OCIAN FISH

 

The ancient mariner by Laurent Ballesta

Horseshoe crabs are truly ancient creatures. The tri-spine species, pictured here, evolved about 100 million years ago. It has endured the extinction of dinosaurs and multiple ice ages, but now, habitat destruction and overfishing are threatening its survival. Of the four species of horseshoe crabs on Earth, the tri-spine horseshoe crab is the only one marked endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

But in the protected waters off the coast of the Philippines’ Pangatalan Island, the species has some hope. French marine biologist and photographer Laurent Ballesta traveled to the site to document ocean life—and for his image of this horseshoe crab, he earned the grand prize in the contest. Ballesta, who also won the grand prize in 2021, is just the second photographer to win the contest more than once.

“To see a horseshoe crab so vibrantly alive in its natural habitat, in such a hauntingly beautiful way, was astonishing,” says Kathy Moran, chair of the judging panel, in the statement. “This photo is luminescent.”

Horseshoe crabs, as Moran notes in the statement, are critical for human health. The animals’ blue blood is used to test vaccines for bacterial contamination. But their utility is one of the reasons horseshoe crabs are hunted by humans, putting them at risk.

In this image, the creature—which is more closely related to spiders and ticks than to crabs—moves across the mud, trailed by three juvenile golden trevally fish in search of food that might be revealed by the horseshoe crab’s motion.