Honorable Mention, Portrait
David Salvatori
"Last Stop" Shot in the Magra River, Italy with Nikon D800E
David won a week-long Bahamas liveaboard adventure with Blackbeard's Cruises!
The story:
The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a quite rare parasitic lamprey found, among other seas, also in the western Mediterranean. It can grow up to 90 cm long. After several years in freshwater habitats, the larvae undergo a metamorphosis that allows young postmetamorphic lampreys to migrate to the sea or lakes and start the hematophagous feeding. Some individuals can start the hematophagous feeding in the river before migrating to the sea, where sea lampreys prey on a wide variety of fish.
The lamprey uses its suction cup-like mouth to attach itself to the skin of a fish and rasps away tissue with its sharp, probing tongue and keratinized teeth. Secretions in the lamprey's mouth prevent the victim's blood from clotting. Victims typically die from excessive blood loss or infection. After 1 year of hematophagous feeding, lampreys return to the river to spawn and die, one year and a half after the completion of metamorphosis. In this picture we can see two lampreys portrayed in a river bed very close to its exit to the Mediterranean sea, they were coming back to the river for the final acts of their life cycles.
Location: Magra River, Italy
Camera: Nikon D800E, Seacam housing, dual Seacam 150d strobes
Settings: f18, 1/80, ISO 100
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