The winners of the prestigious 4th annual DEEP Indonesia international underwater photography competition, hosted by popular websites DivePhotoGuide and Wetpixel, have been announced!

The most talented underwater photographers from around the world competed to win over $35,000 in prizes and the glory of being recognized as the world's best. Winners spanned across eleven countries. The images are awe inspiring and speak for themselves. A formal statement from the judges will be posted soon.

Winning images can be viewed here.

The honor of Best of Show went to Magnus Lundgren of Sweden. A complete list of the results, winning images and prizes can be found on the DEEP Indonesia 2010 competition page.

The winners were on display at a special exhibit during the DEEP & Extreme Indonesia expo in Jakarta Indonesia, March 12 -14, 2010. The winning images will also be featured in scuba diving and travel publications around the world and online.

Photographers competed in seven themed categories: Animal Portraits, Animal Behavior, Reefscapes, Divers, Environment & Conservation, Compact Cameras, and a category solely for Indonesian Residents.

Prizes included trips to some of the leading dive resorts and live aboards in the hottest dive destinations throughout Indoensia including Bali, Komodo, Lembeh, Manado, Triton Bay and Raja Ampat, in addition to trips outside of Indonesia to Papua New Guinea and The Bahamas.Several winners were awarded underwater photography lighting equipment and accessories.

Esteemed judges included leading professional underwater photographers, and magazine editors: Eric Cheng, Dietmar Fuchs, Diego Garcia, and Tony Wu.

The teams at DivePhotoGuide, Wetpixel and DEEP Indonesia, and the esteemed judging panel, want to congratulate all the competitors for the high quality level of the images submitted. It was a difficult competition to judge.

15% of proceeds have been donated to marine conservation efforts.