In Pictures: Surf, swimmers and sunsets – the year’s best sea shots

Photographers from the PA news agency have captured a range of images this year showing our enduring relationship with the sea, from storm-lashed piers and dangerous rescue missions, to fun at the beach and a festive dip.

Spring weather Apr 23rd 2020
A sun halo appears over the sea off Northumberland (Owen Humphreys/PA)
Autumn weather Nov 14th 2020
Surfers make their way into the sea at Boscombe beach in Dorset (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Lewis Pugh Antarctic swim
Briton Lewis Pugh became the first person to swim under an Antarctic ice sheet (Lewis Pugh/PA)
Lochinver RNLI rescue
The Lochinver RNLI lifeboat during the rescue of a fishing vessel (Lochinver RNLI/PA)
Summer weather Aug 18th 2020
A rainbow over Blyth Offshore Wind Farm (Owen Humphreys/PA)
Portsmouth sea defence scheme
The dredger Sospan Dau sprays gravel on to the foreshore of Portsmouth seafront to develop a temporary working platform for a £100m sea defence scheme (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Plane crash near Calshot Spit
The wreckage of a light plane washed up on the beach near Calshot Spit, Southampton, in May. Two people were rescued (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Summer weather June 2nd 2020
Children enjoying the good weather on the beach at Southend after lockdown restrictions were lifted (Nick Ansell/PA)
Summer weather June 20th 2020
People in the sea at Tynemouth as the sun rises on the summer solstice (Owen Humphreys/PA)
Summer weather Aug 7th 2020
Felix and Josh jump into the sea at Brighton. Thousands flocked to the coast as temperatures soared in August (Steve Parsons/PA)
Joint Navy drug seizure
Royal Marines from 539 Raiding Squadron deploy to intercept a boat in the Caribbean Sea during an operation against drug smugglers (LPhot Oates/Royal Navy/PA)
Winter weather Jan 4th 2020
A surfer rides a wave in rough seas off Tynemouth (Owen Humphreys/PA)
Playmobil boat travels
Brothers Ollie and Harry Ferguson, from Aberdeenshire, made headlines when their toy ship travelled more than 3,700 miles to reach the Caribbean after it was launched around 100 miles off the coast of Mauritania in West Africa in 2017 (MacNeill Ferguson/PA)
Migrant Channel crossing incidents
A group of people thought to be migrants arrive in an inflatable boat at Kingsdown beach, near Dover, Kent, after crossing the English Channel (Gareth Fuller/PA)
Winter weather Jan 29th 2020
The Ocean Dee ship on the horizon in the North Sea off Whitley Bay (Owen Humphreys/PA)
Autumn weather Oct 2nd 2020
Storm Alex brought high seas to Swanage, Dorset, in October (Steve Parsons/PA)
Festive charity dip
A festive fancy dress charity dip organised by Age UK in the sea at Leasowe on the Wirral (Peter Byrne/PA)
Autumn weather Sep 29th 2020
Sean Henry’s The Couple Statue at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in Northumberland (Owen Humphreys/PA)