Snowy-white northern gannets (Morus bassanus) plunge into the icy waters of the North Sea in search of food in this action-packed photograph taken off the Shetland Islands in Scotland.  The seabirds are almost as big as an albatross, with a wingspan of up to 180 centimetres. They are also uniquely adapted to high-speed diving, with strong neck muscles and nostrils inside their bills that can be closed to prevent water entering.

The shot was one of the many spectacular entries to the 2024 Underwater Photographer of the Year competition, which celebrates the wonders of the marine world. Here are some of New Scientist’s top picks from this year’s contest.

In this photo by Fabiana Fregonesi, a school of fish swarm around a wreck, forming a shape resembling the boat’s sail for a fleeting moment. The shipwreck, called Virgo, was deliberately sunk in 2017 to be a dive site near Recife, Brazil.

“The feeling I had at the time was that the ship was ready to set sail, beginning its journey towards an unknown adventure,” Fregonesi said in a statement.

The eye of an eastern grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) pierces this mysterious shot taken from just above the surface of a saltwater lagoon in west Mexico. These marine mammals are friendly creatures, often showing their curiosity by approaching boats. Grey whales go on one of the longest annual migrations of any mammals – from feeding grounds in the Arctic southwards along the west coast of North America to the warm lagoons of Baja California, Mexico.

In stark contrast to the gigantic grey whale, this tiny 10-centimetre-wide organism was captured up close in the deep waters of the Philippines. The circular subject of the image is a pyrosome – a colonial animal that is made up of hundreds of thousands of minuscule individuals called zooids. Enveloped inside the bizarre pyrosome is a little octopus, just peeking out.

This ravenous cormorant makes a beeline towards the photographer Jon Anderson’s camera, after mistaking it for a fish. The extraordinary photo was taken in a kelp forest at a dive site in Monterey, California, during a bright summer afternoon. Many cormorant species rely on these special marine ecosystems to survive; however, local kelp forests have declined 80 per cent in the past decade.

Dozens of beachgoers in southern Portugal attempt to save a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) in this magnificent aerial shot.

“Together they push and chant, trying to help the giant back into the sea, as it slowly slaps its tail back and forth, and breathes heavily,” said photographer Nuno Sá in a statement. Despite their best efforts, the whale died several hours after reaching the beach – its body crushed under its own weight.

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