[ad_1]
Crispin Middleton is familiar with the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve in Northland, having dived the area over 3,000 times. But he’s only seen the elusive soccer octopus twice.
“[It was a case of] the right place, the right time, the right current, “he said Stuff.
Only a handful of people around the world have ever photographed the sea creature. Over two days in November, Middleton took about 600 photos of 50 of them.
“They were very photogenic because they moved quite slowly.
Crispin Middleton / Niwa
Crispin Middleton’s photo of a soccer octopus in a salpa earned him the special prize in Niwa’s staff photo contest.
READ MORE:
* An ancient underwater forest in Lake Waikaremoana could give clues to climate change
* Niwa Contest Snappers Capture New Zealand’s Wild Beauty In These 14 Stunning Images
* Madonna of the deep, winner of marine photographer
* The best of nature from Niwa photographers.
“It was a stroke of luck”.
Middleton took some friends on his boat to look for unusual and interesting things in the marine reserve. He never expected to run into such a rare sighting.
“That day, we probably saw at least 50 [football octopus] maybe more of them.
“For a small creature it’s quite charismatic, it looks great on its own. I’m happy to find something like that. “
Crispin Middleton / Supplied
Acclaimed underwater photographer Crispin Middleton is Niwa’s marine ecologist and national diving director. Here he is diving in the Poor Knights surrounded by a school of rare Starry Toado puffer fish.
The creatures appeared to hide from the larger fish in salps, barrel-shaped invertebrates that resemble jellyfish and don’t have many predators.
The crew returned the next day to spend time with the creatures, which are generally found in temperate and deeper waters, but have not seen a similar sight since.
“[We’ll] Please try to watch again in November, but I think we’ll be lucky to see it again. “
The image earned Middleton the special prize in Niwa’s annual staff photography contest, which attracted 6,000 entries.
Crispin Middleton / Niwa
Crispin Middleton also came in an image of a kōura resting on a fallen nikau palm leaf.
It has also earned him a finalist position in the New Zealand Geographical Photographer of the Year competition.
Niwa’s competition was judged by Stuff visual journalist Ross Giblin and Gerry le Roux of Science Lens.
Giblin, who has been a judge for the competition for years and has been a photographer his entire life, said Middleton’s photo met all the requirements for the category. “This photo has it all, a great shot with humor, uniqueness and brilliantly done.”
Picking a winning shot is never easy, especially when all the contestants are of such high caliber.
“It is always a pleasure to judge them because things are so good and [are of] things you’ve never seen before in your life.
“When you get some that have similarities … it gets a bit tricky [to choose]. “
Middleton got his first underwater camera about 15 years ago and has been looking for exciting and interesting things ever since. He is passionate about marine reserves and believes that there should be more protected areas like the Poor Knights.
“There are many unknowns out there, if you look hard enough you can usually find something rare and unusual in the marine environment.
“I’m definitely a bit of a geek when it comes to this kind of thing. I get very excited ”.
Other finalists in this year’s competition included reflections on Dafei Wu’s Lake Matheson and a photo of Shannon Crow’s Mount Taranaki.
Niwa Marine Ecology Technician Richie Hughes received a People’s Choice Award for his image of a cave within the Poor Knights Marine Reserve.
Giblin said the images selected as finalists were world standard.
“For me, a good wildlife photo is capturing something in a unique way, trying to show something with unusual behavior.”
Here are some finalists from this year’s competition.
Rob Murdoch / Niwa
Southern royal albatross hunt on Campbell Island photographed by Niwa’s Director General for Research, Dr. Rob Murdoch.
Louise Olsen / Niwa
This photo of Niwa’s marine ecology technician Louise Olsen was among this year’s submissions.
Elliot Bowie / Niwa
Niwa Environmental Monitoring Technician Elliot Bowie took this photo of heat in the dead of winter at Tewaeawae Lagoon.
Darren Stevens / Niwa
A pelagic octopus (Amphitretis) photographed by Niwa fisheries scientist Darren Stevens.
Shannan Raven / Niwa
Niwa’s Dr. Shannan Crow, a freshwater fish ecologist, sent a photo of Mount Taranaki.
Dafei Wu / Niwa
Reflections of the forested shores of Lake Matheson by HPC and cloud systems engineer Dafei Wu.
