Photography, Videography, and editing must have been performed by the entrant. Images must have been taken in open water (no aquariums). Any subject is acceptable as long as it meets conservation rules and does not exploit a person's gender.

 Eligibility

 The competition is open to all amateur photographers and/or videographers. A professional is considered by this competition to be any individual who earns more than 40% of their income from the sale, production or publication of their underwater photographs, videos or motion pictures. Contest officials and their immediate families are ineligible to enter.

Model releases will be the responsibility of the person retaining the copyright. EPIC officials and any other sponsoring entity cannot be held responsible for loss or damage of any entry before, during or after this competition.

 No entry will be accepted that has won best of show or placed )1st, 2nd or 3rd) in any major competition. Prize-winning entries from previous EPIC competitions are not eligible. In the event that an award winning entry is later found to have violated any rule, it will be disqualified, and officials of this competition reserve the right to recall prizes.

 No image may be entered in more than one category unless manipulated for Creative or Digital categories.

Conservation Rules

Marine should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a photo. Entries will first be screened by a panel of conservation judges. Entries exhibiting the following behavior will be disqualified.

1. Divers visibly damaging (e.g. gear dragging or kicking up sand) the environment.
2. Animals with signs of stress (e.g. puffed puffers, inking octopus).
3. Animals moved to an unnatural environment or risky location.
4. Animals being fed artificial food from divers.
5. Marine life being touched (e.g. coral polyps, seahorse tails).
6. Divers exhibiting poor buoyancy control.
   
   These are the Conservation Rules of EPIC. We encourage you to incorporate these rules in your underwater photo contest. However, we do request that EPIC is given credit on your site or in your brochure.