{"id":279518,"date":"2026-04-22T01:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/279518\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:53:08","slug":"life-teems-below-the-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/279518\/","title":{"rendered":"Life teems below the surface"},"content":{"rendered":"

People living near oceans or on islands often overlook the marine wildlife teaming below the sea\u2019s surface. Marvelously, many scientists, explorers, environmentalists and fine art photographers dive deep and return with unforgettable images and stories of the underwater world.<\/p>\n

In 2025, judges and curators of the prestigious, British-based Ocean Photographer of the Year competition considered over 15,000 submissions of these photographs, which arrived from around the world. Presented by Oceanographic Magazine and Blancpain, the global event in its fifth year resulted in 116 winning and finalist photographs selected for its annual exhibit celebrating achievement in ocean photography. The categories include Wildlife, Fine Art, Adventure, Conservation, Human Connection, Young Photographer of the Year, the Ocean Portfolio Award and the Female Fifty Fathoms Award, which honors excellence by women photographers.<\/p>\n

A combination of good luck and intentional planning brings the exhibit to the United States for the first term. Opening April 24 in Hangar 41, a historic World War II airplane hangar at Alameda Point, the exhibit is hosted by West End Arts District (WEAD) and Bay Photo Lab and continues till May 17.<\/p>\n

The immersive exhibition fills the vast industrial space with stunning, museum-quality photographs printed on aluminum. A connected gallery features \u201cBay Perspectives,\u201d an interactive space shared with the Sailing Science Center that offers hands-on opportunities to engage with ocean processes such as wave formation, tides and more. A program of special events includes live storytelling, a performance by Alameda-based cellist and composer Mia Pixley, a sunset cruise\u2014already sold out\u2014and evenings devoted to presentations centered on coastal ecosystems in Northern California.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe photographic exhibit is huge,\u201d says WEAD Executive Director Tara Pilbrow. \u201cIt gives the audience many touchpoints with the ocean. The smaller Bay Perspective gallery is an ode to and a love letter to the California coastline. You get a sense of the ocean throughout the world, and then, especially for those who choose to live on the small island of Alameda to be close to the sea, Bay Perspectives shows the Pacific as more than a black, opaque surface. After that, you walk outside and you\u2019re looking straight at the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pilbrow says that glimpsing beyond an occasional seal sighting to see incredible images drawn from the ocean\u2019s ecosystem stimulates the imagination. Bringing the exhibition to the Bay Area represents for her and the rest of the team an opportunity for people to consider how they appreciate and steward the ocean.<\/p>\n

The evening events were planned with local collaborations in mind. Six scientists from the San Francisco Estuary Institute will tell five-minute stories about their work. \u201cThey workshopped with an Alameda award-winning storyteller, JP Frary, who will be the night\u2019s MC,\u201d Pilbrow says.<\/p>\n

Cellist Mia Pixley has previously written music inspired by the sea, and Pilbrow is excited by the Alameda resident\u2019s plan to perform work from the album and other pieces inspired by the exhibition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>SHOW-WINNING IMAGE Russian photographer Yury Ivanov captures two incredibly tiny marine creatures\u2014amphipods from the Cyproideidae family, commonly called \u2018ladybugs of the sea\u2019\u2014resting quietly on coral. (Photo by Yury Ivanov)<\/p>\n

Of course, the photographs are the stars of the show. From Yury Ivanov\u2019s overall show-winning image of two amphipods that measure no more than 3mm in length to the 15 sperm whales socializing in Romain Barats\u2019 photograph, the range from micro to macro is breathtaking. Responding to a request for comments on a limited selection of the works, Pilbrow returns repeatedly to the idea that the ocean is full of surprises, along with warnings about how much the world stands to lose if people neglect it.<\/p>\n

Jesse Miller\u2019s finalist photograph in the Conservation (Impact) category has a Sixgill Shark swimming past an abandoned toilet and bright orange traffic cone half-buried in the ocean floor. The lighting is a dense, eery green. Pilbrow says, \u201cIt\u2019s not a photo I\u2019d choose for its aesthetic value, but it\u2019s so striking. Here\u2019s this incredibly ancient animal and people\u2019s refuse together at the depth of the sea. You get hit by the guttural story instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Sanders\u2019 photo of a giant barrel sponge spewing a cloud of spawn and midnight snappers gorging on the rising plumes captures a rare moment of coordination. \u201cAll the sponges in the area do it at the same time,\u201d Pilbrow says. \u201cSo much is volcano-ing out and these predators feast on it, but because of the volume, more of it survives. The hopefulness of that image is caught by this flourishing coral reef when so few reefs are still healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>SIXGILL SHARK American photographer Jesse Miller illuminates the contrast between a 200-million-year-old prehistoric animal and the human-created trash at his local dive spot in Des Moines, Washington.\u00a0(Photo by Jesse Miller)<\/p>\n

The intense dedication and precise timing necessary to capture an image is evident in multiple photographs. The vibrant orange outline of a black juvenile pinnate batfish in Luis Arpa Toribio\u2019s photo lasts only a few months; a yellow pigmy\u00a0goby releasing newly hatched larvae illustrates Takumi Oyama\u2019s years of dedication to one fish; Natnattcha Chaturapitamorn\u2019s photo of fishermen harvesting seaweed in a swirl of shimmering aqua nets was taken at 5:14am.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great reminder of communities that have daily, human-level interactions with the sea,\u201d Pilbrow says. \u201cCounter to massive, industrial trawlers destroying the ocean floor, it reminds us of a more holistic relationship with ocean life.\u201d<\/p>\n

A visitor\u2019s greatest takeaway from the exhibit is the simple awareness, Pilbrow suggests, of how invaluable the \u201cwatery backyard\u201d is for everyone fortunate to live on, near or surrounded by the sea.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ocean Photographer of the Year,\u2019 April 24 through May 17 at Hangar 41, 650 West Tower Ave., Alameda. Open Sat-Sun, 10am to 6pm; special events Thu-Fri. Tickets: general $25, youth\/students $15, family package $60. westendartsdistrict.org\/ocean-photographer-of-the-year-alameda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People living near oceans or on islands often overlook the marine wildlife teaming below the sea\u2019s surface. Marvelously,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[460,143,145,144,120440,120441],"class_list":{"0":"post-279518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-environmental","9":"tag-oakland","10":"tag-oakland-headlines","11":"tag-oakland-news","12":"tag-ocean-conservation","13":"tag-ocean-photography"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}