Take part in the 3rd Marlice Photography Contest.

MARLICE 2026 presents the 3^rd MARLICE Photography Contest – “Objective: Clean Oceans”, for which the following rules and guidelines apply:

1. Organisational entity

The 3^rd MARLICE Photography Contest – “Objective: Clean Oceans” is organised by the SPANISH MARINE LITTER ASSOCIATION (from here on referred to as AEBAM), registered in the National Register of Associations with number 607739, NIF (tax ID no.) G87300216 with address at number 8, Plaza Carballo, Madrid, postcode 28029.

For any matter related to this competition, please send an e-mail to the following address: info@aebam.org

2. Submission period and deadline

The submission period for receipt of photographs will commence on the 25^th of March at 00:00 and close on the 24^th of April 2026 at 23:59. Photos submitted after this date will not be accepted.

3. Participants

The competition is of an international nature and is therefore open to adults of any nationality, whether professionals or amateurs, with the exception of members of the jury, in addition to employees and direct relatives of the association organizing the competition.

4. Theme

The theme will focus on Marine Litter, encompassing “any persistent solid material of non-natural (manufactured or processed) origin discarded, disposed of or abandoned in marine and/or coastal environments” (UNEP, 2009), including materials transported to the marine environment from land-based sources via rivers, runoff, sewage or wind.

5. Photographs

One (1) photo per participant will be accepted in JPG format.

The photographs must not have been awarded a prize in any other competition or contest (as a prize winner, runner-up or finalist) and must not have been marketed.

Participants are fully responsible for being the sole authors, for the absence of third-party rights, as well as any claims for image rights on the works submitted to the competition.

Photographs may not be altered or manipulated electronically or by any other means. Photomontages will not be accepted either. Minimal corrections to colour and brightness will be permitted. In case of doubt, the jury may ask the author for the raw file for verification.

6. Submission

Images must be sent in .jpg o .tiff format, with a maximum size of 6000 px on the largest side and with a resolution of 300 p.p.p. We recommend CMYK colour space.

The photographs should be submitted online to the following e-mail address: marlice@aebam.org

The subject of the e-mail should read: 3^rd MARLICE Photography Contest – “Objective: Clean Oceans”. The following information must be included in the body of the e-mail: name and surname, contact telephone number and e-mail address.

The photographic file must be named only with the “Theme/title of the work”, the name of the author should not appear.

Upon receipt of the photograph, AEBAM will confirm the work’s acceptance with an e-mail, indicating that the process has been carried out correctly. This e-mail will serve as proof of submission and participation.

In case of not receiving this e-mail, the author will have to contact AEBAM at info@aebam.org to confirm the reception of all relevant documentation and to receive official proof of participation.

7. Prizes

The best image, according to the opinion of the jury, will be awarded the second MARLICE photography prize. The winner will be presented with the prize within the framework of MARLICE 2026 on the 21^st of May 2026, with a prize of € 200.

The winner will be invited by AEBAM to the award ceremony in Puerto de la Cruz – Tenerife (Spain), covering travel expenses (restricted to the European Union) and one night’s hotel accommodation.

The image selected for second place will receive a prize of € 100 and third place will receive a prize of € 50.

The amounts indicated refer to the gross amount before deductions or taxes that may apply according to the relevant legislation and will be paid into the bank account number provided by the winners via bank transfer.

8. Adjudication

The jury of the 3^rd MARLICE Photography Contest – “Objective: Clean Oceans” will be made up of three (3) members. Considering a range of criteria encompassing creativity and technical quality, the jury will select the finalist works for public exhibition, from which the winning photographs will be selected.

The jury may revoke its decision and disqualify a participant if the selected image does not comply with the technical requirements outlined in points 5 and 6.

The jury will NOT under any circumstances know the identity of the author, thus all photographs will be encoded to guarantee the anonymity of the image.

9. Exhibition

An exhibition consisting of the winning photograph and those selected by the jury will be held during the celebration of the 4^th INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON MARINE LITTER AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY – MARLICE 2026, on the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st of May 2026.

The copies to be exhibited will be printed by AEBAM, therefore, in order for them to be of the appropriate quality, all authors should be able to provide images of a higher quality than those initially sent. After the jury’s decision, the authors selected to exhibit their work must send the organisation a digital file with the highest possible resolution (in JPG format), measuring 50 x 40 cm stain-free with a white, black or full bleed background.

10. Verdict

The winner will receive a personal communication via e-mail with the jury’s verdict on 30^th of April 2026, which will also be published on AEBAM’s website and social networks, opening a period of 7 calendar days for the presentation of possible complaints. Once this period has elapsed, the decision will be final.

All images not selected will be deleted without possibility of recovery.

11. Rights

The participants with selected photographs, as authors of the images presented in the contest, are considered the holders of the intellectual property rights of the works. However, in competing, they will cede the reproduction rights of their photographs to the organisation. Always citing the author, they may be used for publicity purposes, including exhibitions or digital or printed reproductions, without the loss of the author’s rights. Their images may be used as seen fit, with the sole requirement that the prize received must be mentioned.

The selected images will be incorporated into AEBAM’s photographic archive. The association will be able to use them in any format, exhibition or publication, always citing the name of the author.

12. Personal data protection

The personal data requested together with the originals submitted to the competition will be incorporated into AEBAM’s database in order to carry out actions linked to participation in the competition. In order to exercise rights of access, rectification, cancellation or opposition, authors may write to the aforementioned entity at its address at PZA. CARBALLO Nº 8, 3º, PUERTA 3 28029 MADRID or by e-mail at info@aebam.org

In the event that the photographs include identifiable individuals, the participant must have their express written consent. In the case of minors, express written consent must be signed by their parents/guardians. In the event of winning, the aforementioned consent may be requested as a precondition for the prize to be awarded. AEBAM is not responsible for the contestant’s failure to fulfil any of these requirements, being the sole and exclusive responsibility of the participant, leaving AEBAM indemnified from any claim in this sense.

13. Control and security

Participation in the 3^rd MARLICE Photography Contest – “Objective: Clean Oceans” entails full compliance with all competition rules.

AEBAM reserves the right to declare the competition void if there are not enough participants or in the case that the photographs are not of the quality expected. The association also reserves the right to modify the rules at any time, and even to cancel the competition, provided that there is a justified cause for doing so. In all cases, AEBAM is obliged to communicate the specific modification of the rules via the same means and always without prejudice towards the participants.