From a crocodile's toothy grin to a pouting fish the size of pea, some of the world's best underwater pictures have been revealed in a top competition.

More than 1,200 pictures were entered for the 2021 underwaterphotography.com contest across 10 categories, from Macro Photography to Sharks.

The winner of the gold medal in the Over/Under category is this smiling crocodile in Cuba by Italian Massimo Giorgetta, taken in Garden of the Queen, a protected area on an archipelago on the south of the island.

Fellow Italian Raffaele Livornese won the Wide Angle/Marine Life category with this beautifully composed shot of two sea lions playing whilst hunting on a school of sardines in La Paz, Mexico.

This tiny juvenile pouting trunkfish was only the size of a pea but snapper Leslie Howell from the US bagged a bronze in the Macro-Swimming category.

She said, "This juvenile trunkfish was about the size of a pea. It was pretty active, darting in and out of the coral head, but it finally settled down enough for me to get this shot head on."

No underwater photo competition would be complete without a good shark and a Great Hammerhead at Tiger Bay, Bahamas by German Reinhard Arndt was enough to bag him a gold medal.

But there was still beauty to be had in the tiny as these delicate white tufted worms billowing in the current got a bronze in the macro not swimming category for Czech Republic snapper Michal Štros.

Website owner Tal Mor, who runs the competition, said, "It has been a difficult couple of years for dive and travel, yet the competition has still received a total of 1,283 entries.

"This photography contest is the longest running and one of the most prestigious online. A panel of judges select the best images entered in an online photo contest from the previous year.

"Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for the top three from each category in order of merit.

"Many other internationally acclaimed photographers have launched their photo careers here over the years.

"The judges comprise of industry professionals. They are unpaid, non-affiliated, and, of course, cannot enter themselves."

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