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A selection of the winners, runners-up and highly commended photos from the Mangrove photography awards, run by the Mangrove Action Project, which received 5,258 entries from 87 countries. In its 12th year, the awards continue to offer a window into landscapes viewers may otherwise never encounter
Two Worlds, One Ecosystem by Jake Stout. Photograph: MPOTYFri 24 Jul 2026 10.00 CEST
Mangrove photographer of the year 2026 – overall winner
Tangled Glow: When Life Meets the RuinsGaurav Patil, IndiaA ‘ghost’ fishing net glowing under ultraviolet light, tangled in a mangrove on the tide-swept shore of Nandgaon village, Maharashtra, south of Mumbai, has won this year’s Mangrove photography awards. Captured on a 13-second UV exposure, the image reveals a quieter conservation crisis: discarded nets carried in by currents and trapped in mangroves, turning these vital coastal barriers into hidden garbage hotspots. While the impact of ‘ghost gear’ – fishing equipment such as nets discarded in the ocean – on open-water marine life is increasingly documented, its accumulation in mangrove ecosystems on India’s coast has received far less attention. Mangroves sit at the interface between land and sea, meaning they can end up receiving waste from both directions. ‘I came across this particular mangrove patch where discarded fishing nets were getting trapped during high tide,’ said the photographer Gaurav Patil. ‘These nets meet the oceanic currents, which bring them to the coast. I have been watching ghost nets getting trapped in mangroves for the last several years, and I wanted to document it in an artistic manner to grab the attention of the viewers.’Photograph: Gaurav Patil/MPOTY
Wildlife, other species – highly commended
Mudskippers in Awe!Ashok Behera, IndiaTwo mudskippers face off on wet mud, mouths agape and fins raised in a territorial display, their blue-spotted patterns catching the light. A vivid glimpse of the tidal flats of the Sundarbans – the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest – where these fish walk, jump and breathe on landPhotograph: Ashok Behera/MPOTY
Underwater – winner
Feeding Grounds Under the CanopyEwan Tregarot, Netherlands AntillesGrey snappers hunt through a school of bait fish beneath the mangrove canopy of Lac Bay, Bonaire. The image was captured during a fish monitoring survey, as shafts of midday light revealed predator-prey interactions usually hidden in these submerged forests. A reminder that Bonaire’s celebrated reefs depend on the mangroves that shelter and feed themPhotograph: Ewan Tregarot/MPOTY
Portfolio stories – highly commended
From Encircled by the SeaGarry Lotulung, IndonesiaIndonesia is sinking, and climate change is the primary cause. Encircled by the Sea tells the story of Java’s disappearing northern coast, where land is subsiding up to 30cm a year – and nearly 80% of Demak’s original mangrove forest has vanished — swallowing roads, schools and homes, and erasing entire villages. Pasijah remains in her home in Rejosari Senik, Bedono village, Demak, one of the few residents who refused to leave as the sea drove her neighbours away. For 20 years, she has planted about 15,000 mangroves a year, often joined by her husband, Rokani, 61, and son Ichwan, 35, setting out each day in a boat made from a blue plastic barrel to tend her saplings, wading chest-deep into the water when neededPhotograph: Garry Lotulung/MPOTY
Young mangrove photographer of the year – winner
AdaptationKatanyou Wuttichaitanakorn, ThailandIn mangrove forests where warm-blooded prey is scarce, some mosquitoes have adapted to feed instead on cold-blooded mudskippers, as captured here after the photographer set out to discover what was sustaining the forest’s large mosquito populationPhotograph: Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn/MPOTY
Wildlife, mammals – runner-up
Fast AsleepKerron Noel, Trinidad and TobagoA silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) asleep on a red mangrove tree at the Caroni bird sanctuary, Caroni swamp. Though the silky anteater is classified globally as a species of ‘least concern’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, it still faces significant risk in Trinidad due to habitat destruction, forest fires and illegal hunting. Silky anteaters are the smallest species of anteater in the worldPhotograph: Kerron Noel/MPOTY
Portfolio stories – winner
From Pillars in the SeaNicoló Brugnara, IndiaIn Versova Koliwada, an elder prays among rows of drying Bombay duck (Harpadon nehereus) hung on bamboo racks. For generations, the Koli have preserved fish this way, but as seas warm and coasts urbanise, fishing livelihoods become less viablePhotograph: Nicolò Brugnara/MPOTY
Portfolio stories – winner
From Pillars in the SeaNicoló Brugnara, IndiaHundreds gathered at Charkop’s Turzon Point to oppose the 26km coastal road project and protest against a pattern of approvals made without consulting those who live closest to what is being lostPhotograph: nicolo.brugnara/MPOTY
Wildlife, other species – winner
Seeking Refuge in the MangrovesEvan Cooper, BahamasA juvenile green turtle in a shallow Bahamian mangrove forest near sunset during high tide. As the water levels rise and the tide comes in, the mangroves’ roots transform from a barren buffer to a flourishing ecosystem home to sea turtles, crustaceans, fish and much more. Given its size, this turtle has probably arrived here from the Sargasso Sea. The mangrove forest provides shelter for little green turtles like this one from tiger sharks and other predatorsPhotograph: Evan Cooper/MPOTY
Wildlife mammals – winner
Where the Mangroves BeginKallol Mukherjee, IndiaTwo jungle cat kittens emerge from the dense mangrove forest in the Sundarban tiger reserve. It is a rare glimpse of the smaller, lesser-known wildlife that shares this tidal landscape with the reserve’s tigers, and survives its shifting mud, saline water and daily tidal floodingPhotograph: Kallol Mukherjee/MPOTY
Landscape on the ground – winner
Beneath Ancient LightRyuhei Suguri, Indonesia Under the Milky Way, a solitary mangrove stands in shallow tidal water, its reflection still in the low tide — a quiet pairing of ancient starlight with one of Earth’s most vital coastal ecosystemsPhotograph: Ryuhei Suguri/MPOTY
Wildlife, birds – winner
March of the FlamingosMark Ian Cook, United StatesA small group of American flamingos peer at a juvenile lemon shark while searching for suitable foraging habitat in the mangrove-lined shallow backwaters of Florida BayPhotograph: Mark Ian Cook/MPOTY
Threats – winner
Red Mangrove HarvestZafer Kizilkaya, BangladeshIllegal red mangrove harvesting in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh — a Unesco World Heritage site and home to about 125 Bengal tigers. Weak enforcement lets the trade continue, feeding a local charcoal industry, driving deforestation, and fuelling the region’s high rate of human-tiger conflictsPhotograph: Zafer Kizilkaya/MPOTY
Landscape black and white – winner
Footprint of the EarthAbijith Soman, IndiaAn island shaped like a footprint emerges from Kerala’s backwaters, its mangroves tracing the toes and sole of the print. Many of these islands were once mangrove forest before being cleared for coconut plantations — on some, the mangroves are now reclaiming that ground. A quiet mark of where nature is stepping back inPhotograph: Abijith Soman/MPOTY
People and livelihoods – winner
String of CrabsRoosevelt Cassio, BrazilA fisher shows off the day’s catch — a batch of crabs known locally as a ‘corda’, sold for about R$20 in BrazilPhotograph: Roosevelt Cassio/MPOTY
Landscape, from the air – winner
Mangue BeatLucas Gonçalves Garcias, BrazilAerial view of the Tejipió River in Recife, dividing shrimp ponds maintained by residents of Ilha de Deus — many of whom depend on the ecosystem’s health for their livelihood — from a stretch of mangrove forest partly filled in for a naval zone. The varied colours of the ponds trace different stages and depths of shrimp farmingPhotograph: MPOTY
Black and white – runner-up
Root of the SolutionVladimir Borzykin, ThailandPhotographed close to the mangrove floor, this image strips away horizon and scale to focus entirely on the exposed roots — tangled at first glance, but revealing structure and rhythm the longer you lookPhotograph: Vladimir Borzykin/MPOTY
Underwater – highly commended
Two Worlds, One EcosystemJake Stout, CubaA split shot reveals the two often-overlooked halves of a mangrove ecosystem: the tangled roots above, and the seagrass bed below — a transitional nursery where juvenile fish shelter before graduating to nearby coral reefs. Photographed in Cuba’s Jardines de la Reina, a marine protected area since 1996, where strong protection has produced some of the Caribbean’s richest biodiversityPhotograph: Jake Stout/MPOTYExplore more on these topics
