Best Environmental Photos of 2010 Named

Overall Winner: "Flight of the Rays"
Photograph by Florian Schulz, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
Thousands of Munk's devil rays crowd the Sea of Cortez off Mexico's Baja California Sur state (map) in 2009. The aerial image won top honors and the "Underwater World" category in the 2010 Environmental Photographer of the Year awards.
German photographer Florian Schulz said the scope of the ray congregations was unknown until he and a pilot happened upon the gathering while searching for migrating whales.
Perhaps just as rare is the composition Schulz captured. "I was able to show how these rays are jumping out of the water," he said, "and at the same time I'm able to show—almost like an underwater photograph—how there're layers and layers and layers of rays."
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Munk's devil rays as near threatened, due in part to their vulnerability to gill nets—hard-to-see "curtains" of netting.
Given ray gatherings like the one pictured, Schulz said, "you could imagine a single net could take thousands and thousands."
This helps explain why, upon seeing the winning photo, marine ecologist Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara emailed Schulz to express his delight at seeing so many Munk's devil rays thriving in a single frame. Di Sciara helped identify the species in 1987.
Organized by the London-based Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, the Environmental Photographer of the Year contest honors amateur and professional photographers who "raise awareness of environmental and social issues." This year's edition drew more than 4,500 entries from photographers in 97 countries.
—John Roach
Published September 29, 2010
Underwater-World Finalist: "Hide and Seek"
Photograph by Kaido Haagen, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
A gray seal pokes its head through "clouds" of plant life in a winning picture by Estonian photographer Kaido Haagen.
Based in the capital city, Tallinn (map), Haagen didn't have to travel too far for the otherworldly image, which was captured about six feet (two meters) under the Baltic Sea near the Estonian island of Vilsandi (map).
(Related gallery: "Best Science Pictures Announced.")
Published September 29, 2010
Underwater-World Finalist: "Birthplace"
Photograph by Bela Nasfay, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
Laid by April each year, European common frog tadpoles cluster in clumps of eggs on the bottom of a spring-fed Hungarian mountain lake in a picture by underwater photographer Bela Nasfay.
(See some of the best underwater pictures of 2008 and 2009.)
Published September 29, 2010
Under-21 Winner: "The Fortune Teller"
Photograph by Radoslav Radoslavov Valkov, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
Like a soothsayer with a crystal ball, a fly rubs a bead of water in the backyard of Bulgarian photographer Radoslav Radoslavov Valkov, winner of the "Under 21" category of the 2010 Young Environmental Photographer of the Year award.
"At first I was astonished to know that I was even shortlisted, and later absolutely delighted to realize that I have received my first serious international artistic recognition," Valkov said in a press statement.
(See a picture of a housefly wearing microscopic glasses.)
Published September 29, 2010
Quality-of-Life Winner: "Life for Rent"
Photograph by G.M.B. Akash, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
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.
Published September 29, 2010
Innovation-in-the-Environment Winner: "Bioremediation"
Photograph by Rowan E. Bestmann, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
No, it's not another subdivision-gone-bust outside Las Vegas. 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.
(Related: "Best Fluid Motion Pictures Named.")
Published September 29, 2010
Natural-World Winner: "Fly to Eye"
Photograph by Bence Mate, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
A green pit viper eyes a hummingbird in Hungarian photographer Bence Mate's winning picture. (See more hummingbird pictures.)
Published September 29, 2010
View-of-the-Western-World Winner: "Waste Not Want Not"
Photograph by Rowan E. Bestmann, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
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. (Related pictures: "Drought Crisis Hts Australian Farms.")
Published September 29, 2010
Natural-World Finalist: "Back Wash"
Photograph by Julienne Bowser, EPOTY.org/Barcroft/Fame Pictures
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.
(See tsunami pictures.)
Published September 29, 2010