Can’t miss this fantastic opportunity if you’re interested in Scuba Diving or Underwater photography!

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What is the Blue Dolphin of Malta International Underwater Photography Competition?
This is an annual competition organised by the Federation of Underwater Activities Malta and this year it is being held in Gozo during October 2018.

This competition, which was first held 1987 on the occasion of the CMAS Annual General Meeting in Malta, is an international event for persons interested in underwater Photography. In the last edition held in November 2017, a good number of scuba diving enthusiasts from the United Kingdom, Italy and Malta participated, braving some of the worst weather conditions that one could imagine.

When is this year’s event happening and who is participating?
This year FUAM will be again organising the event between the 18th and 21st October with the assistance of the Ministry for Gozo. For this year’s event, apart from divers from the United Kingdom and Italy, interested partners from Spain and France are going to participate making this a larger event.

What does this competition involve?
The main part of the competition involves two days of diving sessions in which underwater photographers will compete against each other to present their best set of photographs for the three themes of the competition:
• Ambient/Wideangle
• Macro Fish
• Macro Non-Fish
There will also be two categories here for divers with basic underwater cameras and another category for divers with DSLR cameras so that divers have the opportunity to compete with buddies using similar levels of equipment.

Where will the competition be held?
The dives will be held around Gozo and Comino. If the weather permits, the competition will include boat dives to dive sites that are not that accessible from shore. These will include dives sites full of exceptional photographic opportunities for all photographers, swim-troughs, caverns, underwater life, marine critters and very good visibility easily reaching 30m+.

A Bonus Event
Another event running in parallel will be a trial for a new underwater photography discipline whose rules will be tried in Malta for the first time prior to be formally adopted by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS) of which the FUAM are the representatives in Malta. This event will serve as a test prior to organising a Worldwide Championship, probably in 2020.

Results of the competition
The results from the competitors’ efforts will then be shown in the Awards presentation lunch happening on the 21st October in which the best 3 sets will be awarded a trophy and the best photo across all categories will be presented with a prize. Organisers are also working towards holding a land-based exhibition in the following months to showcase the results to aspiring future divers and the general public.

More information
More information, including logistics and registration packages are available from the competition’s website at www.bluedolphinofmalta.org.mt . Registration is open until 30th September but hotel spaces may run faster. The first 50 registrations will also benefit from a discount thanks to the sponsors, the Ministry for Gozo.

VisitGozo thanks Mr David Agius at Federation of Underwater Activities – Malta for collaborating on this blog post.