Aerial view of sharks hunting as a group wins science photography top prize
Four sharks hunt a large school of hardyhead silversides in the Maldives. (Angela Albi/ August Paula via The Royal Society)
A unique view of sharks using teamwork to hunt took the top prize in The Royal Society’s annual photography competition.
The Royal Society, a scientific academy and fellowship of scientists around the world, announced the winner of this year’s photography competition among scientists. This year, the organization asked for images representing different areas of science, including astronomy, behavior, Earth science and climatology, ecology and environmental science and microimaging.
The winning image was submitted by Angela Albi using a drone piloted by August Paula. The stunning photo shows blacktip sharks working as a group near the Maldives to hunt a school of fish. In the aerial view, four sharks cut a path through the school of fish, gathering their prey for feeding.
Albi studies interactions between blacktip reef sharks and baitfish schools, using drones to capture these interactions from above.
"One of the main reasons animals group together is to avoid predators. In this case, a large school of hardyhead silversides faces four juvenile blacktip reef sharks, which occasionally attack, causing the fish to respond collectively," Albi said. "Blacktip reef sharks are a social species and as juveniles, they often gather in schools of fish near the shore in the Maldives, where they circle within the school."
The photo was taken from drone footage and processed for contrast, exposure and white balance.
The 2024 winner of the astronomy category took more than 14 hours over three days to capture. According to the winning photographer, Imran Sultan, the image shows two nebulae found in the Cassiopeia constellation that form a "Heart and Soul."
'The Heart and Soul' image shows two nebulae found in the Cassiopeia constellation. The image is the astronomy category winner of The Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition. (Imran Sultan)
Jose Manuel Martinez Lopez won the microimaging category with his submission, "Tired Eyes." The eyes below are those of a scorpion seen in fluorescence under a microscope. The final image was created by stacking 110 images and shows an area of 1.4 x 1.05 millimeters (0.05 x 0.04 inches).
A view of scorpion eyes from a microscope. (Jose Manuel Martinez Lopez via The Royal Society)
Melting ice in Greenland took the top prize in the Earth science and climatology category. The image by David Garcia shows a supraglacial melting lake over the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the second-largest ice mass on Earth.
Garcia said the photo was taken during a flight over the ice sheet when a "small window of light appeared."
Ice cap melt lake in Greenland.
"It was singular due to hundreds of small aquamarine structures formed by melting and thawing process," Garcia said. "Although some clouds cast shadows over the lake, I was elated to have captured the image."