Alaska Marine Photography Awards 2025
- Deadline: 1 December 2025
- Website: https://nprb.org/photo-awards
The North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) Photo Awards are a competition for photographers to showcase Alaska's marine ecosystems, marine life, and human connections to the water. There are cash awards for photo stories and individual photographs in categories like Seascapes, Marine Life, and Human Connections. Youth photographers (18 and under) are also encouraged to enter for dedicated awards.
NPRB started a photo contest to draw attention to the importance of Alaska’s marine ecosystems. NPRB was especially interested in photographs depicting coastal and offshore seascapes, marine life, marine science, and how people connect with Alaska’s waters. Through photography and other media, NPRB has been able to better tell our story and impact.
Each year, professional and amateur photographers, as well as youth photographers, have been encouraged to submit their best five images of underwater sea life and marine research within the waters of the North Pacific Ocean including the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands, and Bering Strait or Chukchi/Beaufort Seas. More than 3,000 entries have been submitted to the contest, many of which were submissions from scientists in the field, coastal community members from across the state, and commercial fishermen. Awards were given to the first, second, and third place for adult and youth categories. For 2024 and beyond, NPRB has rebranded the Photography Awards to be bigger and better with more cash awards and categories to enter.
One of NPRB’s hallmark productions each year is a calendar that features photographs from the current Photo Award year. Calendars are distributed to every participant along with NPRB Board, Panels, and scientific peer reviewers. The calendars have become incredibly popular in the scientific community as they are distributed at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium and the Alaska Forum of the Environment.
Fees:
Free
Prizes:
Total cash awards valuing $2,100.
$1,000 grand prize for Photo Story Category
3 additional categories w/ $700 grand prize
2 youth awards ($300 & $100)
Eligibility:
Anyone may enter. Youth submissions must be under 18.
Copyrights & Usage Rights:
You retain all copyrights to photographs you submit–including ownership if applicable–but by entering the award submission, entrants explicitly grant to NPRB (including its affiliates and their designees) nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use each photograph and description (including the entrant’s name, city and state of residence) in any and all media now known or hereafter created, including but not limited to publication in brochures, blogs, websites, public displays and presentations. NPRB has final approval of any language that appears with the photos and will not use images to promote or endorse for-profit third-party products or services.
Legal Conditions
Each entrant is responsible for ensuring that he or she has the right to submit photographs to the award submission per these rules. Your entry to the award submission constitutes your agreement that your photographs may be made available for public use, published in NPRB materials, published or used in websites owned by NPRB and its partners, and used for promotional purposes including, but not limited to, a photo exhibit, film documentaries, education and outreach materials, and presentations, without compensation. NPRB will retain ownership of the portable media for previously mentioned publishing purposes.
By entering, participants agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless NPRB, its respective subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees, attorneys, agents and representatives, from any and all third party liability for any injuries, loss, claim, action, demand or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the competition (collectively, “Losses”), including without limitation any third party claim for copyright infringement or a violation of an individual’s right to privacy and/or publicity right. The award submission is void where prohibited by law. All federal, state and local taxes, fees and surcharges on awards are the sole responsibility of the award winner. In the event that the selected winner(s) of any prize is/are ineligible or refuses the prize, the prize will be forfeited and NPRB, in its sole discretion, may choose whether to award the prize to another winner.
NPRB is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by website users or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the photo competition, or by any technical or human error that may occur in the processing of submissions to the photo competition, including but not limited to any misprints or typographical errors. NPRB assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries. NPRB is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer equipment, servers, providers, computer on-line systems, software, or failure of email on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, including injury or damage to participant’s or to any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participating or uploading images or information in the photo award submission.