A “jaunty” sea bug captured on film by a Kailua-Kona man is the star of one of the world’s preeminent wildlife photography contests.
Winners were announced Wednesday for the National Wildlife Federation’s annual photo contest, now in its 53rd year, and the grand prize was awarded to Kona resident Bo Pardau for an underwater photograph of a cystisoma, a type of crustacean with a nearly transparent body.
Pardau, a 75-year-old retiree, is not a photographer by trade, but it is his passion, he said — underwater photography in particular. After retiring as a diver in 2012, he continued to dive and photograph marine life, occasionally selling some of his pictures.
The particular winning shot was taken on the night of March 14, about four miles off the West Hawaii coast.
“Around there, it’s about 4,000 feet deep,” Pardau said. “And we know from experience that, at night, a lot of the smaller creatures come up to feed. … So, we stay close to the boat, dive about 80 feet or so, and see what we can see.”
On March 14, what Pardau found was a strange sea bug about 2 inches long.
“It was one of the most transparent things I’d ever seen out there,” Pardau said, adding he hadn’t seen that particular species on a dive before. He also was struck by the creature’s huge, golden eye sockets, which he said reminded him of a fly.
The cystisoma, he said, was difficult to photograph because of its glassy body — “cameras focus on contrast,” Pardau explained. He ended up taking five or six photos of the creature.
One of those photos, Pardau said, was particularly striking. The cystisoma was in profile, limbs splayed as though walking upright.
Pardau said he had seen — and taken — countless dark-water photographs, but this one was so clear, and with such a bizarre subject, that he decided he had to submit it to a contest. When National Wildlife’s contest came up on social media, he decided to send it in.
“I was shocked and amazed when they said I got the grand prize,” Pardau said.
Jennifer Wehunt, editorial director of National Wildlife magazine, said Pardau’s picture was selected out of more than 29,000 entrants submitted by nearly 3,200 people from around the world.
A panel of judges, including Wehunt and other editorial staff, selected the best pictures through five rounds of judging until the results were winnowed down to just one.
“We were all just struck by it,” Pardau said. “Just the jauntiness of the thing. We try not to overly personify the subjects in wildlife photography, but it has so much personality. … It’s the otherworldliness of it, combined with that personality.”
Wehunt said the difficulty of the shot is not necessarily a factor in determining the winner — some category winners have been photos taken on cellphones, she said — but she acknowledged that Pardau’s skill in taking the picture was significant.
Pardau is the first grand prize winner from Hawaii in the history of the contest, Wehunt said, something Pardau said he was honored by.
The grand prize comes with a cash award of $5,000. Pardau said the money is “a big chunk of change,” which he said will cover another dive trip for him and his wife.
“Well, half a dive trip, anyway,” he said.
Meanwhile, National Wildlife’s 2025 contest will open on Jan. 15.
The 2024 winners can be viewed at tinyurl.com/3v92ad8j.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.