1st Place Marine Life Behavior

Mayumi Takeuchi-Ebbins

"New Life Into The World"

The Story: The Minamata sea was poisoned by severe mercury from a factory during 1950’s to 1960’s. People used to call it the death sea and no one was allowed to go to fishing until the 1990's. But the Minamata sea is rehabilitated now and you can find new specimens of seahorse called Himetatsu. The Minamata sea is sanctuary for this seahorses now. This Japanese seahorse was found as a new species 'Hippocampus ahem' in 2017. A male seahorse will keep eggs in his pouch for 3-4 weeks after he received the eggs from female. After midnight, the male seahorse will push all babies from his pouch when the time has come for the babies to hatch. A couple of seahorses will stay together during hatching season at all times between April to August. They will repeat egg passing behavior 4-5 times in a season. It was incredible moment when the male seahorse hatches all the babies from his pouch. I was diving from midnight until 6AM to shoot this moment for weeks and weeks.

Location:  Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan

Equipment Used:  Nikon D500 Camera, Nikkor 60mm Macro Lenses, Nauticam Housing, Dual Inon Z-240 Strobes

Camera Settings: 1/400, F20, ISO 320

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