Stunning photos celebrate wonders of marine environment
A finalist and category prize winner in the Love Your Coast 2020 photo competition, this image by Gary McCall is entitled 'Enda Curran Surfing' and was taken at the coast by Mullaghmore, Co Sligo. All of the entries are featured in a celebratory gallery.
The stunning images captured by the finalists in this year's Love Your Coast Competition only serve to remind us of the awe-inspiring natural beauty surrounding this island nation.
A gallery of these amazing images are hosted here by the Irish Examiner:
This unique photography competition has been an integral part of the Clean Coasts programme for over a decade. This is the 11th year that Clean Coasts, an initiative driven by An Taisce, has invited people to use photography to throw a creative spotlight upon efforts to protect marine life.
Being Ireland’s foremost community-based coastal programme, Clean Coasts counts on the work of over 1,200 volunteer groups nationwide, engaging 24,000 volunteers to help protect our coastline, waterways, seas, ocean, and marine life.
This year, even with the country in lockdown and facing challenging circumstances our fabulous volunteers and groups have been eager to engage with us and support the fight against marine pollution.
Connecting with its vast teams of volunteers, the mission of Clean Coasts is to foster pride in Ireland's coastline and waterways. That passion is clearly evident in the entries for this year's Love Your Coast competition.
Due to Covid restrictions, this year's virtual awards night was hosted on Facebook Live. The night centred on the unveiling of the winning photographers across the four categories of the Love Your Coast competition.
The competition had a prize fund of €5,000 for the amateur photographers competing in the four categories: Coastal Heritage, Coastal Landscape, People & the Coast and Wildlife & the Coast.
This year, Clean Coasts received more than 1,000 entries and the 40 best shots were shortlisted for an online gallery.
The winning images showcased the stunning coastlines of Mayo, Wexford, Donegal, Galway and Sligo.
Ivan Donoghue, with his two winning images – Diver with Jellyfish and Diver in Cave - was the overall winner for 2020 Love Your photography competition.
The gallery of Love Your Coast winning photographs can also be found on cleancoasts.org, along with information on how you can volunteer to help protect marine life.Â
