Catch of the Day

58°33′18″N 155°47′30″W / 58.5550°N 155.7916°W / 58.5550; -155.7916

Catch of the Day is a 1988 wildlife photograph by Thomas D. Mangelsen. Taken at Brooks Falls in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve, it depicts a sockeye salmon leaping from the water into the mouth of an Alaskan brown bear, immediately before the bear eats the fish. It has been described as iconic^[1][2] and the most famous, or one of the most famous, wildlife photographs ever taken.^[3][4]

Although viewers of the photograph have assumed that it was created through digital manipulation, Mangelsen took the image on film before the advent of digital photography. After taking many pictures of bears hunting salmon at the falls, he did not realize what he had captured until developing his film.^[1] Catch of the Day has been praised for its timing, and many other photographers at Brooks Falls have attempted to replicate it. In a widely cited case in which he discussed at length aspects of photographs that are original enough to merit copyright protection in the United States, federal judge Lewis A. Kaplan cited Catch of the Day as an example of "originality in the timing", copyrightable for that alone.^[5]