UPY 2025

UPY  Marine Conservation - Commended
'Little Blue'
Scott Portelli

Little penguins are the smallest of all penguins and are highly adapted for life in the sea. Its body is streamlined, its wings are modified as flippers and its feathers are densely distributed over its body. Vulnerable to predators, pollution, habitat degradation these endangered penguins are found around the southern parts of Australia. Washed up on a local beach a little penguin lies lifeless on the textured surface of a large piece of driftwood. With no apparent injuries, the cause of death remains unknown.

Judge's comment: A graphic frame that draws us in to study the details and forces us to consider this tragic death. Thousands of air breathing species from seabirds, to penguins, to dolphins and porpoises die each year as the by-catch in fisheries, cask aside and washing ashore as if messengers of what is happening beyond the horizon.
- Alex Mustard