Sardine snappers - Thomas Peter Peschak - Wildlife Photographer of the Year2008

2008: Underwater Worlds - Specially Commended

Thomas Peter Peschak Enlarge image Sardine snappers

Thomas Peter Peschak (Germany/South Africa)

Sardine snappers

'To take this picture, I had to melt into the baitball. I found myself surrounded by sardines desperate to hide from their attackers. The dolphins were catching fish just centimetres from my mask and camera, yet they never once bumped into me.' Each June and July, long-beaked common dolphins move into a tongue of cold water that licks South Africa's east coast, lured by the migrating sardines. The dolphins hunt together and carve off baitballs from the huge sardine slick. Some swim circles around the fish to herd them upwards, while others rush in to feed. The area becomes a bubbling cauldron, with bronze whaler sharks hunting alongside the hundreds of dolphins.

Nikon D2x + 10.5mm f8 lens; 1/250 sec at f8; ISO 100; Subal housing; two Inon strobes.