Underwater Awards Australasia 2026 Names Kat dos Remedios' 'Dragon' Best of Show

Key facts

• Kat dos Remedios won Best of Show and the Reels Showcase category at the Underwater Awards Australasia 2026 for Dragon.
• Dragon documents weedy seadragons in Victoria's Port Phillip Bay during the 2025 breeding season.
• Toxic algal blooms devastated weedy seadragon populations elsewhere along the Great Southern Reef.
• Jake Wilton won Australian category Gold for Coastal Hunters, photographed at Ningaloo Reef.
• Jules Casey won Australian Silver for Deadly Devotion, showing a southern blue-ringed octopus carrying eggs outside her den.
• Talia Greis won Sydney category Gold for Dragon Clinger, a clingfish on a weedy seadragon with a parasite aboard.
• Maryline Renault won Conservation Silver for At the Heart of Coral Restoration at the Biorock project in Pemuteran, Indonesia.
• Sam Blount won International Waters Silver for Big Stretch, a leopard seal in Antarctica.
• Half of proceeds from finalist prints sold at the exhibition go to the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Take 3 for the Sea.
• Winning photographs will appear in the Australian Marine Conservation Society's 2028 calendar.
• The competition is in its third year and includes nine categories plus Best of Show.