Application Deadline: April 30, 2019 at 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST).
In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly decided that, as from 2009, June 8 would be designated by the United Nations as “World Oceans Day” (resolution 63/111, paragraph 171). The UN designation of World Oceans Day is an opportunity to raise global awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans – and be part of the solutions.
World Oceans Day encourages you to make a difference in your life, community, and world by taking action to protect our ocean – for present and future generations. Despite the huge challenges facing the world’s ocean, by working together we can achieve a healthy ocean that provides for the billions of humans, plants and animals which depend on it every day.
For the sixth year running, you can share the beauty and importance of the ocean through your photographs.
The Contest
Photography is a powerful medium to convey a feeling or a message. This open and free photo competition seeks to inspire the creation of imagery capturing the beauty, the challenges and the importance of the ocean and humankind’s relation to it, hoping to contribute to actions to preserve it.
The photo competition has seven thematic categories open for photographic submissions:
- Gender and Oceans NEW!
- Underwater Seascapes
- Underwater Life
- Above Water Seascapes
- Human Interaction: Making a Difference
- Clean Our Ocean: Images relating to the ocean that show the positive or negative consequences of human interference above or below the waterline
- Youth: Open category, any image of the ocean – below or above the surface (photographed by a person under 18 years of age as of 1 May 2019)
Benefits:
Winning images will be recognized at the United Nations on Friday, June 7, during the United Nations’ event marking World Oceans Day 2019.
Recognition and diffusion of the winning images and finalists will be widely exposed throughout the contest websites, the media and the information materials related to subsequent competitions.
Winning photos have been printed for exhibitions around the world. In 2016, one winning photo was also selected to be used as the cover of the First Global Integrated Marine Assessment.
Contest Rules
- The contest is open to entrants of all skill levels.
- Photo contest staff and judges are not allowed to enter the contest.
- Winners will be announced on June 7, 2019 in New York, on the occasion of the marking of World Oceans Day at the UN, and published on www.unworldoceansday.org shortly afterwards.
- Entries may have been taken from any camera, digital or film (as scanned slides).
- Conservation rules will be strictly observed.
Flora and fauna should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a
photo. Entries suspected of involving the following behavior will be
disqualified:
- Photographers visibly damaging the environment (e.g., gear dragging or kicking up sand, divers exhibiting poor buoyancy control)
- Animals with signs of stress (e.g., puffed puffers, inking octopus)
- Animals moved to an unnatural environment or risky location
- Marine life being touched or placed (e.g., nudibranchs, coral polyps, seahorse tails)
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the World Oceans Day Photo Competition 2019
