The Wildlife Photographer of the Year prize was awarded this year to a Frenchman, the Montpellier photographer and marine biologist Laurent Ballesta.

It is the

Creation

photo

,

taken in French Polynesia, which earned him this distinction, created in 1964, carried by the Natural History Museum in London and BBC Wildlife.

This astonishing picture shows the groupers laying eggs off French Polynesia, when the female releases a cloud of eggs towards which the males rush in the hope of fertilizing them. According to the Montpellier photographer, it took five consecutive years of efforts to immortalize this moment: 3,000 hours to do and tirelessly repeat the same dive with his faithful comrades of his team in Gombessa, 85,000 photos triggered, to retain only one. only one.

“This cloud of eggs, with an uncertain fate, has the shape of a question mark, confided during the ceremony, very moved, Laurent Ballesta, who was one of the traveling companions of Nicolas Hulot, in

Ushuaia Nature

.

I see it as a symbol, that of the uncertainties that weigh on the future of global biodiversity, even in places as unspoiled as the Fakarava Reserve in French Polynesia.

"

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  • Polynesia

  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • Photo

  • Planet

  • Price

  • Montpellier

  • French Polynesia