PHOTOS: Sergio Betancort.
The team formed by Sacha Lobenstein and Carlos Gonzales was the great winner of the seventh edition of the Open Fotosub Lanzarote Mar de Lava, held in the waters of Lanzarote last weekend. Second was the team composed of Javier Madinaveitia and Aida Gómez, who won the event last year, and third, the one integrated by Eladio Frías and Joana Pereira. This underwater photography contest, organized by the Pastinaca Underwater Activities Club and sponsored by the Cabildo de Lanzarote and Promotur Turismo de Canarias, with the collaboration of the Arrecife City Council, was attended by 23 teams from the Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula.
The photographic sessions were held last Friday 24 and Saturday 25, in the waters of the island from Pechiguera to Caletón Blanco. The awards ceremony took place on Saturday at 9:00 p.m. in Marina Lanzarote, a space linked to the sea, as its organizers wanted to "make the Sea of Lava visible, offering the general public a window to look into the underwater world, a world full of unknown beings and biodiversity, added value for an island like Lanzarote, which needs to take care of and value its natural resources", explained the president of Club Pastinaca, Félix Viña. He also thanked the support and collaboration of each and every one of the companies involved, as well as the Arrecife City Council, the Cabildo de Lanzarote, through Turismo Lanzarote, the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers (CACT) and the Government of the Canary Islands.
On the other hand, the organization of the event awarded in this VII Edition of the contest a special prize to the best photograph of the Atlantic Museum, which is financed by the Cabildo and is being created by the British sculptor Jason De Caires Taylor in the bay of Las Coloradas. That prize went to Esteban Lorenzo and Miriam Ruiz.
By categories, the team formed by Arturo Telle and Davinia Hernández received the award for best environment; Aida Gómez obtained the award for best model; Esteban Lorenzo and Miriam Ruiz were awarded with the best macro, and Yolanda Coronado and Sara García collected the award for the best fauna.
Video by Gorka Leclerq
The VII edition of the Open Fotosub Mar de Lava also has an additional element of "incalculable promotional value for the island", the Cabildo has pointed out. The thematic sports channel Teledeporte will broadcast a video edited by the prestigious underwater cameraman Gorka Leclerq between August 5 and 21, coinciding with the celebration of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, with the seabed of Lanzarote as protagonists.
The president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés, has highlighted that this event is a proposal of "tourism, sports, culture and environmental awareness, which has the unconditional support of the First Institution of the island, and which is part of the global commitment of Turismo Lanzarote to position the island as a leading sports tourism destination, through the European Sports Destination project and, specifically, for a segment of high strategic value such as scuba diving, both for the expenditure it makes in the destination and for the international projection it makes of that other world full of natural wealth that we have under the sea". San Ginés also thanked Pastinaca for the work done to "value the island's marine platform, from the Chinijo Archipelago to La Bocaina".
For his part, the Minister of Tourism of the Cabildo, Echedey Eugenio, said that "we must remember that around 120,000 tourists practiced scuba diving last year on the island and in this sense, the consolidation of the positioning of Lanzarote as a top-level diving destination is one of the strategic lines in which the Turismo Lanzarote team is working harder, hand in hand with European Sports Destination".
The event distributed almost 5,000 euros in prizes, in addition to a stay for two people on a diving cruise through the Maldives, courtesy of the company Sub-Maldives for the winning team.