Ocean Photographer of the Year - Conservation (Hope)Ocean Photographer of the Year - Conservation (Hope) 

Winner Ocean Photographer of the Year – Conservation Hope

Sirachai Arunrugstichai  

Sirachai “Shin” Arunrugstichai is a Thai photojournalist and marine biologist born in Bangkok. He is an Associate Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and a National Geographic Explorer. Shin has been a professional ocean photographer for 12 years, covering diverse topics, ranging from disasters, conflicts and politics. He is committed to marine conservation. He aims to portray humanity’s complex relationship with the ocean, capturing both its horrors and hopes. Shin often collaborates on shark and ray research in Southeast Asia.

Shin’s favourite animal is a shark, primarily ‘because they have sharp teeth and sharp teeth are awesome’. In one of his videos, a TED talk presentation from 2021, he talks about how as a young boy he kept baby sharks he purchased from the fish market in the freezer at home, taking them out to examine them, time and again until his mother threw them out.  

Photography, he says, has the power to tell the stories that transcend language barriers.

 

Location: Aquaria Phuket, Thailand.

Equipment: Nikon Z8, Nikon 24-70 F/4S, Godox V1 Strobe

Settings: F/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 100

Image size: 143.5 x 143.5cm

 

Wall text

An aquarist holds a glass jar with an early-stage embryo of an Indo-Pacific leopard shark, its egg case removed for a rearing experiment at Aquaria Phuket, one of Thailand’s largest private aquariums. “Since 2023, the aquarium’s staff-driven breeding programme has produced over 40 pups of this endangered species, listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List,” says Arunrugstichai. This project is a part of the ReShark, an international collective of aquariums, NGOs, government, academics, and local communities that are working on shark and ray rewilding. Shin’s work on the project was funded by the Vital Impacts Dr Sylvia Earle Environmental Grant.

 

About the image

Most shark species can have only 20 babies per season, as opposed to most fish, who can produce millions of eggs.  

The indo-pacific leopard shark, also known as the zebra shark has a distinct body patterning that changes over time. Pups are born with white and brown stripes, resembling a group of venomous sea snakes to keep them safe from predators and as they grow, their markings change to spotted, assisting them to camouflage on the sea floor. They are slow-swimming reef sharks.

They are nocturnal and hunt with two whisker-like organs on their snouts.  

Once abundant in the Coral triangle, an area in the western Pacific Ocean, they are now considered endangered by the IUCN. Overfishing and habitat loss has reduced their numbers by 50% in the past 50 years.  

In 2020, the Seattle Aquarium—along with partners around the world—launched the international ReShark coalition. As its name suggests, the goal is to “reshark” the ocean by restoring healthy populations, starting with Indo-Pacific leopard sharks in Indonesia.  

 

Description

This is sweet, bright and clinical image of a small zebra shark inside a round container, itself set inside a square tub. The round container’s glass circumference is blue-ish tinted and the tub takes up the entire background, glowing white .

Parallel lines run from top to bottom, the edges of the tub framing the image. Between the soft lines of the tub edges, either side of the glass circle are human hands in heavy shadow, fingers outstretched, wrists cut off by the top of the photo. These hands are holding their circular prize in their fingers.

Central to the lower half of the image, inside the thick, bluish-edged glass container is a delicate, round sac, no bigger than a human thumb. Its opaque, pale surface is suffused by fine, pink veins. The little sac presses ever-so-gently against the glass, creating a shadow at the rim.  

 

Adjacent at right, connected to the sac by a length of organic, whitish tube is a teeny, tiny zebra shark. Its head is two thirds the size of the sac. Its pinkish snout presses against the glass. It has glazed, wide set, dark eyes either side of its blunt head. Just behind its eyes on the top of its head is the first stripe in its markings, as though the little shark is wearing a white, ribbon headband. At the rear of its head , either side of its first, organic stripe are a pair of pectoral fins fanning out. Tiny, see through, gossamer head wings.  

Behind its head its body is narrower and it too is ridged with striped markings. Horizontal white stripes span the length of its pinkish-grey back and down the wisp of its long, delicate tail, which is twice the length of its body. Its tail is curving up, up and beyond the centre of the image, as though mid-motion, in the act of swaying back and forth.  

This is the end of the audio description.