Winning Shot of 'Haunted' Underwater Whale Graveyard Captured in Greenland

Alex Dawson of Sweden won first place in the 2022 Underwater Photo Contest Wide Angle division for his disturbing shot of an undersea whale cemetery.

Dawson as well as his friend Anna Von Boetticher managed to swim amid 20 whale corpses beneath three feet of cold waters in the harbor of Tasiilaq, Greenland, to grab the winning field goal.

Underwater Whale Graveyard in Greenland

Community group Inuit hunters gather their corpses and skin them out to their skeletal tendons in the flenseplassen, which roughly equates approximately to skinning grounds. When the tidal wave is excessive, it pulls whatever is left into the water once more, Newsweek reported.

In his statement, first placer Alex Dawson explain that normally, you need to have a submersible to view whale bone fragments like these. In Greenland, however, they are just 15 to 20 feet underneath the top layer and are essentially unspoiled.

Dawson swam below the ice for approximately one hour to acquire the photograph, alternating among both respiration controllers as his breathing stopped in their control valve. He expressed that the cold atmosphere does not really scare him anymore, which he stated following finishing the 28F deeper look.

While Flipboard noted that the sole way in was a small human-sized breach in the ice. During his interview he expound his thoughts during the dive, explaining to the audience that going down for a dive seems to be like heading down into the abyss, alone like that.

When you go down there, you see these whale skeletons. They're enormous, Dawson said. Minke whales, like shown here, may expand to be 33 feet long as well as load up to ten tons.

They are safeguarded by the Marine Mammal Protection Act; however, the IUCN considers them to be of lowest priority. Based on the most recent update from Dawson, within a demographic of 100,000, the Inuits harvest approximately 10 whales year after year, The New York Times recently updated.

Dawson's following voyage to Greenland, after an earlier mission in 2019. For Dawson, what's so fascinating about Greenland and the rucksack ice is that each occasion you enter, everything looks completely distinct since the ice changes; it's like a new dive each moment.

Also read: Scientists Alarmed Because Canadian Sturgeons Are Suddenly Dying

Winning Shot of a 'Haunted' Whale Cemetery

The biggest distinction on this sightseeing tour, he added, was the circumstance: For the initial five days of the journey, the air temperature was so extremely hot that the ice as well as snow began to melt.

Under these environmental circumstances, the surface of the ice melts, exposing a 15-inch layer of frozen freshwater well above ice sheet underlying the fresh snow.

"Researchers had to walk...it took us three hours to come again after the plunge. I'm not sure if it's environmental issues or unpredictable weather cycling...I presume we'll see within the coming couple of years."

Notable award winners also provide Boz Johnson, Salvatore Ianniello, Miguel Ramirez, and Yury Ivanov, whose photographs may be viewed here. The main honor was granted to Boz Johnson for his photograph of two flying fish shot in the Philippines, which is seen below.