World Ocean Day Photo Contest 2015
Share your most spectacular ocean and coastal photos.
What is your favorite ocean photo?
"Under the Midway Island Pier," taken by Greg McFall at Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Monument, was selected as one of the winners during a previous World Ocean Day Photo Contest.
The 2015 Photo Contest has concluded. View contest winners.
In celebration of World Ocean Day on June 8, NOAA's National Ocean Service is hosting a photo contest. From May 8-22, send us your best ocean and coastal images as we look to celebrate the beauty, mystery, and importance of the ocean. Sunsets over the water, colorful and bountiful marine life, ships delivering goods, images of underwater discovery and adventure...we want it all!
Photo Categories
Photos will be accepted from May 8-22 in the following categories:
- Coastal and Marine Places. Share your photos of beautiful sunsets or scenic shots of your favorite coastal and marine places.
- Ocean Life. Enter your best amazing marine life photos that showcase fish, birds, marine mammals, and other cool ocean creatures.
- Recreation. From boating, kayaking, and snorkeling, share with us some of your favorite coastal and marine activities.
- Working Ocean. Fishing, operating a dive center, ferrying cargo, dredging: these are just a few examples of the huge variety of activities carried out every day in our ocean and along our coasts. Enter your best photos that tell the story of our "working ocean".
How to Enter
Submit your images (minimum of 1200 pixels wide, no more than 10) to us at nos.photocontest@noaa.gov. All images MUST include the following information: photographer's name, short description of when and where the photo was taken, and what is shown in the photo.
We will highlight the winning photos on the National Ocean Service website and through social media on June 8, in honor of World Ocean Day.
Additional Contest Rules
- Photographers must be at least 13 years of age or older as of May 8, 2015.
- We will assume that, in submitting a photo, you are the owner of the photo and have the right to publish it (including permission/model release for anyone identifiably pictured).
- By submitting a photo, you are giving us permission to use the photo for other purposes, such as on our website and in other NOS publications. We will, of course, provide credit to photographers whenever we use any of the photos.
- Photos that are submitted without information on the photographer and a brief caption will not be considered.
- You are eligible to submit photos if less than 20 percent of your total income is from photography.
- No watermarks on submitted photos.
- Photos should be a minimum of 1200 pixels wide (but the bigger, the better!)
- Please limit the total number of your photo submissions to 10 entries.
- The NOS comment policy applies—so please keep it clean and on topic (the ocean) and know that photos will not be considered that fall outside of our comment policy.
