Marine photography competition winners announced

The winners of the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society’s annual photography competition have been announced.

More than 1,000 entries were received from amateur and professional photographers for the competition, which aims to showcase images relating to all aspects of the UK’s ‘historic relationship with the sea’.

Shaun Hykel’s ‘A night in port’ was named the winner of the ‘Industry’ category.

This year’s overall winner was Ian Watkin for ‘Can someone please let me out now’ – a close- up shot of a juvenile whiting trapped inside a compass jellyfish. The image, taken in Harlyn Bay, Cornwall, won the photographer a £500 voucher for photographic equipment.

The competition, supported by headline sponsor North Atlantic Fishing Company, was judged at Trinity House last month by a prestigious panel of photography experts, with picture editor of the i Sophie Batterbury and former Sunday Times picture editor Ray Wells joining chief executive of the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society Captain Justin Osmond.

‘Can someone please let me out now’, taken by Ian Watkin in Cornwall, was named the overall winner of this year’s competition.

“As we are now in the 11th year of the photography competition, it is amazing to see the nation still enjoying our coastlines and supporting our maritime industry with a passion,” said Captain Osmond.

“Our seafaring community continues to face significant challenges every year despite the outstanding contribution it makes to our lives, so it is important that we are able to use the competition as a platform to acknowledge and celebrate our maritime industry and ensure that those working within it have access to vital support.

“We thought that Ian Watkin’s winning image, ‘Can someone please let me out now’, was such an incredibly striking image, and really like nothing else we’ve seen before in this competition.

“It encapsulates the uniqueness in Britain’s relationship with the sea and its wildlife, an area of the industry which can often be forgotten, but was particularly interesting to the judges – and definitely an ‘ultimate sea view’.”

‘Mousehole Harbour from above’, by Richard Thomas, won the ‘Coastal Views’ category.

In addition to the overall prize, winners were named in four other categories. Richard Thomas won in the ‘Coastal Views’ category with ‘Mousehole Harbour from above’, while Clive Bount’s ‘One minute to the gun’, taken in Cowes, was the winner in the ‘People and Recreation’ class.

Shaun Hykel’s ‘A night in port’, taken in Felixstowe, took the top prize in the ‘Industry’ category, with Darren Cottrell’s ‘Dorset wreck’ winning in ‘Ships and Wrecks’.

This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.

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