National Geographic Channel named the Best Eco-Photos of 2010.
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| Over all Winner: Flight of the Rays |
Flight of the Rays
This aerial image of Munk's devil rays is the winner for the Underworld Category and the overall winner of the 2010 Environmental Photographer of the Year Awards.
Photographer
Florian Schulz of Germany took this amazing picture as the Munk's devil rays crowd the Sea of Cortez off Mexico's Baja California Sur state map in 2009.
Munk's devil rays are listed as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation Union, partly because to their vulnerability to gill nets. Imagine how many devil rays could be captured with a single net.
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| Underwater-World Finalist: Hide And Seek |
Hide and Seek
Estonian photographer Kaido Haagen took this picture of a gray seal poking its head through the clouds of plant life.
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| Underwater-World Finalist: Birthplace |
Birthplace
Taken by underwater photographer
Bela Nasfay, this picture shows clumps of common frog tadpole eggs on the bottom of a spring-fed Hungarian mountain lake.
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| Under-21 Winner: The Fortune Teller |
The Fortune Teller
Bulgarian photographer Radoslav Radoslavov Valkov won the top prize for "Under 21" category of the 2010 Young Environmental Photographer of the Year Award with this picture of a fly that rubs a bead of water, which looks like a crystal ball, in his backyard.
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| Quality-of-Life Winner: Life for Rent |
Life for Rent
A man makes eye contact with Nodi, a 15-year-old sex worker at a brothel in Fardipur, Bangladesh, in G.M.B. Akash's winning picture. Nodi was sold to the brothel by her stepmother.
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| Innovation-in-the-Environment Winner: Bioremidiation |
Bioremidiation
This winning picture by
Rowan E. Bestmann captures channels and causeways in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, constructed to purify local gray water — wastewater from household activities such as bathing and laundering—for reuse.
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| Natural-World Winner: Fly to Eye |
Fly to Eye
A green pit viper eyes a hummingbird in Hungarian photographer Bence Mate's winning picture.
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| Natural-World Finalist: Backwash |
Backwash
Like an erupting Mount Fuji, a wave takes on a perfect, peaked form in a winning picture by Australian photographer
Julienne Bowser, who snapped the image at Snapper Rocks on the Queensland coast.
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| View-of-the-Western-World Winner: Waste Not Want Not |
Waste Not Want Not
Supermarket workers purge thawed food from powerless freezers in the wake of the biggest floods in decades to wash through the rural town of Charleville, Australia—as captured by
Rowan E. Bestmann, who also won the "Innovation in the Environment" category.
The March 2010 floods were triggered when a monsoonal low dumped heavy rains in southwestern Queensland state, ending several years of drought.
Photo Credits:
National Geographic Channel
