Villagers from the Porto Novo community load into their canoes arapaima or pirarucu, the largest freshwater fish species in South America and one of the largest in the world, while fishing in Poco Fundo lake along a branch of the Solimoes river, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon, in the Mamiraua nature reserve near Fonte Boa about 600 km (373 miles) west of Manaus, November 26, 2013. Catching the arapaima, a fish that is sought after for its meat and is considered by biologists to be a living fossil, is only allowed once a year by Brazil's environmental protection agency. The minimum size allowed for a fisherman to keep an arapaima is 1.5 meters (4.9 feet). (Photo by Bruno Kelly/Reuters)

Looking for love by Tony Wu, USA. Highly commended, Animal Portraits. “Accentuating his mature appearance with pastel colours, protruding lips and an outstanding pink forehead, this Asian sheepshead wrasse sets out to impress females and see off rivals, which he will head-butt and bite, near Japan’s remote Sado Island. Individuals start out as females, and when they reach a certain age and size – up to a metre (more than 3 feet) long – can transform into males. Long-lived and slow-growing, the species is intrinsically vulnerable to overfishing”. (Photo by Tony Wu/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A health worker shows an empty syringe after inoculating a woman with AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine during the first day of a nationwide three-day vaccination drive at a school in Quezon city, Philippines on Monday, November 29, 2021. There has been no reported infection so far caused by the new variant in the Philippines, a Southeast Asian pandemic hotspot where COVID-19 cases have considerably dropped to below 1,000 each day in recent days, but the emergence of the Omicron variant has set off a new alarm. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

Pangolins in Crisis: Brent Stirton, South Africa; 1st place, Natural world and wildlife. “Pangolins are the world’s most illegally trafficked mammals, with an estimated one million trafficked to Asia in the last 10 years. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and their meat is sold as a high-priced delicacy. As a result, pangolins are listed as critically endangered and anyone who trades or consumes them is breaking the law. This body of work exposes the trade, while exploring aspects of illegality and celebrating the people who are trying to save these animals”. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Sony World Photography Awards 2020)

This picture taken on November 9, 2014 shows sharks for sale as a man removes the fins at a traditional market in Tanjung Luar in Lombok, West Nusa Teggara. Hundreds of sharks are hauled ashore every day at a busy market on the central Indonesian island of Lombok, the hub of a booming trade that provides a livelihood for local fishermen but is increasingly alarming environmentalists. The fins are sold to other Asian nations, including Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where shark-fin soup is considered a delicacy. (Photo by Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP Photo)

Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings (Lepidochelys olivacea) sit in baskets and trays at the turtle camp La Gloria, before their release into the ocean in Tomatlan November 15, 2013. Twenty years ago, Mexico's government implemented ecological plans to protect the sea turtles from being hunted for their leather and meat and established conservation areas and a pay system for local residents to protect turtle nests. Millions of baby turtles hatch on the shores in November and December, according to an environmental group. It is estimated that in 2012, there were 20 million newborns. Hatching season is still underway, but officials say they expect there will be even more turtles born this year. (Photo by Alejandro Acosta/Reuters)

A visitor walks underneath a replica of a Titanosaur at the Cretaceous park in Cal Orcko, on the outskirts of Sucre, Bolivia, July 22, 2016. A footprint measuring over a meter wide that was made by a meat-eating predator some 80 million years ago has been discovered in Bolivia, one of the largest of its kind ever found. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)