UPY 2025

UPY  Up & Coming - Runner Up
'The swarm'
Ollie Clarke

The whale sharks on the Ningaloo are often accompanied by bait-balls like this one, where the small fish use the shark as a floating shelter. However this one was huge, much denser and with a lot more fish than usual, so I was really excited to photograph it. The shark almost looked as if it was getting fed up with the small fish and it was attempting to shake off the swarm. It would make steep dives and then ascend again right away thrashing its tail, but the fish would just swirl even more densely around the poor shark, who would have barely been able to see through the bait-ball! I was hoping to spend a bit of time photographing this shark, but after some ups and downs, he dissapeared into the depths of the Indian Ocean, an encounter I'll never forget.

Judge's comment: For me this is predator and the prey. Whale sharks are sometimes mis-labelled as plankton feeders, but they are also active predators of schools of small fish. Ollie’s stunning image is perfectly timed as the shark pounces, switching from benign escort to hunter, mouth gulping down its prey.
Alex Mustard