Ultra fast fashion takes everything harmful about fast fashion and speeds it up. But that only starts to describe its dark side. This exposé dives deep into TikTok #hauls, brands’ gross labour abuses, and creepy “surveillance capitalism”.
The most troubling story in fashion
Like many trends in the 2020s, the story of ultra fast fashion starts with TikTok. And it often goes something like this. A young woman poses in a bedroom, hugging a bunch of plastic bags. She raises an eyebrow, bites her lip, and then winks before the video quickly cuts to the next clip: her hands on a pair of scissors, opening the first of many packages.
Over the next 30 seconds, this video jumps between ripping bags open and modelling what’s inside—elf cosplay ears, butterfly printed socks, more plastic bags containing individually plastic-wrapped garments and accessories. It’s all set to Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”. As Swift sings “you look like my next mistake”, the TikToker empties another package on her bed, covering her mouth in excitement.
There’s no use in individually calling out this TikToker or this video, which has racked up more than 700,000 likes. It’s nowhere near the most watched video of its kind. She’s simply reenacting the fashion haul meme, which has become massively popular with young social media users. Hauls first emerged on YouTube in the 2010s. But they’ve reached new levels of notoriety in the 2020s on TikTok among Gen Z shoppers. Videos tagged with #haul on TikTok have cumulatively been viewed more than 15 billion times as of writing, and that number increases every minute.
When you scroll through fashion hauls, you see countless examples of consumption on steroids. In one typical video that’s captioned “*accidentally* spent $480 at #SHEIN”, a TikToker unpacks big boxes and lays dozens of packaged garments out in her room, covering the floor. In another video captioned “Another haullll #princesspolly”, a different TikToker shows off dresses she purchased during Princess Polly’s Black Friday sale. “You’re not going to believe me when I tell you how much I paid for these,” she says as she holds her plastic-wrapped dresses, “’cause it’s insane—it was so cheap.”
Most consumers on TikTok seem to know little about ultra fast fashion’s dark side.
Considering the plunging prices for fast fashion over the past few decades, these garments are historically cheap in terms of both quality and price. They’re the products of a relatively recent mutation of fast fashion known as “ultra fast fashion”. If that sounds ultra bad, that’s because it is.
Ultra fast fashion ranks among the most troubling stories in fashion and tech today. But with all the cheerful displays of overconsumption, most consumers on TikTok seem to know little about ultra fast fashion’s dark side—how this newish wave of brands accelerates the industry’s environmental impacts, worsens garment workers’ already dismal job conditions, and stalks shoppers all over the web to predict what you’ll want to buy next.
Ultra fast fashion v fast fashion: what’s the difference?
What is ultra fast fashion? In the simplest sense, ultra fast fashion retailers take everything bad about fast fashion and speed it up. That means faster production cycles, faster trend churn, and faster to the landfills. The clothing is ultra plastic, with at least half of these garments made from virgin plastics that will shed microfibers into waterways and the air for years to come. Consequently, the negative impacts on workers and the environment reach depressingly new lows. And it’s only getting worse.
Using Good On You’s independent ratings, I surveyed the sustainability records for five of the most popular ultra fast fashion brands—SHEIN, Fashion Nova, Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, and Cider. What I found is both distressing and unsurprising: all of these brands receive Good On You’s two lowest scores, “We Avoid” and “Not Good Enough”, for their records on key social and environmental issues.
The industry’s widespread exploitation of garment workers constitutes, in the words of Business of Fashion contributor Bandana Tewari, “modern-day colonialism”. And ultra fast fashion brands appear to be taking the industry’s deplorable record to new lows.
For their track records on labour, in particular, these brands again receive the lowest marks. We’ve found zero evidence that any of these brands pay living wages—100% of these brands fail to disclose any meaningful information about forced labour and the wellbeing of the workforce. And watchdog groups have found that the situation is dire. With SHEIN’s suppliers, for example, a late 2021 report from NGO Public Eye revealed that workers were putting in 75 hour weeks, receiving only one day off per month, and pay per item of clothing—all in gross violations of labour laws.
100% of these brands fail to disclose any meaningful information about forced labour and the wellbeing of the workforce.
“If fast fashion for the past few decades has been characterised by low prices, high volume, and relentless pace, then the new wave of ultra fast fashion brands are pushing those three criteria to their absolute extreme—and pushing millions of already impoverished garment makers to the breaking point”, says journalist Lauren Bravo, author of the essential handbook “How To Break Up With Fast Fashion”.
For many millennials, fast fashion conjures early 2000s memories of trips to the shopping centre to check out the latest styles at well-known stores like H&M, Zara, American Apparel, Forever 21, and Abercrombie & Fitch—a handful of the many multinational brands that get grouped under the fast fashion umbrella. Fast fashion ushered in an unprecedented era where trends seen on the runway could pop up on racks at your local mall in a few weeks’ time. Where once fashion revolved around a couple of seasonal collections per year, these trend-focused retailers essentially changed that to 52 “seasons”, with their collections seeming to change each time you’d stop by.
Ultra fast fashion turns fast fashion’s “weeks” into days and “dozens of styles” into hundreds and thousands. The numbers alone sound sinister. Brands like SHEIN and Boohoo are reportedly posting thousands of new styles to their websites on a daily basis. Sometimes, knockoffs of trending celebrity and pop culture styles will appear online in as little as 24 hours, as so happened with a knockoff of a vintage Thierry Mugler dress Kim Kardashian wore. It’s e-commerce that seems to happen in real time.
“We’ve reached the point where clothing is now essentially being sold as a ‘Fast Moving Consumer Good’, in the same category as snack foods, fizzy drinks, toothpaste—as something entirely disposable, to be consumed once and then thrown away,” Bravo tells me. “Except, of course, with fashion there is no ‘away’. Those synthetic clothes will be weighing down the planet for a century or more.” That’s only where the bad news begins.
The big, bad brands taking over your feed
Influencer culture is now deeply embedded into the supply chain. The leader in TikTok’s haul of shame is indisputably SHEIN. My analysis into the brands that get the most #haul views on TikTok found that SHEIN’s number into the billions, with similar brands trailing in the hundreds of millions. (Conducting similar research, a UK-based brand agency found in June 2021 that SHEIN far outshone its competitors in TikTok exposure.) Clocking in at hundreds of millions of views, brands like PrettyLittleThing and Boohoo—both owned by the UK-based Boohoo Group—are also household names on TikTok.
These brands’ popularity on social media represents the pinnacle of shopping as entertainment—with poor quality garments produced as if they were only intended to last for a TikTok moment.
People are no longer shopping for clothes—they’re shopping for content.
Lauren Bravo
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“People are no longer shopping for clothes—they’re shopping for content,” says Bravo. “It’s no coincidence that ultra fast fashion has grown alongside social media and influencer culture. Together, those industries have shifted perceptions of clothes as tactile, tangible real-world items to products that primarily just need to look good in a TikTok or Instagram photo.”
Ultra fast fashion retailers have no brick and mortar stores. They keep their operations entirely online, where their overhead costs are low and impulse purchases are instantaneous. And unlike the traditional fashion marketing mix, ultra fast fashion focuses its efforts overwhelmingly on TikTok, where they work with a vast network of teenage and early twenty-something shopping influencers. Demographically, white Gen Z women in Europe and North America produce the most viewed videos, but the brands have a global, multilingual reach.
And similar to how fast fashion grew during the cash-crunched Great Recession, ultra fast fashion brands have seen exponential growth through the pandemic, as locked down young people have been spending record amounts of time in front of digital screens—swiping through videos and quickly purchasing many of the trendy garments they see.
Disposable culture is now the norm
Hauls are one of the dominant fashion memes today. And that plays a key role in redefining our relationships with clothing. “A lot of fashion content on TikTok is haul and consumption based, which makes it seem like fashion is all about shopping, when in reality, fashion is an artform that exists outside of shopping”, says Lily Fang, the creator who runs the popular @imperfectidealist TikTok account focused on sustainable fashion.
Certainly, anyone who spends some time engaging with fashion content on TikTok could easily get a distorted sense that ultra fast fashion is the beginning and end of fashion. And that perspective seems to be shaping a generation of content creators. The target audience for sponsored “hauls”—where prominent TikTokers often receive free products and some level of compensation to post about their fashion binges—is overwhelmingly young women.
It’s hugely wasteful. We’re already seeing it with SHEIN taking over thrift stores.
Lily Fang
Ultra fast fashion’s aesthetic focus on popular celebrities only adds to the overconsumption itch. Where fast fashion has often drawn influence from high fashion’s runways, ultra fast fashion brands look to social media’s most popular figures. In 2021, SHEIN tapped Khloé Kardashian and a panel of celebrities as judges for a design competition. Kourtney Kardashian has collaborated with PrettyLittleThing for a collection. And Cardi B launched her first clothing line with Fashion Nova, even rapping in her track “She Bad” that she “could buy designer, but this Fashion Nova fit all that ass”.
“These brands push people to constantly buy—and buy in huge quantities,” Fang explains. “And since they rely on microtrends, it’s hugely wasteful because people will wear something just a couple times before getting rid of it. We’re already seeing it with SHEIN taking over thrift stores.”
A generation now views ultra fast fashion’s historically low price points and disposable culture as the norm, with many young people considering garments worn out after only a few washes. This overproduction and quick disposal has exacerbated fashion’s waste crisis. While verifiable stats about fashion’s impact are hard to track down, at least one study has suggested that for every five garments produced, three end up in landfills or incinerators.
“Ultra fast fashion’s relentless churn makes it almost impossible to consider a purchase before you commit,” Bravo says. “Instead, you take the risk and buy—because when it’s only the price of a sandwich, what do you have to lose?”
@imperfectidealist Reply to @abacus28 as you might suspect, SHEIN is not an ethical or sustainable brand #fastfashionchange #greenwashing #ethicalfashion #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Lily – sustainable fashion
‘Surveillance capitalism’—tracking your every click
Have you ever had a dress put a curse on you and follow your every move? Without giving the plot away, that’s the concept behind the film “In Fabric”, in which a haunted red dress torments an unlucky shopper. That horror comedy seems like quite an apt metaphor for the Orwellian way ultra fast fashion brands capture your data with every click, monitor your every interaction across digital channels, and creepily project pictures of your previously viewed items on almost any website you visit.
Fast fashion brands like Forever 21 and H&M are known for cringey digital marketing tactics, with a barrage of ads and emails that put pressure on you to click and buy ASAP. Ultra fast fashion brands do that, too—but with far more, and far more precise, data.
Companies like SHEIN and Boohoo have built their entire business on harnessing user data to predict what styles will sell next—and sell fast. This has led to considerable growth. SHEIN, for instance, surpassed both H&M and Zara in US sales in 2021.
This commercial success is based, in large part, on TikTok’s infamous artificial intelligence. Every time you view, like, or comment on #haul content, TikTok’s algorithms get better at serving you similar kinds of content you’ll find entertaining. Its algorithm so successfully predicts what you’ll be interested in watching that a headline in The New York Times declared “TikTok reads your mind”. “The algorithm tries to get people addicted”, Guillaume Chaslot, founder of Algo Transparency, told The Times. Chaslot said that each video users watch gives TikTok more information about them, and “in a few hours” the algorithm can detect things like musical taste, interest in drugs, whether they’re depressed, and more potentially sensitive assumptions.
Algorithmic oppression is not just a glitch in the system but, rather, is fundamental to the operating system of the web.
Safiya Umoja Noble
Many analysts believe such algorithms can cause social harm. Increasingly, organisations like the Algorithmic Justice League and scholars such as Safiya Umoja Noble highlight, in the words of Noble, how “algorithmic oppression is not just a glitch in the system but, rather, is fundamental to the operating system of the web”. Similarly, Netflix’s hit documentary “The Social Dilemma” outlined the impacts that platforms like Instagram and TikTok have to manipulate our lives and shape opinions. In 2021, for example, a leaked Facebook report showed that the company was aware that Instagram had negative influences on teenage girls’ body image.
Ultra fast fashion piggybacks on the negative side effects of these algorithmic systems—gathering data from content shared on these platforms and pairing that with the data they glean from their own customers. Many describe this system of stalking users for commercial advantage as ”surveillance capitalism”, a term coined by Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff.
By surveilling your digital life, brands gain access to a vast web of data that allows them to make increasingly more accurate predictions about what will trend next, often with frightening accuracy.
“It feels as though these brands put far more effort into developing the algorithms that stalk us, study us, and then chase us around the internet with targeted ads, than they do into designing great clothes”, Bravo tells me.
Breaking an ultra fast fashion addiction
In taking over our TikTok feeds, these brands have an extraordinary power not only to increase the pace of churning trends but also to manipulate young peoples’ mental health.
“Fast fashion addictions are often the result of an insecurity,” Fang tells me. “This could be an insecurity stemming from not having enough—pushed by the constant ads—or not fitting in. This isn’t as simple to resolve, but removing yourself from situations that make you feel like you don’t have enough or aren’t enough is a good place to start.”
Fast fashion addictions are often the result of an insecurity.
Lily Fang
Deleting the apps, unfollowing influencers who partake in the #haul culture, and unsubscribing from brands’ marketing emails are a few places Fang says you can start breaking ultra fast fashion’s microtrend obsession. “You can replace that with more supportive content and slow fashion creators who focus on styling, practical tips, etc instead of shopping,” she suggests. Recently, she’s been discovering the joys of getting clothes tailored.
Ultimately, brands are responsible for their massive exploitation of garment workers—creating massive profits for only a handful of billionaires and environmental harm to the planet. But added together, people still have significant power to hold these companies accountable as consumers and push for legislation as citizens. On the regulatory front, the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act under consideration in New York state is one promising step in this direction.
And in advocating for change, ultra fast fashion addicts will come to rethink not only the ethics of overconsumption but their own personal style.
“If people think they need to constantly shop and participate in trends to be fashionable, I’d argue that they don’t actually have a good sense of their personal style,” Fang says. “Learning to slow down actually encourages you to get more creative.” And in a world where the hustle of microtrends dominate, slowing down is, in its own way, radical.
The post What is Ultra Fast Fashion? Investigating Why It’s Ultra Bad appeared first on Good On You.
What is Ultra Fast Fashion? Investigating Why It’s Ultra Bad
Green Living
Trump Plans to ‘Wean off of FEMA’ After Hurricane Season, Saying States Can ‘Handle It’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he is planning to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “as it exists today” after the 2025 hurricane season.
Trump said he wants to make disaster response and recovery the responsibility of states rather than the federal government.
“We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said, as CNN reported. “A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor.”
Trump added that less federal aid would be provided for disaster recovery, with the funding to be distributed directly by the Oval Office.
“We’re going to give out less money… It’s going to be from the president’s office,” Trump said, as reported by The Hill. “As an example, I just gave out $71 million to a certain state. They were looking to do about $120 [million] — they were very happy with the $71 million.”
For months, Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly criticized FEMA, calling the agency unnecessary and ineffective and vowing to phase it out.
WATCH: “We want to see FEMA eliminated.”
Trump & Noem say they want to end FEMA and give storm-torn states LESS money — while Trump takes personal credit for it. (Likely helping Red states more readily)
As they take credit for the job FEMA is currently doing.
— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) June 10, 2025 at 1:34 PM
“You’ve been very clear that you want to see FEMA eliminated as it exists today, so I’m preparing all of these governors [so] that they will have more control over the decisions on how they respond to their communities so that it can happen faster,” Noem told Trump on Tuesday, as The Hill reported.
Noem and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are co-chairs of a newly established FEMA Review Council, which is expected to give recommendations on how to dramatically reduce the role of the agency and reform its mission and operations, reported CNN.
Noem said the administration was “building communication and mutual aid agreements among states to respond to each other so that they can stand on their own two feet with the federal government coming in in catastrophic circumstances with funding,” as The Hill reported.
Plans to shutter FEMA have confused state and federal emergency managers, who do not believe localized efforts would be able to replace the agency’s strong infrastructure. They said the budgets and personnel of most states would not be enough to tackle the most catastrophic disasters alone, even with a federal financial safety net.
“This is a complete misunderstanding of the role of the federal government in emergency management and disaster response and recovery, and it’s an abdication of that role when a state is overwhelmed,” a FEMA leader told CNN. “It is clear from the president’s remarks that their plan is to limp through hurricane season and then dismantle the agency.”
NOAA predicts this year’s hurricane season will be “above-normal” with as many as 19 named storms.
Following months of upheaval and layoffs, the 2025 hurricane started on June 1 with FEMA short-staffed and underprepared.
The agency has lost 10 percent or more of its staff since January, including much of its senior leadership. It is projected that FEMA will lose nearly 30 percent of its workforce before the end of this year, shrinking it from roughly 26,000 to about 18,000.
Noem recently reopened some FEMA training centers and continued contract extensions for employees who are deployed during disasters in a last-minute effort to shore up hurricane preparedness.
The Trump administration has discussed ending the practice of FEMA staff going door-to-door to assist people in applying for disaster aid, reported The Washington Post. It has also talked about the possibility of raising the damage threshold for communities to qualify for federal assistance.
“It has not worked out well,” Trump said on Tuesday of FEMA’s historic disaster response. “It’s extremely expensive. When you have a tornado or a hurricane or you have a problem of any kind in a state, that’s what you have governors for. They’re supposed to fix those problems.”
The post Trump Plans to ‘Wean off of FEMA’ After Hurricane Season, Saying States Can ‘Handle It’ appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-fema-2025-hurricane-season.html
According to a recent analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. produced a record amount of energy last year, totaling 103 quadrillion British thermal units (BTUs).
The amount of energy produced in 2024 surpassed the previous record set in 2023 by 1%. However, while U.S. energy production is up, including for solar and wind sources, several other types of renewable energy sources stalled or even declined in 2024.
According to the analysis, natural gas accounted for most of the energy production in the U.S. in 2024, making up 38% of the energy mix. Natural gas has been the country’s largest source of produced energy since 2011, EIA reported.
This was followed by crude oil, which made up 27% of the domestically produced energy mix in the U.S. last year.
Coal reached its lowest output for a year since 1964, totaling 512 million short tons and making up 10% of total energy production in the U.S.
On the renewables front, solar, wind and biofuel energies each separately set records in 2024. Solar capacity increased 25%, while wind capacity increased 8%. Biofuels reached 1.4 million barrels per day of production, an increase of 6% compared to the previous records set for biofuels in 2023.
Other renewable energy sources did not beat records, though. As EIA reported, “Output from other energy sources that are primarily used for electric power generation either peaked decades ago (hydropower and nuclear) or fell slightly from their 2023 values (geothermal).”
Earlier in 2025, EIA predicted that solar and wind capacity would continue to grow this year, with utility-scale solar capacity expected to add 32.5 gigawatts, utility-scale wind capacity to add 7.7 gigawatts and battery storage to add 18.2 gigawatts.
However, the U.S. could face challenges to expanding renewables and reducing reliance on fossil fuels as the current administration has planned to suspend permits and leases for wind energy projects and has proposed opening up National Petroleum Reserve lands in Alaska for fossil fuel extraction.
Meanwhile, renewable energy is in high demand globally. Earlier this year, China invested more money into renewable energy sources over coal from overseas for the first time, and the country has set a record for new solar and wind installations in 2023 and again in 2024. In the EU, electricity generation from solar power surpassed electricity from coal power in 2024 for the first time.
Experts have predicted that renewables will continue to grow in the U.S. and abroad, but poor policies could cause the U.S. to fall behind in the global clean energy transition, leading to $50 billion of lost exports.
The post U.S. Produced Record Amount of Energy in 2024, EIA Reports appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/us-energy-production-record-2024.html
As a testament to the exquisiteness of the ocean and the art of photography, the winners of the 2025 United Nations World Oceans Day Photo Competition were selected from thousands of submissions from around the world, inspired by this year’s theme, “Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us.”
The world’s oceans are ever-changing places of magnificent vastness and beauty. The images the winners of this year’s competition captured give us a glimpse into a liquid world of myriad colors, characters and struggles to survive in marine habitats that present many challenges, including heat waves, plastic pollution and anthropogenic pressures.
“Since its inception in 2008, United Nations World Oceans Day (UN WOD) has been celebrated on June 8 to underscore ocean’s importance to the planet and our lives. In honor of the 2025 UN WOD theme, ‘Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us,’ the United Nations is spotlighting the ocean’s essential wonder — from the wonders it consists of to the wonders it ignites — through a series of celebratory activations in Nice, France,” a press release from Oceanic Global said.
Historically, UN WOD has been hosted at the UN headquarters in New York, but moved overseas this year to take place ahead of the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC), held June 9 to 13 in Nice.
The winners of the photo competition — chosen by a panel of world-renowned judges from thousands of entries submitted by amateur and professional photographers — were announced on World Oceans Day as part of the UN WOD celebration in Nice.
This year’s judges were Ipah Uid Lynn, an underwater photographer from Malaysia; wildlife photographer Vanessa Mignon from France; William Tan, an underwater photographer from Singapore; and underwater photographer Marcello Di Francesco of Italy. Since the competition began in 2014, Ellen Cuylaerts, an underwater and wildlife photographer, has been its curator.
The 2025 photo competition featured three recurring categories: Big and Small Underwater Faces; Underwater Seascapes; and Above Water Seascapes, as well as a fourth category added to celebrate the 2025 UN World Oceans Day theme of the same name: Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us.
The four first-place winners — each from a different country — were Andrey Nosik of Russia, Dani Escayola of Spain, Leander Nardin of Austria and Rachel Moore of the United States.
The first-, second- and third-place winners from each category are featured in a virtual gallery.
The winners of the photography competition will be presented live during a conference panel on June 11. The images will also be on display throughout the week in gallery exhibitions at Nice’s NEO VogelART LAB and The Explorer’s Club in New York.
“With the two UN ocean events taking place back-to-back, the UN WOD celebration sets the stage for decision-makers at UNOC and around the world to honor the ocean’s wonder when determining its fate,” the press release said.
Here are the stunning photos by the winners of the 2025 UN World Oceans Day Photo Competition!
Category 1: Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us
First Place: Rachel Moore, United States @moore_rachel
“This photo, taken in Mo’orea, French Polynesia in 2024, captures the eye of a humpback whale named Sweet Girl, just days before her tragic death. Four days after I captured this intimate moment, she was struck and killed by a fast-moving ship. Her death serves as a heartbreaking reminder of the 20,000 whales lost to ship strikes every year. We are using her story to advocate for stronger protections, petitioning for stricter speed laws around Tahiti and Mo’orea during whale season. I hope Sweet Girl’s legacy will spark real change to protect these incredible animals and prevent further senseless loss.”
Second Place: Luis Arpa Toribio, Spain @luis.arpa.photo
“A juvenile pinnate batfish (Platax pinnatus) captured with a slow shutter speed, a snooted light, and deliberate camera panning to create a sense of motion and drama. Juvenile pinnate batfish are known for their striking black bodies outlined in vibrant orange—a coloration they lose within just a few months as they mature. I encountered this restless subject in the tropical waters of Indonesia’s Lembeh Strait. Capturing this image took patience and persistence over two dives, as these active young fish constantly dart for cover in crevices, making the shot particularly challenging.”
Third Place: Steven Lopez, United States @explorersphotography
“Shot in Cuba’s Jardines de la Reina—a protected shark sanctuary—this image captures a Caribbean reef shark weaving through a group of silky sharks near the surface. Using a slow shutter and strobes as the shark pivoted sharply, the motion blurred into a wave-like arc across its head, lit by the golden hues of sunset. The abundance and behavior of sharks here is a living symbol of what protected oceans can look like.”
Honorable Mention: Ollie Clarke, United Kingdom @ollieclarkephoto
Ollie Clarke
“Humpback whales in their thousands migrate along the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia every year on the way to and from their calving grounds. In four seasons of swimming with them on the reef here, this is the only encounter I’ve had like this one. This pair of huge adult whales repeatedly spy hopped alongside us, seeking to interact with and investigate us, leaving me completely breathless. The female in the foreground was much more confident than the male behind and would constantly make close approaches, whilst the male hung back a little, still interested but shy. After more than 10 years working with wildlife in the water, this was one of the best experiences of my life.”
Category 2: Big and Small Underwater Faces
First Place: Andrey Nosik, Russia @andreynosik
“This photo of a Japanese warbonnet (Chirolophis japonicus) was captured in the Sea of Japan, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Vladivostok, Russia. I found the ornate fish at a depth of about 30 meters (100 feet), under the stern of a shipwreck. This species does not appear to be afraid of divers—on the contrary, it seems to enjoy the attention—and it even tried to sit on the dome port of my camera.”
Second Place: Giacomo Marchione, Italy @marchione.giacomo
“On one of my many blackwater dives in Anilao, in the Philippines, my guide and I spotted something moving erratically at a depth of around 20 meters (65 feet), about 10 to 15 centimeters in size. We quickly realized that it was a rare blanket octopus (Tremoctopus sp.). As we approached, it opened up its beautiful blanket, revealing its multicolored mantle. I managed to take a few shots before it went on its way. I felt truly privileged to have captured this fascinating deep-sea cephalopod. Among its many unique characteristics, this species exhibits some of the most extreme sexual size-dimorphism in nature, with females weighing up to 40,000 times more than males.”
Third Place: Lars von Ritter Zahony, Germany @larsvonritterzahony
“Trips to the Antarctic Peninsula always yield amazing encounters with leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx). Boldly approaching me and baring his teeth, this individual was keen to point out that this part of Antarctica was his territory. This picture was shot at dusk, resulting in the rather moody atmosphere.”
Category 3: Underwater Seascapes
First Place: Dani Escayola, Spain @daniescayola
“This year, I had the incredible opportunity to visit a jellyfish lake during a liveaboard trip around southern Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Being surrounded by millions of jellyfish, which have evolved to lose their stinging ability due to the absence of predators, was one of the most breathtaking experiences I’ve ever had.”
Second Place: Gerald Rambert, Mauritius @gerald_rambert
This shot captures a school of rays resting at a cleaning station in Mauritius, where strong currents once attracted them regularly. Some rays grew accustomed to divers, allowing close encounters like this. Sadly, after the severe bleaching that the reefs here suffered last year, such gatherings have become rare, and I fear I may not witness this again at the same spot.”
Third Place: Pedro Carrillo, Spain @pedrocarrillophoto
“La Rapadura’ is a natural hidden treasure on the northern coast of Tenerife, in the Spanish territory of the Canary Islands. Only discovered in 1996, it is one of the most astonishing underwater landscapes in the world, consistently ranking among the planet’s best dive sites. These towering columns of basalt are the result of volcanic processes that occurred between 500,000 and a million years ago. The formation was created when a basaltic lava flow reached the ocean, where, upon cooling and solidifying, it contracted, creating natural structures often compared to the pipes of church organs. Located in a region where marine life has been impacted by once common illegal fishing practices, this stunning natural monument has both geological and ecological value, and scientists and underwater photographers are advocating for its protection. (Model: Yolanda Garcia).”
Honorable Mention: Lars von Ritter Zahony, Germany @larsvonritterzahony
“With only orcas as their natural predators, leopard seals are Antarctica’s most versatile hunters, preying on everything from fish and cephalopods to penguins and other seals. Gentoo penguins are a favored menu item, and leopard seals can be observed patrolling the waters around their colonies. For this shot, I used a split image to capture both worlds: the gentoo penguin colony in the background with the leopard seal on the hunt in the foreground.”
Category 4: Above Water Seascapes
First Place: Leander Nardin, Austria @akela.world
“A serene lake cradled by arid dunes, where a gentle stream breathes life into the heart of Mother Earth’s creation: Captured from an airplane, this image reveals the powerful contrasts and hidden beauty where land and ocean meet, reminding us that the ocean is the source of all life and that everything in nature is deeply connected. The location is a remote stretch of coastline near Shark Bay, Western Australia.”
Second Place: Nur Tucker, United Kingdom/Turkey @nurtuckerphotography
Nur Tucker
“Northern gannets (Morus bassanus) soar above the dramatic cliffs of Scotland’s Hermaness National Nature Reserve, their sleek white bodies and black-tipped wings slicing through the Shetland winds. These seabirds, the largest in the North Atlantic, are renowned for their striking plunge-dives, reaching speeds up to 100 kph (60 mph) as they hunt for fish beneath the waves. The cliffs of Hermaness provide ideal nesting sites, with updrafts aiding their take-offs and landings. Each spring, thousands return to this rugged coastline, forming one of the UK’s most significant gannet colonies. It was a major challenge to take photos at the edge of these cliffs at almost 200 meters (650 feet) with the winds up to 30 kph (20 mph).”
Third Place: Andrey Nosik, Russia @andreynosik
Andrey Nosik
“Paradise Harbour is one of the most beautiful places on the Antarctic Peninsula. When I visited, the sea was extremely calm, and I was lucky enough to witness a wonderfully clear reflection of the Suárez Glacier (aka Petzval Glacier) in the water. The only problem was the waves created by our speedboat, and the only way to capture the perfect reflection was to lie on the bottom of the boat while it moved towards the glacier.”
Honorable Mention: Ken Findlay, South Africa @kenfinphoto
“Ken Findlay
A South Atlantic swell breaks on the Dungeons Reef off the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, shot while photographing a big-wave surf session in October 2017. It’s the crescendoing sounds of these breaking swells that always amazes me.”
The post Meet the Winners of the 12th Annual UN World Oceans Day Photo Competition appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/un-world-ocean-day-photo-contest-2025.html
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