The Stunning Winners of the 2026 Mangrove Photography Awards Highlight a Fragile World

Mangrove forests might only cover a tiny fraction of the Earth’s surface, but they’re among the planet’s most important ecosystems. They protect coastlines, store huge amounts of carbon, and provide vital habitats for wildlife. The winners of the 2026 Mangrove Photography Awards showcase both the beauty of these unique environments and the growing threats they face through a collection of striking, thought-provoking images.

Now in its 12th year, the competition attracted 5,258 entries from photographers across 87 countries. This year’s overall winner, Tangled Glow: When Life Meets the Ruins by Indian photographer Gaurav Patil, uses ultraviolet light to reveal a discarded ghost net caught in a mangrove forest, turning an often-overlooked pollution problem into an unforgettable photograph. Alongside the overall winner, photographers were recognised across categories celebrating wildlife, landscapes, underwater life, conservation, and the people who depend on these remarkable coastal forests.

Mangrove Photographer of the Year 2026 – overall winner

Tangled glow: When life meets the ruins, Gaurav Patil, India

A ghost net glowing under ultraviolet light, tangled in a mangrove on the tide-swept shore of Nandgaon village, Maharashtra, south of Mumbai, has won this year’s Mangrove Photography Awards. Captured on a 13-second UV exposure, the image reveals a quieter conservation crisis: discarded fishing nets carried in by currents and trapped in mangroves, turning these vital coastal barriers into hidden garbage hotspots.

While ghost gear’s impact on open-water marine life is increasingly documented, its accumulation in mangrove ecosystems on India’s coast has received far less attention. Mangroves sit at the interface between land and sea, meaning they can end up receiving waste from both directions.

“I came across this particular mangrove patch where discarded fishing nets were getting trapped during high tide. These nets, after getting discarded or lost from the fishing vessels, meet the oceanic currents which bring them to the coast. I have been watching ghost nets getting trapped in mangroves for the last several years, and I wanted to document it in an artistic manner to grab the attention of the viewers,” said photographer Gaurav Patil.

Wildlife: Birds – Winner

March of the Flamingos, Mark Ian Cook, United States

A small group of American Flamingos peer at a juvenile Lemon Shark while searching for suitable foraging habitat in the mangrove-lined shallow backwaters of Florida Bay, Florida.

Wildlife: Mammals – Winner

Where the Mangroves Begin, Kallol Mukherjee, India

Two jungle cat kittens emerge from the dense mangrove forest in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve. A rare glimpse of the smaller, lesser-known wildlife that shares this tidal landscape with the reserve’s tigers, and survives its shifting mud, saline water, and daily tidal flooding.  

Wildlife: Other Species – Winner

Seeking Refuge in the Mangroves, Evan Cooper,  Bahamas

A juvenile green turtle is seen seeking refuge in a mangrove forest, where it is protected. 

A juvenile green turtle in a shallow Bahamian mangrove forest near sunset during high tide. As the water levels rise and the tide comes in, the mangroves’ roots transform from a barren buffer to a flourishing ecosystem home to sea turtles, crustaceans, fish, and much more. This turtle likely just recruited here from the Sargassum Sea, based on its size. The mangrove forest provides shelter for little green turtles like this one from tiger sharks and other predators.

 Landscape: Black & White – Winner

Footprint of the Earth, Abijith Soman, India

An island shaped like a footprint emerges from Kerala’s backwaters, its mangroves tracing the toes and sole of the print. Many of these islands were once mangrove forest before being cleared for coconut plantations — on some, the mangroves are now reclaiming that ground. A quiet mark of where nature stepped away, and where it’s stepping back in.  

Landscape: From the Air – Winner

MangueBeat, Lucas Gonçalves Garcias, Brazil

Aerial view of the Tejipió River in Recife, dividing shrimp ponds maintained by residents of Ilha de Deus — many of whom depend on the ecosystem’s health for their livelihood — from a stretch of mangrove forest partly filled in for a Navy zone. The varied colours of the ponds trace different stages and depths of shrimp farming. 

Landscape: On the Ground – Winner

Beneath Ancient Light, Ryuhei Suguri, Indonesia 

Under the Milky Way, a solitary mangrove stands in shallow tidal water, its reflection still in the low tide — a quiet pairing of ancient starlight with one of Earth’s most vital coastal ecosystems.

Underwater: Winner

Feeding grounds under the canopy, Ewan Tregarot, Netherlands Antilles

Grey snappers hunt through a school of baitfish beneath the mangrove canopy of Lac Bay, Bonaire — captured during a fish monitoring survey, as shafts of midday light revealed predator-prey interactions usually hidden in these submerged forests. A reminder that Bonaire’s celebrated reefs depend on the mangroves that shelter and feed them. 

Threats: Winner

Red mangrove harvest, Zafer Kizilkaya, Bangladesh

Illegal red mangrove harvesting in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to around 125 Bengal tigers. Weak enforcement lets the trade continue, feeding a local charcoal industry, driving deforestation, and fueling the region’s high rate of human-tiger conflict among wood collectors. 

People: Livelihoods – Winner

String of Crabs, Roosevelt Cassio, Brazil

A fisherman shows off the day’s catch — a batch of crabs known locally as a “corda,” sold for around R$20 in Brazil. 

People: Conservation and Restoration – Winner

Seeds of hope from a coastal village, Garry Lotulung, Indonesia

Pasijah, 56, plants mangrove seedlings beside her flooded home in Bedono, Demak, Central Java — one of the last residents remaining after more than 200 families left as rising seas and land subsidence submerged the village. She’s planted mangroves since 2000, watching her family’s rice fields turn to ponds and then disappear. In 2021, she and her son planted 15,000 seedlings in a single day; by morning, the waves had washed them all away.   

Portfolio Stories: Winner

Pillars in the Sea, Nicolò Brugnara, India

Mumbai’s new €1.4 billion coastal road — built primarily for private cars — has become one of India’s most emblematic clashes between development and climate. It threatens 75% of the mangrove forest at Manori Creek and displaces the Koli, Mumbai’s indigenous coastal community, in a city where most people still rely on public transport. A decade of restoration between 2012 and 2022 failed at 52% of sites, despite over $5 million invested — and those documenting the destruction now face threats for doing so. 

Young Mangrove Photographer of the Year: Winner

Adaptation, Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn, Thailand

In mangrove forests where warm-blooded prey is scarce, some mosquitoes have adapted to feed on cold-blooded mudskippers instead — captured here after the photographer set out to discover what was sustaining the forest’s large mosquito population. 

All of the winners and runners-up can be viewed on the website.

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