Din l-Art Ħelwa has announced the two winners of this year’s marine photographic competition, an event organised each year to promote the beautiful but fragile marine environment of the Maltese islands.

Stanley Farrugia Randon, Council Member of Din l-Art Ħelwa and organiser of the competition stated that the NGO had received a record number of 43 entries this year which were all of very high standard with applications for both the two different categories for submissions. The first category was open to examples of pollution of the sea or any other negative effects of human activity on our waters and coastal environment, while the second invited photographers to capture the beauty of underwater life on film.

The underwater pollution category was won by Mario Micallef with an eye opening photograph of a catch of plastic and undesirable debris salvaged from the sea bed, entitled ‘Better off recycled’. Andrè Reine’s photograph of a beautiful jelly fish specimen captured on film with his UFO2, ‘Unidentified Floating Object’ was winner of the second category and depicts a close up encounter with a Cotylorhiza tuberculata. Dr Farrugia Randon and Joe Chetcuti, Council members of Din l-Art Ħelwa organised this event which was made possible through the support of Dive Systems and Fototek Services Ltd. The photographs are on display at 133 Melita Street, Valletta.

Din l-Art Ħelwa continues to campaign against the negative effects which inappropriate and unsustainable fishing methods have on the fish population of our islands. Continuous dredging of the seabed and uncontrolled use of fine mesh nets continue to deplete fish stock, while illegal fishing of small, immature tuna and swordfish are depleting these important sources of healthy food. A Marine Biodiversity Photographic Exhibition, organised simultaneously by Din l-Art Ħelwa for the occasion of the International Year of Biodiversity can be viewed at its headquarters in Valletta till 25 October.