Julien Anton is Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026
The amateur French photographer achieved the award because of his remarkable portrait of a male seahorse and two tiny juveniles alongside him.
In the image, the juveniles - just distinguishable against the dark expanse of the ocean - appear to pause and look back, as if weighing what lies ahead. In seahorses, it is the male who carries and births the young, a fact that gives the image its poignancy. It is a portrait of the next generation, embarking into an uncertain world, one that Oceanographic says poses a question that hangs in the water long after the viewer has looked away: what kind of ocean are we leaving behind?
After learning that he had won the competition, Anton declared: “Winning Ocean Photographer of the Year is an immense honour - one I’m proud to share with my family, and with the local residents, naturalists and fishermen of Tahiti and Mo’orea whose knowledge made this image possible."
“We spent countless hours searching in difficult conditions, with no guarantee of finding a single seahorse. That is what made the moment so extraordinary – when the juveniles turned back towards the adult, it felt like something far beyond what I had dared to hope for. I am not a professional photographer; for me, photography is simply how I share what I see and feel. My hope is that this image can serve as a bridge between science, conservation and a world that deserves to know what is at stake.”
The male seahorse has a special brood pouch on his belly or tail. During mating, the female places her eggs inside the male's pouch. The male fertilizes the eggs inside the pouch and carries them for 2 to 6 weeks, and then male goes through strong muscular contractions and pushes hundreds of tiny baby seahorses out into the water. Other fish in the same family, called Syngnathidae (which includes pipefish and seadragons), also share this trait where the males carry and hatch the eggs.
