Fading Away to Extinction by Peter Chadwick was highly commended. Cape gannets circle above an African penguin on Bird Island in South Africa’s Algoa Bay. African penguins have been in rapid decline in recent years due to shifting and declining fish stocks. A century ago there were likely more than 1 million off the coast of southern Africa – now they number in the low tens of thousands

Photograph: Peter Chadwick/BirdLife South Africa Oceans of Life photo competition 2013