Here’s a selection from the top underwater photographs of the year.

Out of 6,500 entries from around the world, Sweden’s Alex Dawson was named Underwater Photographer of the Year 2024.

His image, titled "Whale Bones", shows a haunting scene of a free diver coming across a whale carcass beneath the Greenland ice sheet. “The masterful composition invites [us] to consider our impact on the great creatures of this planet,” said one of the judges.

Early warning signs suggest that several planetary systems, including the Greenland ice sheet, are losing resilience at pace, finds the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024.

It states that current global warming trajectories indicate that at least one climate tipping point – the threshold at which “long-term, potentially irreversible and self-perpetuating change to a planetary system occurs” – could be passed within the next 10 years.

Jenny Stock was named British Underwater Photographer of the Year 2024 for her image, “Star Attraction”. Diving in a Scottish loch, her torch picked out the purple sea urchin nestled among colourful brittlestars and she was able to capture the “beautifully balanced pair”.

Spanish photographer Rafael Fernandez Caballero won the ‘Behaviour’ category with his image, “The End Of The Baitball”.

A baitball is what a school of fish does when under threat, and here a baleen whale is captured mid-baitball, “engulfing hundreds of kilograms of sardines in one bite”. Fernandez Caballero also noticed that, “due to the warmer water caused by the climate phenomenon ‘El Niño’, more species than ever joined this hunt”.

The ocean – and the beings that live within it – face multiple stressors from the impacts of our changing climate. The World Economic Forum's Ocean Action Agenda focuses on fast-tracking solutions to the most pressing challenges facing the ocean.

Fernandez Caballero also scooped the ‘Portrait’ category with this arresting image, titled “Grey Whale Connection”.

Known for actively seeking interaction with whale watchers, the grey whale migrates from its feeding grounds in the Arctic to breed and calve in Baja California, Mexico – which is where this close-up shot of the whale’s eye was taken as the photographer peered over the side of his boat.

Lisa Stengel, from the US, was named Up & Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year 2024, with her photo “Window of Opportunity”.

Taken in Magdalena Bay, Mexico, Stengel was greeted with an unusual amount of mahi mahi fish for the time of year due to rising ocean temperatures – a stark example of how quickly marine species are having to respond to climate change.

Open to both underwater and ‘above water’ photos, the 'Save Our Seas Foundation' Marine Conservation Photographer of the Year category must highlight a marine conservation story.

Portuguese photographer Nuno Sá’s image, “Saving Goliath”, won him the title. Taken at Costa da Caparica, near Lisbon, the image shows beachgoers trying to save a stranded sperm whale.

It serves as a powerful reminder of how human beings are impacting whale species: “in their lifespan they have gone from an ocean of safety and silence to an ocean of chaos, of noise and ocean pollution,” says Nuno Sá.

You can browse all the entries from the Underwater Photographer of the Year 2024 here.