Incredible pictures from the World Nature Photography Awards reveal the magical world underneath our oceans.
The annual awards highlight amazing photos of the natural world and the animals that live in it.
There are several categories, from animals and landscapes to plants and fungi.
The underwater images from this year were chosen from thousands of submissions across six continents. They show sea lions, whales and sea turtles living in their natural habitats in stunning scenes.
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The World Nature Photography Awards team plants a tree for every photo submission, as well as every print sold from their store.
Take a look at the photos from the underwater category below.
Tracey Lund was handed the World Nature Photographer of the Year award for her photo taken of gannets eating their dinner. Whilst on holiday in Shetland, the camera was lowered into the water where it captured the thousands of gannets dive into the sea to grab fish.
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She took 1800 images but said only two were usable, and this one won the grand prize.
Andy Schmid won the grand prize in the underwater category.
He said of his photo of a whale diving through a school of fish: “A female orca splitting a herring bait ball while diving through it to get one, shot from underneath while freediving.
“Every winter, enormous schools of herring migrate from the open ocean into the fjords of Northern Norway and attract large numbers of big predators such as orcas and humpback whales.
“Witnessing orcas feeding on herring using the so-called carousel feeding technique is very exciting but not easy to capture due to various factors: limited light and visibility, fast-paced action plus cold surface and water temperature.
“Being able to freedive and capture the action on an ongoing feeding frenzy in these conditions is difficult but I managed to create a series of photos I had never dreamt of capturing.”
Celia Kujala won gold in the photojournalism category for her photo of sea lion pups, but tragically shows the animal playing with plastic in the ocean.
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She said: “Play is very important in the development of California sea lion pups and everything in their environment is a potential toy.
“It is not uncommon to observe them playing with rocks, seaweed and starfish. Sadly, it is becoming much more common to see them playing with another type of toy: a dangerous toy.
“Human garbage is entering the ocean and arriving at their remote, uninhabited homes on ocean currents.
“On this day, in the span of two dives, I was able to collect six pieces of garbage that they were playing with, including the one pictured, and take them out of the ocean.
“It is extremely sad to see what our waste is doing to them and even though it is hard to make changes, we must do better. This image was taken at Coronado Islands, Baja California, Mexico.”
For the full list of winners and categories, click here.
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