See who made the biggest splashes this year: in the science community, among stakeholders and with the public. Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations.

Best paper

• Environmental DNA detects critically endangered largetooth sawfish in the wild, Colin Simpfendorfer et al,
  James Cook University
• Honourable mention: Thermal biases and vulnerability to warming in the world’s marine fauna, Rick Stuart-Smith et al, University of Tasmania

Best paper by early-career researcher

• Deep-sea diversity patterns are shaped by energy availability, Skip Woolley et al, Museum Victoria
• Honourable mention: Inferring contemporary and long-term genetic connectivity from juveniles, Pierre Feutry et al,
  Charles Darwin University (Accepted)

Thank you to our judges this year:
Alan Butler, CSIRO Fellow and Kerry Sink, South African National Biodiversity Institute

Best communication

• Neville Barrett: for the video, ‘Discovering black corals in Freycinet Commonwealth Marine Reserve’.

​Neville helped to develop the video ‘Discovering black corals in Freycinet Commonwealth Marine Reserve’. He also appeared in the video, spoke at the video launch, and fielded media interviews about the beauty and values of Commonwealth marine reserves off Tasmania. A short version of the video attracted more than 300,000 views on the ABC News Facebook page, and the exercise promoted the Hub's work on shelf reefs to important stakeholders. (A big thank you to the Hub's Jacquomo Monk, and technical divers James Parkinson and Andreas Klocker).

Honourable mentions

• Johnathan Kool: for highly effective engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and research end-users over a sustained period for work completed under NERP and NESP.
• Peter Kyne and Christy Davies: for ongoing communication with and about Indigenous rangers in northern rivers shark research, including producing poster and postcard, and hosting videography of sawfish rescue mission at Daly River.
• Project B4 ─ Underpinning the repair and conservation of Australia's threatened coastal-marine habitats: for assisting and mobilising the Shellfish Reef Restoration Network (more than 130 members and 50 at last meeting), running special session and group discussion at AMSA 2015, organising successful Traditional Owner Shellfish Restoration Workshop, and producing the  animated video 'Restoring shellfish reefs' (coming soon).
• Cass Hunter: for organising and reporting on the workshop, Exploring Indigenous engagement throughout New Zealand and Australian coasts and seas, at the 2016 conference of the New Zealand Marine Sciences Society and the Australian Marine Sciences Association in Wellington, NZ. Cass also helped to develop a ‘cross-Tasman’ media release.
• Vanessa Lucieer:  for working with Tasmanian College of the Arts colleagues to plan and mount the Oceans of the Unknown Science Week science/art exhibition, and develop a stop-motion animation for social media. Vanessa's work involved sculpting and displaying 180 tiny ships, 3-D printing ocean mapping instruments, and organising the opening of the event and interpretive materials.

Best social media

• Andrew Chin: for instigating the Twitter hashtag #Flatsharkfriday, a fantastic forum for flat shark researchers dedicated to championing these lesser known species.

Best video

• Neville Barrett: for the video, ‘Discovering black corals in Freycinet Commonwealth Marine Reserve’.

Best 'biodiversity' image

• David Harasti - ‘Grey Nurse Shark at key aggregation site’
  (Submitted by David Harasti, NSW Department of Primary Industries)

Best 'people' image

• Michael Lawrence-Taylor - ‘Malak Malak rangers, Amos and Aaron take a quick break between setting and checking the nets’ during the Largetooth Sawfish rescue mission at Daly River in the Northern Territory.'
  (Submitted by Peter Kyne, Charles Darwin University)

Highly commended:

• Margot Delaporte - ‘A humpback whale pointing the way to the Flinders Commonwealth Marine Reserve’
  (Submitted by Neville Barrett, University of Tasmania )

Related information

• See what else we have in our Marine Hub image catalogue
• Catch up on other News from the Hub