NOAA Opens 2026 Get Into Your Sanctuary Photo Contest with Four New Categories

If you have a camera and a soft spot for protected waters, NOAA has reopened the door. The 2026 Get Into Your Sanctuary Photo Contest, run by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, opens today, 22 May 2026, and stays open through Labor Day. It is the eleventh year of the contest, and this year arrives with four new categories that quietly broaden what a “sanctuary photo” can be.

The contest invites images made inside or at the edge of America’s 18 ocean and Great Lakes national marine sanctuaries, a network that stretches from the kelp forests of California to the historic shipwrecks of Lake Huron, from the cold-water coral of Stellwagen Bank to the warm reefs of the Florida Keys. The submitted work is judged against the categories below, and the winners shape both the public face of the Sanctuary System and the visual record that travels into classrooms, news coverage, and conservation advocacy across the year ahead.

Four new categories for 2026

Life in Motion asks photographers to capture wildlife as it actually behaves: feeding, hunting, schooling, raising young, and the strange and tender symbioses that play out in saltwater and freshwater alike. This is the category for the moment a humpback breaches at dawn, or a wolf eel tucks back into its den.

Sanctuaries and You brings people into the frame. Divers, paddlers, boaters, researchers, educators, and anyone whose ordinary day includes a sanctuary. The category is a reminder that protected waters are not display cases; they are places where life, work, and recreation happen.

The Water’s Edge explores the threshold. Shorelines, tidepools, coastal landscapes, and split-level images where the lens straddles the line between air and water. Photographers working in coastal Great Lakes communities and in tropical wading habitats have equal claim here.

Ripples From the Past turns the contest toward maritime heritage. Shipwrecks, aircraft, lighthouses, historic bridges, and the cultural landmarks that anchor sanctuaries in the country’s story. The category invites underwater archaeologists and history-minded photographers to join the field.

What entrants should know

The contest is open to amateur and professional photographers alike. Entries should come from inside or at the immediate edge of the National Marine Sanctuary System. Full rules, eligible locations, and submission guidance are posted on the official contest page.

For inspiration before you submit, NOAA has published a companion web feature, The Story Behind the Shot, with interviews of last year’s winners on how they made their images, why they returned to particular sites, and what they hope viewers take from the work. It is worth reading before you head out with a camera.

Why this contest matters

Photographs do a particular kind of work for conservation. Numbers tell us what is happening to ocean systems; images make us care enough to act on the numbers. The Get Into Your Sanctuary contest has, over a decade, surfaced striking images that have travelled into NOAA’s outreach, into classroom curricula, and onto the walls of visitor centres at the sanctuaries themselves. Each year’s winning photographers join an informal lineage of people who have helped translate the value of protected waters to audiences who may never visit them in person.

The contest also functions as a soft census of who is paying attention. Submissions come from research divers, weekend snorkellers, retirees, students, and indigenous photographers whose families have lived alongside these waters for generations. The wider that aperture opens, the better the picture of who America’s sanctuaries actually serve.

Submissions are open from 22 May 2026 through Labor Day. Enter at the official contest page, and tag NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries on social to share your shots in the open.