Winners of the Coastwise Photography Awards ~ Coastwise Marine Festival

Hair game: The common hairy crab is the most encountered hairy crab on our shores and reefs.

Crown in the sea: A Feather duster worm appears like an unfurled crown over a carpet of zoanthids.

Dragon fire: A macro photograph of a sea slug animal reigning over the intertidal.

The Best Kind of Crowded: With unethical fishing practices on the run, the phrase, ‘there are plenty of fish in the sea’ cannot be used much longer, unless we shift to sustainable fishing practices.

Collision course: Massive waves hit a fishermen’s house in Ennore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This long coastline is vulnerable to erosion.

Coastal forest VS Concrete forest: The major threat to a mangrove forest is the conversion of these unique wetlands into urban structures and aquaculture ponds.

Natural carpet: A close-up image of a colony of zoanthids on the shore exposed during a minus tide. The golden sunset colours added to the beauty of these polyps.

Meeting the ocean: An artistic rendition of Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings shot using a tripod set over the sea on a slow shutter speed.

Intertidal forest: Mumbai’s rocky intertidal habitat exposed during a low tide at Marine Drive is nothing less than a thriving underwater forest against a city skyline. You can see a sponge, several zoanthids, hydroids and algae.

Shaping generations: A Spiral melongena, a gastropod, laying her egg cases on a busy city coast.

Underwater canopies: A gorgonian sea fan surrounded by Pygmy sweepers.

Rush hour: A school of Pygmy sweepers swimming through a bottleneck crevice underwater.

Rise: Life in the mangrove ecosystem is resilient, breathing, beautiful and absolutely vital to our coasts.

Light and shadow: Desert Hyacinth – an endangered species of rare orchid – blooms in the threatened patch of mangroves that survive in isolated patches of Mumbai’s suburbs.

Here is the Overall winner for the Coastwise Photography Awards 2020. Thank you for all your entries people. We had over 400 photos this year and we’re only getting started. Overwhelmed by your support. Love and luck until the next time.

Fauna runner-up Abhishek Satam collects his award from Mr N Vasudevan, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Research, Education and Training, Pune.

Mrs Neenu Somaraj, Joint Director, Mangrove Foundation, and Deputy Conservator of Forests, Mangrove Cell presented the award.

keynote speaker Rohan Chakravarty with Sarang Naik

Abhishek Satam gets his award from Tasneem Khan

Rohan Chakravarty with Swayamsiddha Mohapatra

Winner Prathamesh Khedwan collects his award from Abhishek Jamalabad, co-founder at MLOM and Sr programme officer, WWF India.

Fauna winner Arvind Chudasama collects his award from Mr N Vasudevan, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Research, Education and Training, Pune.