Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year Award

During the plankton bloom season in the Maldives, the bright lights off dive boats gather plankton at night, which in turn attract the manta rays to feed. In this photo, a young manta ray circled around the lights to filter feed. I was able to take this portrait image of the manta with its mouth wide open and exposing its filtering gill plates, as well as the cloud of plankton gathered ahead of the opportunistic manta ray.

Really cool that the image received an award at 2026 Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year Award.