During the pitch dark of night, a lifesaving rescue takes place on a Mexican beach. Under the fiery red light of a nocturnal lamp, conservation worker Isreal Oblea helps an olive ridley sea turtle move her newly laid eggs from the shoreline further up the beach.
The mother turtle is exhausted, having made the long pilgrimage to El Suspiro in Baja California, and has nested close too the water. With the rising tide comes the risk of her eggs being swept away. However, Oblea’s actions mean that the young offspring will get a chance at life.
The shot was taken by Spanish photographer Miguel Serrano Ruiz (Miguel SR) and is a part of a series recently named the winner of the “Portfolio” category at the 2026 Ocean Photographer of the Year Awards (Ocean POTY).
Miguel SR's gear and settings
- Sony A7III
- Sigma 24-70mm DG DN Art
- 1/100 / f/3.5 / ISO 3200
An independent documentary photographer and filmmaker, Miguel SR’s work focuses on social and environmental stories. He told the Ocean POTY organizers that he’d initially gone to the conservation camp in El Suspiro to document the olive ridley turtle nesting season (July-December).
But the photographer explained that living among the conservationists for a month shed light on how they “dedicated their lives” to ensure the survival of turtles included on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Like Deira Gordillo, who, along with Isreal Oblea, Miguel SR photographed burning the midnight lamp. Only Gordillo’s essential work that night was to record nesting and hatching data for Mexican environmental authorities. According to Miguel SR, Gordillo’s team patrols the beach every night from 2:30 a.m. until sunrise to observe nests.
Sometimes, however, the conservationists find that a turtle has died and are tasked with digging graves for it in the sand to prevent the spread of bacteria and disease, Miguel SR explained. A sad reality of the work, despite the paradisiacal setting.
As the “Portfolio” category winner, Miguel SR took home £1,000 (approx. 1,300 / AU$1,900), along with being featured in this year’s competition winners book. The overall Ocean POTY winner for 2026 was Julien Anton for his paternal scene of a father seahorse with his offspring.
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