Whale Shark Island by Kip Evans was the non-broadcast winner at the 2010 Blue Ocean Film Festival. It features the waters around Isla Holbox off of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico which are seasonally rich with plankton and are the scene of a feast for whale sharks. Large aggregations of them gather to feed on the bloom from June through September. The sharks have become the core of a local tourism industry, but over-development could threaten this delicate balance.

Kip Evan’s film, narrated by Dr Sylvia Earle, shows this dilemma and is full of glorious imagery.