Laurent Ballesta (France) goes looking for horseshoe crabs in the protected waters of Pangatalan Island, the Philippines.
Laurent used long exposure to blur the blades of grass surrounding a tri-spine horseshoe crab on an egg-laying mission.
Not built for speed, this horseshoe crab made slow progress towards a small beach. It had already crossed a coral reef and was now negotiating a lagoon enroute to its destination. Once ashore, most likely on a spring tide, under a full Moon, it will scrape holes in the sand in which it will lay thousands of eggs.
Despite its lack of pace, Laurent still struggled to keep up with the horseshoe crab while swimming through the seagrass meadow.
Marine life is safeguarded in the waters of Pangatalan Island. Elsewhere, human consumption of both horseshoe crabs and their eggs, as well as the destruction of their spawning habitats and nursery grounds, threatens this long-lived, slow-growing, endangered species.
France
Laurent has authored 13 photography books on underwater wildlife. As co-founder of Andromède Océanologie, he’s been leading major expeditions for 10 years. He illustrates the underwater world as both a naturalist and an artist, whether that be capturing the first images of a coelacanth taken by a diver at a depth of 120 metres, documenting 700 sharks off Fakarava hunting at night or photographing the deepest and longest dive in Antarctica.
Help us harness the power of photography to advance scientific knowledge, spread awareness of important issues and nurture a global love for nature.
