Pictured Overall winner Creation Category: Underwater Laurent Ballesta (France) peers into the depths as a trio of camouflage groupers exit their milky cloud of eggs and sperm. For five years, Laurent and his team returned to this lagoon in Fakarava, French Polynesia, diving day and night to watch the annual spawning of camouflage groupers. Spawning happens around the full moon in July, when up to 20,000 fish gather in a narrow channel linking the lagoon with the ocean. Overfishing threatens this species, but, here, they are protected within a biosphere reserve.
© Laurent Ballesta