2011 underwater photo contest winners

Presenting the winner (best overall) of the University of Miami’s RSMAS 2011 Underwater Photography contest. Shown are two tiny gobies (Bryaninops natans), representatives of the family that contains some of the smallest vertebrates on earth (although the grand prize for smallest on earth goes to Paedocypris progenetica, a minute relative of carp, measuring less than 8 mm, and found in the swamps of Sumatra). The photo is by Tobias Friedrich, shot in Marsa Alam, Egypt.

And here’s one for Helen, a Pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) uncannily camouflaged against the soft corals in which it makes its home. Photo by Michael Gallagher, which won 1st place in the Macro category:

And my personal favorite–an aggregation of mating cuttlefish by Luc Rooman, first place in the Wide-angle category:

See the rest from 2011, and other years, here.