Michael Tropiano, The last of its kind (DOCO 2025)

In remote north west Australia, a safe haven for critically endangered sharks and rays has been discovered in one of the last pristine mangrove ecosystems on the planet. Traditional owners, scientists and government are working together in a bid to understand how these animals utilise this habitat before the encroaching threat of industrialisation. I was invited to join this research trip as a skipper and for a few moments between jobs, managed to get out my camera capture these shots of people and animals, some of which make up the last of their kind...

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.