4th Place Marine Life Behavior

Hannes Klostermann

"Strange Encounters"

The Story: Seeing cormorants hunting sardine is one of the many amazing experiences that a diver can experience at Los Islotes in La Paz, Mexico. While the dive site is most famous for its large sea lion colony the cormorants can really steal the show! They are birds, but are also extremely well adapted to the underwater world. During a photo workshop that we hosted at the dive shop I work at I was fortunate to spend a late afternoon dive with them, focusing entirely on capturing this interesting behaviour and the dappled light that many of us love so much in our pictures. Getting a picture of the cormorants is easy. However, getting a good picture is quite difficult, as the cormorants are very dark and the sardines extremely reflective making balancing the exposure really tricky. It took some adjustments and quite a bit of patience, but finally I managed to capture this image, which in my opinion shows the dynamic of this situation very well. The cormorant is speeding through the water column while the school of sardine breaks up trying to make their escape. A matter of life and death.

Location:  Los Islotes, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Equipment Used:  Nikon D500 Camera, Tokina 10-17mm Fisheye Lens, Nauticam D500 Housing, Zen 230mm Dome Port, Dual Inon Z-240 Strobes

Camera Settings: 1/250 sec, F13, ISO 100

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