Over the 2024 New Zealand summer, LegaSea ran a photo competition to help shed light on the myriad of issues facing our oceans and marine life, and also to educate fishers on its five principles: Reduce Wastage, Maximum Survival of Fish, Maximum Utilisation, Impact, and Safety/Personal Wellbeing.

The categories are all pretty special and feel-good, bar one – which covers the nitty-gritty of what isn’t working in our oceans. It’s the pollution, the overfishing, the death and destruction of the marine world. Grim right? But that’s the reality!


Overall Winner: Andy Belcher. "I moved towards this fish slowly and very carefully - it paid off because my two camera strobes really brought it to life with superb patterns and colour."


Winner, Underwater Category: Judy Ormandy. Blue cod, Taputeranga Marine Reserve.


Marine Life Category: Bevan Miles. Leopard Anemones.


Winner, Marine Life Category: Karena Kaihe-Woolston.


Winner, Preparing, Cooking & Eating Kaimoana Category: Irene Middleton. The whole fish and nothing but the fish – a blue cod prepped for multiple dinners in Fiordland.
 

Things Ain’t Right in Our Oceans Category: Jack Grant. That’s not my field! Roaming cows polluting the waterways, Northland.

Top photo - Winner, Landscapes Category: Andy Belcher. Sunset on the South Island's lower west coast.

Other category winners:
Winner, Catching Kai Category: Jack Lusk. First snapper, Kawau Island.
Winner, Things Ain't Right in our Oceans Category: Chris Paul. Ghost fishing - blue penguin entangled in discarded fishing gear, Makara Beach.

- NZ Fishing News