MontPhoto, international photography contest (Mountain and Nature Photography Awards)

1st Award
Llum sobre l'alien de Jordi Benitez Castells de El Vendrell (Tarragona)
Place: Calafell, Espanya
Description: The light of dusk draws a kind of halo over this Barrel Jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo). These jellyfishes reach our beaches with the heat and, although many people think they should be taken out of the water, they are the true inhabitants of the sea, not us.

Jordi Benitez Castells

1st Award

Honor award
Life in the Cenote de Alessio Viora de Fontaneto d'Agogna (NO - Italia)
Place: Tulum, Mèxic
Description: Grand Cenote lifestyle under the waterlilies umbrella. Freshwater Turtles are difficult enough to spot from a close downunder shot because it is a very shy animal, so spotting them under the cover of the colourfull waterlilies is spectacular.

Alessio Viora

Honor award

Honor award
Tornado de David Barrio Colongues de Las Palmas ()
Place: Papua, Nova Guinea (Melanèsia)
Description: This picture is one of a short series that I managed to take at a depth of approximately 40m, when a shoal of Barracudas (Sphyraena barracuda) decided to align within my frame and turn for a few seconds. It was very brief, yet at that time everything seemed perfect.

David Barrio Colongues

Honor award

Honor award
Stoned de David Barrio Colongues de Las Palmas ()
Place: Papua, Nova Guinea (Melanèsia)
Description: Portrait of a Stone Fish (Synanceia verrucosa) waiting for pray on a hard coral reef.

David Barrio Colongues

Honor award

Honor award
Parejas de Sergi García Fernández de Argentona (Barcelona)
Place: Tenerife, Canàries (Espanya)
Description: This couple of Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) seem to dance for the camera as if it was a synchronised swimming exercise.

Sergi García Fernández

Honor award

Honor award
Mola Mola de Cristobal Serrano de Alicante (Alicante)
Place: Roca Punta Vicente, Illes Galápagos (Equador)
Description: The Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) is one of the weirdest fishes and the largest bony fish in the ocean. When you find one of these clumsy swimmers you feel that something has come from other planet. Its strange shape has been the origin of many legends. The fact is that this huge creature leaves no one indifferent. While I was diving around a dark volcanic rock at the Northwestern shore of Isabela Island I could admire this impressive fish swimming at the top of the reef wall.

Cristobal Serrano

Honor award

Honor award Popular voting
Explosion of Life de Cristobal Serrano de Alicante (Alicante)
Place: Cousins Rock, Illes Galápagos (Equador)
Description: Taking their name from the Galapagos Islands, an archipelago of 17 volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean belonging to Ecuador, the Galapagos Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas agassisi) is the only sea turtle subpopulation that nest in these islands. This happened encounter came at a depth of 30 meters in the midst of a shoal of Pacific Creolefish (Paranthias colonus). Today this species is listed on the IUCN Red List of threatened species, they represent one of the species most endangered.

Cristobal Serrano

Honor award / P. V.

Honor award
Reproduction site de Bert Willaert de Gent ()
Place: Limburg, Bèlgica
Description: A male Common Toad (Bufo bufo) scans the surface to find a female in a shallow pond where shortly before Common Frogs (Rana temporaria) have mated, as seen by the large number of egg clutches deposited.

Bert Willaert

Honor award

Honor award
Guardería de Marc Casanovas Felix de Barcelona (Barcelona)
Place: Menorca, Espanya
Description: A Mediterranean Jelly of the species Cotylorhiza tuberculata act like a refuge for a small colony of Mackerels (Umbrina ronchus). They travel between its tentacles seeking protection.

Marc Casanovas Felix

Honor award

GALLERY MONTPHOTO 2014

Nature: Underwater world