Ocean Photographer of the Year 2022: winners' ethereal deep-sea shots revealed

Ben Thouard captured a surfer battling the water in an incredible image that scooped the top prize

Overall winner, Ben Thouard, from French Polynesia. A surfer battles with the underwater turbulence created by the ‘heaviest wave in the world’. All photos: photographer / Ocean Photographer of the Year

Third place overall, Brook Peterson, from the US. A cormorant dives through a huge school of baitfish, creating a series of shapes that mimic that of a human face.

First place, Ocean Adventure Photographer of the Year, Tom St George, from Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. A cave diver surveys an underwater cave system, surrounded by gigantic formations that have taken millennia to form.

Second place, Ocean Adventure Photographer of the Year, Franco Banfi, from Dominica. A freediver swims with a matriarchal pod of five sperm whales.

Third place, Ocean Adventure Photographer of the Year, Martin Broen, from Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. A diver moves through an abandoned sinkhole-like cenote, like floating through a haunted forest.

First place, Conservation Photographer of the Year (HOPE), Nicolas Remy, from Australia. An aggregation of critically endangered grey nurse sharks off the coast of New South Wales.

Second place, Conservation Photographer of the Year (HOPE), Andreas Schmid, from the Maldives. A pink whipray swims amid schooling bannerfish.

Third place, Conservation Photographer of the Year (HOPE), Renee Capozzola, from Hawaii. Three green sea turtles gather under the sun in Maui.

Second place, Conservation Photographer of the Year (IMPACT), Rafael Fernandez Caballero, from Mexico. A dead sperm whale, beached and bloody, its tail showing signs of entanglement.

Third place, Conservation Photographer of the Year (IMPACT), Dmitry Kokh, from Russia. Polar bears make a ‘home’ of an abandoned station on Kolyuchin Island.

Winner, Female Fifty Fathoms Award, Brook Pyke, Western Australia. A manta ray cruises above a sandy seabed off Coral Bay.

Winner, Female Fifty Fathoms Award, Brook Pyke, Western Australia. A bloom of bell jellyfish, and a whale shark.

Winner, Female Fifty Fathoms Award, Brook Pyke, Western Australia. A whale shark, and company.

Second place, Fine Art Photographer of the Year, Dr Nick More, from Indonesia. A porcelain crab feeds in the current.

Third place, Fine Art Photographer of the Year, Martin Broen, from Mexico. A blue whale and her calf.

First place, Human Connection Award, Steve Woods, from Dominica. A freediver interacts with a sperm whale amid a cloud of Sargassum weed.

Second place, Human Connection Award, Simon Lorenz, from Sri Lanka. A dive guide cuts an Olive Ridley turtle free from plastic debris.

Third place, Human Connection Award, Radim Klimes, from Australia. A surfer floats atop a calm sea.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. A split-shot of a great white shark.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. An abstract portrait of a small bay squid.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. A White’s seahorse makes a home of an old swimming net.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. Anemone fish at home in their colourful anemone.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. A male cuttlefish, still displaying its courting colours, is photographed next to the ink of two other males that had been fighting over a female.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. A humpback whale calf visits the surface to breathe.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. A family portrait of Australian sea lions.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. Schooling fish gather under a rocky outcrop at sunset.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. A pregnant leafy sea dragon.

Winner, Portfolio, Matty Smith. Great white sharks cruise above a swaying seagrass bed.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. An HDR panorama stitching of the Dos Pisos cave system in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. A frog fish “fishes” with its lure in the Lembeh Strait, Indonesia.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. A whale shark photographed off Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. A swarm of jellyfish around a sunken ship.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. The alien-like textures of the 'Hell Bells' of Cenote Zapote in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. A five-shot horizontal panorama captures the size of the mobula ray aggregation in La Paz, Mexico.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. A split-shot showcasing the size of the mobula ray fever passing below a dive boat, Mexico.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. Tannic acid creates a rainbow effect in an underwater cave system in Mexico.

Second place, Portfolio, Martin Broen. A diver descends into the 'Blue Abyss' sinkhole, which sits within an underwater cave system.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A mother and calf dugong pass by the edge of the Ningaloo Reef and enter the lagoon in search of seagrass.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A blue spotted lagoon ray feeds in the shallows of Coral Bay during sunset.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A leopard shark swims through the shallow lagoon of the Ningaloo Reef.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A southern giant petrel tries to peck at Jake’s camera as pulls the camera downwards from the surface.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A whale shark moves through a baitball on the Ningaloo Reef.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A school of spangled emperor and other reef fish gather at the surface while a mackerel cloud passes overhead.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A tiger shark cruises the sand flats of the Maud’s lagoon just north of Coral Bay.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A humpback whale rises from the Indian Ocean into the golden glow of a Western Australia sunrise.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A green sea turtle cruises the abundant coral gardens of the Ningaloo Reef.

Third place, Portfolio, Jake Wilton. A school of yellowtail scad fish surround a manta ray as it cruises the coastline of the Ningaloo Reef.

First place, Ocean Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Rafael Fernandez Caballero, from Spain. A pod of pilot whales pose for a family portrait.

Second place, Ocean Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Martin Broen, from Mexico. A seemingly giant blue crab feeds in the current.

Third place, Ocean Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Juan Mizael Palomeque Gonzalez, from Mexico. A manta ray, and beautiful symmetry.

First place, Young Ocean Photographer of the Year, Ryuta Ogawa, from Japan. A green turtle hatchling takes a breath before its first great journey.

Second place, Young Ocean Photographer of the Year, Nicolas Hahn, from Mexico. An orca mother and calf play in the open ocean.

Third place, Young Ocean Photographer of the Year, Julian Jacobs, from the US. A juvenile brown pelican surveys the choppy shallows.

The Ocean Photographer of the Year 2022 winners have zoomed in on the beauty of the seas and the threats the ocean faces.

This year's top prize has gone to Ben Thouard, a photographer who lives in French-Polynesia, who captured a brave, lonely surfer battling against one of the heaviest waves in the world. The wave is known as Teahupo'o, or "place of skulls".

Thouard's entry was chosen from thousands of submissions, but he was unanimously voted winner by the judging panel, which comprised six renowned photographers, including Paul Nicklen, David Doubilet and Cristina Mittermeier.

Scroll through the gallery above to see the winning shots from the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2022 competition

Second place went to Katherine Lu, for her image of a blanket octopus taken on a blackwater night dive in the Philippines.

Then came Brook Peterson, from the US, who shot a cormorant diving through a school of fish that had a formation in the shape of a human face.

There were plenty of other winners in other categories, from Ocean Wildlife Photographer of the Year to the Human Connection Award: People & Planet Ocean.

Entries were submitted from all over the world, from the Maldives to Sri Lanka and Indonesia, as well as Australia, Mexico and the UK, to name a few.

First place in Conservation Photographer of the Year was Simon Lorenz, who captured an Olive Ridley sea turtle entangled in a mass of ocean debris in Sri Lanka.

Lorenz came in second for the Human Connection Award, too, as he also submitted an image of a dive guide cutting the turtle loose.

A particularly striking shot of waves breaking on a misty morning in Scarborough, England, by Michael Spencer, took home Fine Art Photographer of the Year.

Second place in that category went to Dr Nick More, whose photo of a porcelain crab feeding in the currents of Indonesian waters is almost haunting.

Winning works in the competition, which is produced by Oceanographic Magazine, are now being displayed at a free, open-air, month-long exhibition at Tower Bridge in London until November 7.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year: highly commended pictures unveiled — in pictures