10 of the most striking ocean images of 2026

Curious seals, seahorse fathers and rarely seen deep-sea life are among the most powerful images of the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026.

Warning: This article contains an image which some readers may find upsetting.

Each year, the Ocean Photographer of the Year competition invites photographers to submit their most breathtaking images of the world's seas.

In the image above, photographer Matthew Smith captured an inquisitive southern elephant seal pup making its first foray into the ocean, in the shallow rock pools of Sea Lion Island in the Falkland Islands. 

Scroll down to see nine more extraordinary images that show the beauty of the world's oceans, as well as the challenges they face.

The competition's overall winner, captured by Julien Anton, shows an adult male seahorse with a tiny juvenile facing him. For most seahorses, it is the males which undergo pregnancy, give birth and raise the offspring. The image was captured in the shallows of Moorea, French Polynesia. 

Tiny parasitic crustaceans known as copepods live in the eye of the giant black sea bass, photographed by Stephen Lopez near Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California in the US. Around 50 years ago, this fish was nearly extinct in the region, but now its numbers are recovering. 

A red scorpionfish is captured clamping down on a lizardfish in this photo by Andrea Michelutti in the Philippines. The dramatic encounter highlights the scorpionfish's stealthy hunting behaviour – and the constant battle for survival on coral reefs. 

During Mexico's 2025 sardine run, photographer Anita Verde captured this unexpected visitor – a giant oceanic sunfish about the size of a small car. "As it moved towards us through the blue, it seemed to glow," she tells the BBC, "like a giant moon rising beneath the surface. You can't help but look this fish in the eye. It is so oddly beautiful."

Mitsuna Kawai captured this image during a winter black-water dive off the coast of Osezaki, Japan. Juvenile ribbonfish are rarely seen alive as they live at vast depths of up to 900m (2,950ft). A young one like this may only be a few centimetres long. As an adult they can grow up to 1.8m (6ft).

John Kowitz shot this artistic image of five spotted eagle rays gliding above the sandy seabed in Hawaii, in the US. These rays often travel together in search of prey, using their electroreceptors to find hidden molluscs and crustaceans buried beneath the sand. 

This remarkable close-up taken by Suliman Alatiqi in Mawali, Indonesia, shows a male Banggai cardinalfish sheltering his newly hatched offspring inside his mouth for 10 days without feeding. This specialised "mouth brooding" strategy helps protect juvenile fish from predators until they become more independent. 

Thousands of tiny, fragile baby lobsters like this one captured by Francesca Page, are raised at the National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow, UK, every year. In the wild, just one in 20,000 makes it to adulthood. Juveniles nurtured in a hatchery like this are roughly 1,000 times more likely to survive to breeding age.

In the Faroe Islands, a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark, a pilot whale is killed by a hunter, photographed by Karsten Michels. As part of the traditional practice of grindadráp, pods of the whales are driven onto beaches for slaughter. Even small-scale whale hunting can leave a profound mark on the deep oceans. Read how in this story by Katherine Latham. 

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