Ocean Portfolio Award 2024, Shane Gross

Finalist Ocean Portfolio Award

Shane Gross British Columbia, Canada

49°26'45.4"N 124°40'48.6"W

Baby plainfin midshipman fish, still attached to their yolk sacs in British Columbia, Canada. “They are guarded over by their father until they are big enough to swim out from under the rock they are living on in the intertidal zone and swim to ocean depths,” explains Gross.

All of Shane's Collective Portfolio Award entry

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Calm and sunny
Coastal walk-in
Evening

“A critically endangered Cuban crocodile, after several days of getting used to me, mouths my camera dome,” says Gross. “With less than 2,000 left in the wild and interbreeding American crocodiles rampant, the outlook is bleak. However, efforts to breed the animals are in place in a desperate attempt to save the species.”

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Calm and sunny
Taken with a drone
Afternoon

Nurse sharks cross on a shallow sand flat in the Bahamas. “This moment was part of a days-long courtship ritual,” says Gross.

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Calm and sunny
Taken while scuba diving
Site accessed by boat
Morning

“An octopus explores the most pristine coral reef I’ve ever seen,” says Gross. “Here, in remote Indonesia only accessible via liveaboard, cold water upwellings meet warm tropical waters in a current-swept area.”

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Dawn
Coastal walk-in
Calm and sunny

An endangered chupare stingray feeds on a sand flat at dawn in The Bahamas.

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Calm, chilly water
Taken while snorkelling
Coastal walk-in
Morning

A male and female pink salmon spawn as their last act before perishing and feeding the forest in Campbell River, British Columbia.

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Calm and sunny
Taken while snorkelling
Site accessed by boat
Morning

A crested sculpin hides in the stinging tentacles of a lion’s mane jellyfish. “The tentacles provide both shelter and food for the cryptic fish in Alaska’s Prince William Sound,” explains Gross.

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Calm
Taken while scuba diving
Night

Opalescent squid mate and lay their eggs off Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. “The female will deposit 100 to 300 eggs into the sand and cover them with a sticky substance to anchor them to the seabed and protect them from predators,” explains Gross. “The male squid uses its fifth arm, called the hectocotylus, to grab the female and insert spermatophores. Eggs present at the bottom of the ocean stimulate other females to lay their eggs so that vast fields of the eggs can result.”

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Calm and sunny
Taken while snorkelling
Afternoon

“Western toad tadpoles migrate from the safer deeper part of a Vancouver Island lake to the sunlit shallows to feed on algae and other organic matter,” says Gross.

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Windy and chilly
Large swell
Taken while snorkelling
Afternoon

A humpback whale mother pushes her calf in a unique show of love in Tubuai, French Polynesia.

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Shane Gross Canada

ABOUT THE IMAGE

Calm and sunny
Coastal walk-in
Taken during tide pooling

Shane Gross is a Canadian marine conservation photojournalist and Emerging League member of the International League of Conservation Photographers. He is currently based in The Bahamas working to conserve queen conch, Nassau grouper, seagrass and mangrove habitats, among others. Shane's work has been recognised by the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Underwater Photographer of the Year, Nature Photographer of the Year and many others. He is widely published around the world and his first book, Bahamas Underwater, is out soon.