Winners Gallery
Finalist Human Connection Award: People & Planet Ocean
Rui Duarte Boa Vista, Cape Verde
Volunteers, surfers, lifeguards and conservation groups work together to refloat stranded short-finned pilot whales. While many animals initially returned to the sea, the pod stranded again further along the coast, highlighting the complexity of mass strandings. The image captures compassion in action, but it also reflects how wildlife rescue continues to evolve. In the months that followed, international experts trained the local community in safer, science-based stranding response techniques, strengthening future rescue efforts.
BEHIND THE LENS
Rui Duarte Portugal
ABOUT THE IMAGE
- Shore, Coastal Walk-in
- Canon 5D mark IV + canon 16-35 2.8 IS USM III
- 400, 6.3, 1/640
Rui Duarte is a 32 years old nature and wildlife enthusiastic photographer. Graduated by the University of Minho, Portugal in Biology-Geology, his passion for the creative storytelling started in 2015 in his last year of university, where he found the need of expressing himself though crafting art. Currently working with seasonal jobs as a field biologist, fishing observer, conservationist and whale watching guide & naturalist, willing to go that extra mile to absorb knowledge and educate people. Today his photography aims to showcase the conflict relationship between humans, wild animals and the wilderness.
