2011: The Wildlife Photojournalist Award - Winner
Daniel Beltrá (Spain)
The price of oil
Flying over BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010 made Daniel grasp the immensity of the problem. Relief wells, 5,300 hired vessels, two million gallons of toxic chemical dispersant and 411 controlled burns were used to try to cap the sunken wellhead and get rid of the oil. Photographing from a plane, Daniel 'was blown away by the insane colours' of oil gushing to the surface. He captured flashes of fluorescent orange as the boat propellers churned up the dispersant and left paths of clean water through the patches of black oil. The heaviest and most impressive slicks were bands of thick crude oil nudged into orange, red and burgundy curves by the waves. Surface oil like this would end up washing ashore on the Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida coastlines. How much remained below the surface is unknown. Oiled brown pelicans awaiting a second bout of cleaning were for Daniel, 'an icon of the disaster'.
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