When nature photographer Justin Hofman was out snorkeling off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumbawa last year, he didn’t know he was going to stumble upon what could be the poster child for today’s marine trash crisis: a tiny seahorse latching onto a cotton swab.
The photo, which Hofman posted on Instagram, is now a finalist in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition from the Natural History Museum in London. In the post, Hofman said he wishes the photo didn’t exist. “I wish that this scene didn’t happen every day, that’s the thing,” he tells The Verge. “I spend a lot of time underwater all over the world, and I see trash and debris and human waste all over the place.”
