“The giant clam, Tridacna gigas (known as pā’ua in Cook Islands Māori), is the largest living bivalve mollusc. T. gigas is one of the most endangered clam species. It was mentioned as early as 1825 in scientific reports. One of a number of large clam species native to the shallow coral reefs of the South Pacific and Indian oceans, they can weigh more than 200 kilograms (440 lb) measure as much as 120 cm (47 in) across, and have an average lifespan in the wild of 100 years or more”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Tridacna Gigas, or Giant Clams spew water as a traditional fisherman passes by a small sanctuary on January 23, 2004 near Bolinao in the Northern Philippines. The clams, prime builders for coral reefs and providing shelter for spawning fish and other marine life, are exposed by low tides in the sanctuary. Overfishing and pollution throughout the country are not only threatening food security, but are also starting to choke one of the few working clam sanctuaries in the world. (Photo by David Greedy/Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton waves to a selfie-taking crowd at a recent campaign event in Orlando, Florida on September 26, 2016. (Photo by Barbara Kinney/Hillary for America)

“After the death of a teenager (14-year-old Elijah Doughty), hundreds of Indigenous locals took to the streets of Kalgoorlie to vent their anger. Danella Bevis captures the grief and outrage of a family and a community. There is raw aggression in an eruption of racial tensions and violence, and in stark contrast she concludes the narrative with a moment of quiet beauty at a dusk vigil”. (Photo by Danella Bevis/The Walkley Foundation)

Icelandic horses play on a stud farm in Wehrheim Frankfurt, Germany, as the sun rises on Thursday, May 21, 2020. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A woman walks up a stairway painted in the rainbow colors in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, July 11, 2020. Romania reported 698 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the highest level since the pandemic reached the country in February. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Josef Stalin's head is left in a Budapest street after a statue to the communist dictator was torn from its plinth during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. (Photo by Robert Hofbauer/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)

A supporter of the Iranian women life freedom movement takes part in a demonstration, during the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany on February 18, 2023. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)