LA AZOHIA, SPAIN
This Mediterranean painted comber (Serranus scriba) is almost as large as the prey it’s devouring.
This carnivorous predator belongs to the family of fish that includes groupers and sea bass. The stripes on its body help conceal its outline so it can sneak up on its prey.
The comber uses its powerful swimming muscles to quickly open its mouth, and the rapid increase in volume creates a vacuum that sucks in its prey. In this case, an unlucky green wrasse (Labrus viridis), which can reach up to 47cm in length, is slurped up with overwhelming suction.
“The green wrasse swam slowly and roughly, it was probably sick, and a few metres away I could see the [comber] hiding among the Posidonia meadow to hunt it down,” says photographer Javier Murcia.
Murcia has spent years studying animal behaviour, and this photo netted him runner-up in the behaviour category for Underwater Photographer of the Year.
See some of the other entries from the Underwater Photographer of the Year competition
Pettitt captured this photograph of a Tompot Blenney in an old rusty pipe while diving off Swanage Pier, UK. The picture came third in the category Bristish Waters Living Together 
Winner of the Wrecks category was this image of the Tyrifjord wreck in Gulen, Norway 
First place in the British Waters Macro category went to Dan Bolt with his photograph of Yarrels blennies in Loch Carron, Scotland 
Winner in the British Waters Compact category and highly commended in the My Backyard category is this split shot of a starfish in a Cornish rock pool at low tide taken by Martin Stevens 
The Wide Angle category winner went to Rafael Fernandez Caballero for this picture of whale sharks taken in the Maldives at night. He was also awarded Underwater Photographer Of The Year 2022 
Third place in the Marine Conservation category went to Vassallo for this powerful image taken off the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in the Gulf of Naples, Italy 
Winner of the Marine Conservation category and the ‘Save Our Seas Foundation’ Marine Conservation Photographer of the Year 2022 went to Thien Nguyen Ngoc for this image of anchovy fishing off the coast of Hon Yen, Phu Yen province, Vietnam. Overfishing of anchovies impacts marine predators who rely on them as a food source including whales, tuna and sea birds 
Runner up in the Macro category was this image of anemone fish embryos hours before they hatched taken by Alpert in Misool, Indonesia 
On closer look, this photograph shows a turtle tangled in discarded fishing gear in Mexico. The image came commended in the Marine Conservation category and was taken by Fernandez Caballero 
Macro category winner and My Backyard runner up for Murcia with this image of the pipefish (Syngnathus abaster) and a green prawn (Hippolyte sp.) living in seagrass meadows, Cartagena, Columbia