The first London Youth Underwater Photography Exhibition reached its climax last night at the award ceremony as the winners of the different categories were announced.

The exhibition, which is in the Blyth gallery until this Thursday evening, displays the short listed entries chosen by Alex Mustard, multi-award winning underwater photographer. The final winners for each category were selected by the competition’s other judges from this collection of images.

The competition was dreamed up by members of the Underwater club in August as there are many active photographers in the club. The organiser, Jim Clark, managed to persuade companies to sponsor the competition by providing thousands of pounds worth of prizes. These included a limited edition Black Pearl regulator (serial no. A00001) from Apex, camera and housing set from Ocean Optics, a range of strobes from Sea and Sea, a £500 gift voucher from Mikes Waterfront Warehouse and a voucher from O’Three. He also cajoled David Bellamy OBE, world acclaimed naturalist and enthusiastic diver, Brian and Linda Pitkin of the Natural History museum, both members of the British Society of Underwater Photographers and Paul Naylor, who has published numerous marine life identification books, into judging the competition and presenting prizes.

The proceeds of the competition were donated to the Marine Conservation Society, which is dedicated to the protection of the UK’s marine environment and its wildlife. Each year thousands of volunteers help the charity taking part in surveys and projects.

There were 6 categories; UK Macro, UK Normal and Wide-Angle, Conservation, Creative, Foreign Depth and Best of the Rest. The winners were Alan Ahern (no. 3) for UK Macro and the runner up for this category was also an photo by Alan Ahern (no. 5). Jim Clark (no. 35) won the UK Normal and Wide-Angle with Emma Kenyon’s Tompot Blenny (no. 33) as runner up. In the Conservation category Ben Crossett won with no.36 while the runner up was Alan Ahern (no. 14). The last category, Foreign Depth, was won by David Cramer’s Shark Silhouette (no. 20) whilst the runner up was Alan Ahern (no. 18). Finally, the Best in Show prize was awarded to Alan Ahern for his Pike (no.3).

There are plans for a similar exhibition next year for which entry forms will be available from the website. Imperial College Union’s Underwater club dive almost every weekend, mostly in the UK, and have one or two trips each year to warmer climes. They can be found in Da Vinci’s on a Tuesday evening doing the STA quiz.