Crabeater seals swim around an iceberg Photograph: Greg Lecoeur/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2020

All the winning images, all the backstories and all the judges’ comments can be found in the The Underwater Photographer of the Year Yearbook

• Marine conservation category winner: Last Dawn, Last Breath by Pasquale Vassallo (Italy) in Tyrrhenian Sea, Bacoli, Naples, Italy

  As the fishermen quickly hauled on the nets, I tried to take some shots of trapped fish still suffering in the mesh, such as this tuna ( Euthynnus alletteratus)

  Photograph: Pasquale Vassallo/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

 

• Marine conservation category runner-up: Double Trouble with a Glimmer of Hope by David Alpert (UK) in a Hong Kong dry food market and in Misool, Raja Ampat

  A blacktip reef shark in Misool, a former shark finning station, overlaid on an image of shark fins in Hong Kong

  Photograph: David Alpert/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• Underwater photographer of the year 2020 and wide angle category winner: Frozen Mobile Home by Greg Lecoeur (France) in the Antarctic peninsula, Antarctica

  Crabeater seals swim around an iceberg. These massive and mysterious habitats are dynamic kingdoms that support marine life. As they swing and rotate slowly through polar currents, icebergs fertilise the oceans by carrying nutrients from land that spark blooms of phytoplankton, fundamental to the carbon cycle

  Photograph: Greg Lecoeur/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

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• Wide angle category runner-up: Fotteyo Overhangs by Oleg Gaponyuk ( Russian Federation) in the Maldives

  Fotteyo overhangs in the southern Maldives has golden bunches of soft corals that you can see in this picture

  Photograph: Oleg Gaponyuk/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

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• British underwater photographer of the year 2020 and wide angle category highly commended: Rabbit Fish Zoom Blur by Nicholas More (UK) in Raja Ampat, Indonesia

  A school of friendly rabbitfish under a jetty

  Photograph: Nicholas More/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

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• Macro category winner: Goby Goodness by Hannes Klostermann (Germany) in Little Cayman, Cayman Islands

  A goby among coral

  Photograph: Hannes Klostermann/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

• Macro category runner-up: Eyes by Keigo Kawamura (Japan) taken at Izu Oceanic Park in Japan

  The unicorn shrimp usually lives about 200 to 300 metres deep, but they rise to about 40 metres due to breeding behaviour

  Photograph: Keigo Kawamura/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

• Macro category 3rd: Favorinus Pigging Out by Jack Israel (USA) in Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia

  Three favorinus (sea slugs) feeding on egg ribbons

  Photograph: Jack Israel/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

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• Behaviour category winner: Octopus Training by Pasquale Vassallo (Italy) in Tyrrhenian Sea, Bacoli, Naples, Italy

  An octopus holding a football and being pulled along by the current

  Photograph: Pasquale Vassallo/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• Behaviour category runner-up: Say Me by Paolo Isgro (Italy) in Ha‘apai, Tonga

  A young whale exhaling

  Photograph: Paolo Isgro/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• Behaviour category 3rd: The Birth by Filippo Borghi (Italy) in the Mediterranean sea, Italy

  A Mediterranean catshark hatching from its egg

  Photograph: Filippo Borghi/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• Portrait category runner-up: Angry Seahorse by Rooman Luc (Belgium) in Eastern Scheldt, Netherlands

  Photograph: Rooman Luc/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

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• Black-and-white category winner: Layered Thoughts by Mok Wai Hoe (Singapore) in Komodo National Park, Indonesia

  Photograph: Mok Wai Hoe/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• Black-and-white category runner-up: Constellation of Eagle Rays by Henley Spiers (UK) in Como Cocoa, South Malé Atoll, Maldives

  A school of spotted eagle rays

  Photograph: Henley Spiers/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• Compact category winner: Uluna Lily by Man BD (Malaysia) in Uluna Lake, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

  Uluna Lake in North Sulawesi, located 670 metres above sea level, is famous for its water lilies, which only bloom in the morning

  Photograph: Man BD/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• Compact category runner-up: Squid in Disco Fever by Enrico Somogyi (Germany) in Anilao, Philippines

  A reef squid at night

  Photograph: Enrico Somogyi/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

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• Up-and-coming underwater photographer of the year 2020 and up-and-coming category winner: Shark Nursery by Anita Kainrath (Austria) in Eleuthera, Bahamas

  The Bahamas have been a shark sanctuary since 2011 but mangroves aren’t protected yet and that’s where these lemon shark pups spend the first five to eight years of their lives

  Photograph: Anita Kainrath/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• Most promising British underwater photographer 2020 and up-and-coming category runner-up: Commotion in the Ocean by Nur Tucker (UK) in Dumaguete, Philippines

  A thorny sea horse, merged with an image of a shiny scouring pad

  Photograph: Nur Tucker/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

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• British waters wide angle category winner: Jewel Reef by Arthur Kingdon (UK) in Isles of Scilly, Cornwall

  Photograph: Arthur Kingdon/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• British waters wide angle category runner-up: Big Mouth, Small Prey by Will Clark (UK) near Isle of Coll, Scotland

  Basking sharks offer no threat to humans – their food is mostly animal plankton funnelled through their enormous mouths and strained through specialised gill structures

  Photograph: Will Clark/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• British waters wide angle category 3rd: Fireworks Anemone Sunburst by Trevor Rees (UK) in Loch Duich, Scotland

  This fireworks anemone ( Pachycerianthus multiplicatus) was photographed at the head of Loch Duich at a depth of 15 meters in dark and peat-stained water

  Photograph: Trevor Rees/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• British waters macro category winner: Like Water for Silk by Laura Storm (UK) in an urban wildlife pond, Surrey

  A common frog. This froglet is less than 1cm long and is so light it can balance on single strands of Spirogyra algae

  Photograph: Laura Storm/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• British waters macro category 3rd: Elegant Elegans by Dan Bolt (UK) in Beacon Cove, south Devon

  This gorgeous nudibranch ( Okenia elegans) is considered to be a rare species in the UK, but can be quite common around Torbay

  Photograph: Dan Bolt/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• British waters compact category winner: Smile by Colin Garrett (UK) near Portland Harbour, Dorset

  A lone male bottlenose dolphin

  Photograph: Colin Garrett/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

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• British waters compact category runner-up: Fluo Fireworks Anemone by James Lynott (UK) at Loch Fyne, Scotland

  There were dozens of fireworks anemones at this site, all with varying patterns on their tentacles, which translate to different fluorescence patterns when viewed under blue light

  Photograph: James Lynott/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• British waters living together category winner: Pier Nursery by Dan Bolt (UK) at Paignton pier, south Devon

  The legs of Paignton pier are home to many sponges, anemones and molluscs, while in the summer months hundreds of juvenile fish use the structure as shelter from larger predators

  Photograph: Dan Bolt/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• British waters living together category runner-up: Cone Home by Kirsty Andrews (UK) in Loch Fyne, Inveraray, Scotland

  A common lobster ( Homarus gammarus) using a traffic cone as a handy vantage point to overlook the seabed as well as a shelter on an otherwise relatively flat surface

  Photograph: Kirsty Andrews/Underwater photographer of the year 2020

   

• British waters living together category 3rd: Lucky Escape by Shannon Moran (UK) near Falmouth, Cornwall

  This particular spider crab had a lucky escape from the strings of lobster pots off Falmouth

  Photograph: Shannon Moran/Underwater photographer of the year 2020