Poor Knights' snap wins top award

This close up photograph of a rare bright yellow and blue sea slug. PHOTO/RACHEL BOSCHEN.

It's a colourful creature that usually hides away underwater, but an image of the bright yellow and blue sea slug at the Poor Knights Marine Reserve quickly became an internet sensation and earned photographer and PhD student Rachel Boschen the accolades of her colleagues at NIWA.

Ms Boschen - originally from the UK but doing a joint NIWA/Victoria University scholarship PhD in deep sea ecology - has won the people's choice award in NIWA's annual photography competition for its staff.

The competition is open to NIWA's 600-plus staff and there was some stiff opposition, with plenty of outstanding photographs in five categories, with all entries going into the people's choice award on NIWA's website and Facebook page.

NIWA senior media adviser Susan Pepperell said once Ms Boschen's image of a rare and colourful sea slug from the Poor Knights Marine Reserve went up it became an internet sensation during the public voting.

The colourful nudibranch, scientific name Tambja verconis, is the sea slug Ms Boschen photographed while on a diving expedition in April this year.

She said it was the first time she had dived at the Poor Knights - after diving around the world, including the UK, Caribbean and Europe - and she was blown away by the extent of marine life in the reserve.

But she has a bit of a confession to make - the photograph didn't require any delicate focusing as it was on autofocus at a depth of 18 metres.

"When SCUBA diving you rise up and down as you breath and this was a rough day with the water moving me from side to side so autofocus was ideal, as long as you have a good light source and I have a very good strobe (light) that made things really clear," Ms Boschen said.

"I hadn't seen this type (of sea slug) before, but that was the first time I dived at the Poor Knights and we did see a few of them while we were there, but not a lot. The diving there was brilliant, and even though the conditions weren't great, it was absolutely stunning."

She said it was good to know that other people liked the image so much that it was voted people's choice award.

The competition is unique for the diversity of images entered by NIWA scientists for whom a typical day at the office can mean anything from being under water, on top of a mountain range, somewhere in the Southern Ocean or down in Antarctica.

This year entries included panoramic scenic shots, rare wildlife and unusual phenomena captured in their natural environment.

There are five categories and the winners were judged by a panel of professional photographers.

The judges commented on the extraordinary variety of work carried out by NIWA staff which offered unique photographic opportunities. NIWA is widely known for the excellence of its imagery.