This Orca Hunt Left Behind a Brutal Scene -- and the Photo Just Won an Award

From the Philippines to Mexico and Maui, this year’s Ocean Photographer of the Year Awards finalists spotlight moments that reveal how marine life survives, reproduces and even recovers. The selections span categories such as adventure, conservation and human connection. Andrea Michelutti’s winning-style shot shows a scorpionfish consuming a lizardfish, isolated by direct light on a reef off the Philippines. Another finalist captures a male octopus transferring spermatophores via a hectocotylus during courtship at Lady Elliot Island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Rafael Caballero documents a cooperative orca hunt in the Pacific near Mexico, while Leighton Lum shows 17 green sea turtles sheltering in a Maui sea cave.