r/BeAmazed • u/IM2X_ • 2d ago
Animal A photographer captured this rare moment of a critically endangered sawfish swimming alongside a sea turtle in Western Australia.
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u/IM2X_ 2d ago
This was taken by Matt Deakin using a drone off the coast of Western Australia.
His drone was 2.5 km away and running low on battery when this critically endangered green sawfish appeared among a group of sea turtles. Most swam away, but one stayed long enough for him to capture this shot.
The photo, called "Ethereal Encounter," won the 2026 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year award.
Source: https://whatson.samuseum.sa.gov.au/news/ethereal-encounter-named-nature-photograph-of-the-year
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u/morningisbad 2d ago
How big is this thing? I've seen 3 foot turtles and 3 inch turtles... I have absolutely zero point of reference here lol
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u/SheilaCreates 2d ago
Looks like a green sea turtle, guessing juvenile, maybe 2-foot shell? Adults get to be about 5 feet, IIRC.
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u/thisFishSmellsAboutD 1d ago
That's a Hawksbill turtle, they can grow to 90cm length and nearly 70kg weight.
The giveaway is the radiating pattern of the shell, they have 4 pairs of costal scales (the sides of the carapace between Center and edge scales). The picture is too low res to see their 2 pairs of prefrontal scales (distinguishing them from the two other main players in WA, Greens and Flatbacks with one pair). (Source: Google marine turtle field guide, also worked with those fuckers)
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u/souji5okita 2d ago
They're just allowed to fly their drone out of eyesight in Australia?
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u/Admiral_Mason 2d ago
As someone from WA, this state is empty. As long as you aren't being a dickhead to other people, noone will care or snitch on you about really anything.
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u/souji5okita 2d ago
We have Remote ID in the US so the FAA can and will fine you if they really want to. Does it happen to everyone not following the rules? No but as a certified pilot myself I will follow those rules. Someone flying their drone 2.5 km away on a low battery does not sound like someone who should be flying a drone at all.
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u/UrbanSuburbaKnight 2d ago
And maybe with an inflexible mind and lack of perspective, you would never come home with an Award Winning photograph.
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u/StarrFusion 2d ago
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u/tlrmx 2d ago
The picture says juvenile in the html, it also might not even be the right species. I googled and it says green sawfish (Pristis zijsron) can get up to 24 ft/7.3 meters
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u/pleasurelovingpigs 2d ago
Yeah that's definitely a baby, I've seen displays of their shnoz bones that were twice the size of this fella
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u/wherethestreet 2d ago
Did he go pick up the drone when it ran out of battery? I’d like to hope so, but I don’t want to support this shot until then.
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u/andy3172 2d ago
... Damn, maybe I am smarter than the average person after all
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u/Pleasant_Inspection9 2d ago edited 1d ago
user named ‘wherethestreet’ too.
You’re on it, sir, walking down it.
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u/Vindictive-Vagabond 2d ago
Fun fact: Most people have at least heard of sawfish and know they exist but very few people know that sawsharks also exist!
There are also actually multiple species of sawfish and sawsharks all of which are either endangered or so understudied that we aren't sure of their population #'s 💯
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u/xdaberry 2d ago
My month is ruined, I love sawfish and was obsessed with them as a kid. I had no Idea they were so close to extinction. I googled it after this and saw that there are only an estimated 5000 left in the world, the most endangered of all sharks and rays. Devastating, another reason to hate industrial fishing.
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u/OkWillingness2817 2d ago
We’re in the late stages of one of the biggest mass extinction events in the history of the world.
Almost everything is heading for extinction.
And we’re approaching some tipping points in climate change where it’ll suddenly go very fast, especially for sea life.
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u/Current_Finding_4066 1d ago
We are not in late stages, it is still going slow. We are just warming up.
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u/OkWillingness2817 1d ago
The overwhelming majority of all life that should be alive right now if not for human activity is already gone.
The current extinction rate is a hundred times faster than the natural background extinction rate.
In terms of biomass we’re living in a graveyard. We’re surrounded by the last dregs of life.
In terms of species it varies per group but all of them, insects, mammals, amphibians etc. are looking at double digit percentages for species facing extinction and those numbers are growing.
It’s a bit late to call it slow. The Holocene mass extinction event had its slow start 20,000 years ago.
It pretty much went turbo when the Industrial Revolution started.
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u/Current_Finding_4066 1d ago
None of this justifies calling it late stage. I think we are getting there, but are not there yet.
Also, it might be slow to what might unfold in the next several decades, when shit really hits the fan. And you can also compared it the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs, that one was even faster.
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u/OkWillingness2817 1d ago
When most of something is already gone, it’s hard to argue you’re not nearing the end.
“There was one that was even faster” is the opposite of an argument. That’s just supporting my point.
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u/kiwipoo2 2d ago
"late stages" is very optimistic
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u/OkWillingness2817 2d ago
Wachten op Josee voor antwoord Symposium
I think you misunderstand. The Holocene mass extinction event has been going for the last 20 or 30.000 years. It began with human tool use.
And it’s not over yet. So we’re in the late stages.
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u/AuDHDino 1d ago
I remember seeing one in the six flags aquarium nearest me as a kid, and was OBSESSED with how cool they were.
Really sad stuff
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u/Generic_Danny 2d ago
Genuinely looks like watercolour
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u/UseYourWords 2d ago
As a photographer myself, I believe it looks that way because the raw image containing the frame we see here was probably low resolution and/or noisy, and there is a lot of AI noise reduction/enhancement.
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u/rips_n_chel 2d ago
Or it was an entirely intentional stylistic choice. You have no idea.
AI is destroying brain cells at an alarming rate, not just in the users, but in the delusional AI accusers. You have no evidence of what you're saying here. Everything you see is not AI.
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u/DoinTime 2d ago
I don't understand where you get the confidence to be so wrong.
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u/truck_robinson 2d ago
You didn't need to end on that flourish. In fact this comment wasn't needed at all. Your previous comment made a great point and then you muddied the waters with this lil bro shit
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u/Grimlock1984 2d ago
I know the artist and it’s mostly sand and sediment in the shallow water that gives it that appearance. The turtle startled the sawfish which was on the sea floor. He does not use AI.
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u/E_seven_20 2d ago
It really sucks we’re destroying all this amazing life for capitalist nonsense.
People suck.
When we destroy the Earth, we’re destroying ourselves. Short term purchases and profits are all that matters to most people. Humans are a plague on this Earth.
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u/jaiguguija 2d ago
"Just the couple of teeth on the front Joe"
"No way, You're not sharpening your teeth on my shell Fred! ”
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u/BriefDownUnder 2d ago
Fun fact: Sawfish are actually rays, and their "saw" can sense the tiny electrical signals of prey nearby.
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u/Prizmatik01 2d ago
One of I think 2? Or maybe 3? Freshwater fish Jeremy wade couldn’t catch, that’s how endangered they are (at least I think I’m remembering that correctly)
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u/Sailfin_CritterMaker 1d ago
There's fish he couldn't catch? Wow
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u/Prizmatik01 18h ago
As in couldn’t even locate one to catch. There was also a giant salamander that could allegedly eat a small child in the rivers of I think Japan that he wasn’t ever able to locate, but yeah he finds and catches every single other river monster to the point that the show couldn’t make more episodes because he caught all of them. Absolute beast. Love that show
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u/Sailfin_CritterMaker 17h ago
Oh the giant salamander! Yeah they're very rare now sadly, though I don't think it would eat a child.
I used to love that show as a kid, wonder if it's online somewhere! That and How it's made! And Monsters inside me gave me nightmare fuel for life
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u/Prizmatik01 13h ago
lol are you me!? These shows were staples growing up.
You could try HBO/Hulu or even YouTube for river monsters, it’s also on prime I think but you may have to rent it
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u/OpeningNice761 2d ago
This is so underrated! Awesome photo!
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u/Prestigious-Shirt426 2d ago
How’s it underrated? The photo won the 2026 Australian geographic nature photographer of the year award.
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u/greggobbard 2d ago
Underrated comment.
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u/RandomEncounterTable 2d ago
How’s it underrated? The comment won the 2026 r/BeAmazed comment of the year award.
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u/RappingFlatulence 2d ago
The dedication to the art to stick around long enough to see “the shot” happen!
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u/Franks2000inchTV 2d ago
This title reminds me of the Mitch Hedberg joke:
"One time, this guy handed me a picture of him. He said, "Here's a picture of me when I was younger." Every picture is of you when you were younger.
Every photo was captured by a photographer!
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u/_PatricioRey 2d ago
Sawfish are so hard to spot. It's humbling to witness these two creatures moving calmly together beneath the waves.
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u/ActionNorth8935 2d ago
Awesome photo, but it makes me want to see the original image without so much editing. I'm sure that would be equally amazing but in another way.
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u/Jaded_Investigator72 2d ago
The right place at the right moment and captured the perfect photograph!
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u/rott_kid 2d ago
We really live in the most beautiful planet in the galaxy that we know of
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u/42Ubiquitous 1d ago
Not arguing that areas and moments on our planet aren't absolutely stunning, but that's kinda like saying "we have most beautiful home in the world" when you have only ever seen your own home.
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u/TheInkySquids 1d ago
We don't know what any planets look like with any detail beyond the ones in our solar system...
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u/Early_Advance2473 2d ago
Sawfish is like ahhhh. Just hanging w me turtles. No paparazzi to capture my presence in sight…
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u/mike_pants 2d ago
How do we know this is rare? They might swim together all the time, for all we know.
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u/FilthyWubs 2d ago
Probably based on the work of scientists that study & research their whole lives…
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u/mike_pants 2d ago
Why would scientists that study and research their lives have any input on the behavior of sawfish?
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u/FilthyWubs 2d ago
The sawfish is critically endangered, I’d argue that a photo of it doing anything is rare.
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