Endangered sawfish-turtle photo wins Australia’s top nature prize

In the sunlit shallows off northern Australia, a rare and ancient creature glided through the water, its long, toothed snout cutting a gentle path beside a pair of sea turtles. The moment lasted only seconds, but it was enough for a drone hovering above to capture an image that would soon captivate a nation. That photograph of a critically endangered green sawfish sharing the frame with sea turtles has just won the top prize in the 2026 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition. As reported by People, the shot was taken in the final moments of a tense field session, when the photographer’s drone battery had dropped to just 3 percent, turning an already difficult encounter into a race against time.A creature from another timeThe green sawfish is one of the most distinctive and threatened animals in Australia’s coastal waters.