Overall Winner: "Still Life in Oil"

(See "Oil-Coated Gulf Birds Better Off Dead?")

Brown pelicans oiled by the 2010 Gulf spill huddle in the winning picture of the 2011 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Spanish photographer Daniel Beltrá captured the scene at a temporary bird-rescue facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. The picture "made art out of disaster," judge Mark Carwardine, a zoologist and photographer, said in a statement.



The competition, now in its 47th year, is an "international showcase for the very best nature photography," according to the website for the contest, which is run by London's Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Each year, an international jury of photographers judges tens of thousands of entries in 17 categories.

Highly Commended: "The Underwater World"

Photograph courtesy Thomas Peter Peschak, VEWPOY

Galápagos sharks swim through slivers of light coming from a research boat in a lagoon in the Mozambique Channel (see map).

German and South African photographer Thomas Peter Peschak was part of the expedition to census the population of this vulnerable shark species.

"Not having to use underwater strobes or a flash meant it was possible to convey a sense of the nocturnal scene," Peschak said in a statement.

This lagoon—the Galápagos shark's only known nursery—is one of the few places where the species is found beyond the Pacific.