Dragon secures Eureka science prize for underwater photographer

Award-winning amateur photographer and Southern Cross University PhD student Richard Wylie has taken out a national science prize for his stunning image of a male Weedy seadragon incubating eggs.

Richard was last night named the winner of the 2013 Australian Museum New Scientist Eureka Prize for Science Photography for ‘Fatherhood’ which depicts a male Weedy seadragon ( Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) incubating a cluster of round, red eggs.

The Eureka Prize is Richard’s second major award for his series of photographs of the intriguing sea creatures, which live in Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay. His image, ‘Weedy Seadragon in the Light’, was the winner of the 2012 National Geographic-La Mer Oceans Photo Contest.

The 42-year-old marine biologist and underwater photographer is the director of the Euakafa Island Research Centre, a marine science study centre in Tonga.

For his PhD at Southern Cross University in the School of Education Richard is researching marine education in Australia and the Pacific and the link between wildlife photography and conservation.