Perhaps these animals are tougher than we feared
Each year, a scientific photography contest invites us to look closely at a world in flux — and in 2023, one image above all others asked a quiet but urgent question. A marine biologist cradles a newborn blacktip reef shark in the warm shallows of French Polynesia, a creature born into waters already altered by human hands. Research behind the image suggests that juvenile sharks may carry within them a biological resilience to rising temperatures and oxygen loss that their elders do not — a fragile but genuine signal that life, in some forms, is still reaching toward the future.
- Ocean temperatures are rising and oxygen levels are falling in the shallow reef habitats where blacktip reef sharks cannot simply swim away from the threat.
- Young sharks, unexpectedly, are tolerating these degraded conditions better than adult animals — their physiology bending where older bodies break.
- Scientists like James Cook University's Joddie Rummer are racing to understand whether this resilience reflects true adaptive capacity or merely a temporary biological buffer.
- The BMC Ecology and Evolution photo contest amplifies this research by turning scientific fieldwork into images that reach beyond academic journals and into public conscience.
- Hope exists, but it is measured: juvenile resilience does not resolve the broader crisis of ocean warming, and the sharks' long-term survival remains deeply uncertain.
Every August, BMC — a publisher of open-access scientific journals — invites researchers and documentarians to submit images that capture both the beauty of the natural world and the urgency of understanding it. The 2023 Ecology and Evolution photo contest drew submissions ranging from the macabre to the hopeful, each a window into how life persists or struggles on a changing planet.
Among the finalists, one image stands apart. It shows marine biologist Joddie Rummer, a professor at James Cook University in Australia, cradling a newborn blacktip reef shark in the shallow waters off Moorea, French Polynesia. The shark fits in her hands — a creature born into a world already reshaped by human activity. Blacktip reef sharks live in the shallows and cannot retreat to deeper, cooler water. They are exposed, fully, to rising temperatures and declining oxygen levels.
What Rummer's research reveals is quietly remarkable: these young sharks tolerate heat and oxygen depletion better than older animals do. Their bodies seem to carry a flexibility that hints at adaptive potential — the possibility that selection pressure may already be sculpting the next generation into forms more capable of enduring what we have set in motion. It is hope, but of a careful, conditional kind.
The photograph itself tells a gentler story. Rummer is not extracting the shark for harm — she is releasing it back into uncertain waters. It is a moment of care inside a framework of crisis. The image does not promise the sharks will survive. It says only that we are watching, that we are trying to understand, and that some of these animals are tougher than we feared. Whether that toughness, and our attention, will be enough remains the open question the contest was built to ask.
Every August, a photography competition run by BMC—a publisher of open-access scientific journals—invites researchers and documentarians to submit images that capture both the raw beauty of the natural world and the urgent work of understanding it. The 2023 edition of the Ecology and Evolution photo contest drew submissions that ranged from the macabre to the hopeful, each one a window into how life persists, adapts, or struggles in a changing planet.
One finalist image, entered in the Protecting Our Planet category, shows Joddie Rummer, a professor at James Cook University in Australia, cradling a newborn blacktip reef shark in the shallow waters off Moorea in French Polynesia. The shark is small enough to fit in her hands—a creature born into a world already transformed by human activity. Blacktip reef sharks are creatures of the shallows, the kind of animal that cannot simply swim deeper to escape what's coming. They live in waters where temperatures are rising and oxygen is vanishing, conditions that reshape the physiology of marine life in ways we are only beginning to map.
What makes Rummer's work—and this image—significant is what it suggests about survival. The young sharks, despite being born into these degraded conditions, show a resilience that older animals do not. Their bodies seem to tolerate the heat and the suffocation better than expected. To the scientists studying them, this hints at something that might be called hope, though it is a qualified kind: perhaps these animals possess the biological flexibility to adapt as the ocean continues to warm. Perhaps the next generation will be different from the last, shaped by selection pressure into forms that can endure what we have set in motion.
But the image itself tells a quieter story. Rummer's hands are gentle. She is not extracting the shark for harm or study—she is releasing it back into the water. The photograph captures a moment of care within a framework of crisis, a scientist returning a creature to an uncertain future. It is the kind of image that does not offer easy answers. It does not say the sharks will be fine. It says only that we are watching, that we are trying to understand, that some of these animals are tougher than we feared.
The BMC photo contest, by design, celebrates both the wonders of nature and the people devoted to protecting it. The images that win are not always the most beautiful—though many are—but rather the ones that reveal something true about how the living world works and how it is changing. In Rummer's photograph, both elements converge: a moment of genuine tenderness, and a question about whether tenderness and scientific attention are enough.
Notable Quotes
The young sharks show exceptional resistance to rising ocean temperatures and oxygen depletion, suggesting they may be able to adapt to ocean warming— Scientific observation from the research highlighted in the contest
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a photograph of someone releasing a shark matter more than, say, a stunning landscape?
Because it shows the relationship between the observer and the observed. A landscape is beautiful in isolation. This image is about what we do with what we know.
And what does Rummer's work suggest about these sharks' future?
That they're tougher than we expected. The young ones tolerate heat and low oxygen better than the adults. It's not a guarantee—it's a signal that adaptation might be possible.
Is that enough to be hopeful?
It's enough to keep looking. It's enough to say the story isn't written yet. But it's not enough to stop the warming.
Why does the contest highlight both the natural world and the people studying it?
Because nature doesn't exist separately from our understanding of it anymore. The sharks are changing because of us. The scientists are there because of that change. You can't show one without the other.
What does the image of her releasing the shark actually convey?
Care. Attention. The acknowledgment that we've altered these creatures' world, and now we have a responsibility to at least try to understand what they need.