All the winners from the Underwater Photographer of the Year awards

An image of a school of hunting sharks took the top prize this year
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A parrotfish got the short end of the stick in the winning image for this year's Underwater Photographer of the Year awards, which sees the fish being caught and devoured by a pack of grey reef sharks.

The image was the top picture chosen out of 5,000 submitted entries and was taken by British photographer Richard Barnden, who was named Underwater Photographer of the Year.

Titled 'The Gauntlet', Barnden took the image during a late night dive on the reefs of French Polynesia. Originally from Brighton, but now living in Palau in Micronesia, Barnden said in a statement: "As I descended, hundreds of sharks covered the bottom. This unlucky parrotfish flinched, and that tiny movement alerted the swarm of sharks. The mayhem hurtled straight towards me and I instinctively pressed the shutter, moments later all that remained was a rain of parrotfish scales in the darkness, and this photo on my camera.”

Chair of the judges, Dr Alexander Mustard MBE, commented on the image: “Photography is about preserving moments and what an unforgettable instant this is. Using a wide angle lens, the photographer takes us into the full drama of the hunt, as a melee of grey reef sharks rise like a breaking wave to tear apart their prey, truly revealing the ocean’s wilder side.”

Other winners of the major awards include Spanish photographer Eduardo Acevedo from Tenerife who was named as the Marine Conservation Photographer of the Year for his image depicting a loggerhead turtle entangled in a discarded plastic fishing net, which after taking the photo, Acevedo said he was able to free the turtle from and recover the net.

Taeyup Kim of Korea was named as the Up & Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year for his half-in, half-out of the water image showing corals under the ocean with a resort on the land behind, an image Kim said was 'physically tough to shoot'.

Taeyup Kim was named the Up & Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year for this image
Taeyup Kim//Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019

Malcom Nimmo, from Plymouth, was named as the Most Promising British Underwater Photographer of the Year for his image, 'Marine Compass' which was taken in the UK's Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall. An image which he hoped would help to 'highlight the beautiful marine environments we are lucky to have around the UK'.

Click through the gallery above to see all the winners from the Underwater Photographer of the Year awards for 2019. You can find out more here, underwaterphotographeroftheyear.com/​

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