These underwater images show the ocean is probably the most mysterious place on earth
“I’ll always remember this interplay with a humpback whale and her calf in Tonga,” the character photographer Chun Chau tells me. “Whereas the mom rested at a deeper depth, impulsively, the infant calf swam up from the underside at full pace and breached—just a few toes in entrance of me—to play.”
For Chau, environmental advocacy goes hand-in-hand together with his pictures follow. Whether or not he’s documenting sharks in Tahiti, dolphins in Honolulu, or damselfish in Thailand, the objective stays the identical: most of us won’t ever get to see a humpback whale mid-breach, however by way of pictures, we are able to study these otherworldly animals and their susceptible habitats.
“Photographers can play a task in elevating consciousness concerning the points dealing with marine ecosystems,” Chau explains. “Each picture, caption, and share counts.” With that concept in thoughts, we’re sharing only a few jaw-dropping encounters with wildlife in an enormous array of marine environments, from a tucked-away archipelago within the Indian Ocean to the coral reefs of Mexico.
Meet curious mammals, and uncover the fantastic thing about just-hatched sea turtles. Discover magic in a tiny worm that resembles a Christmas tree. Dive right into a 12,000-year-old jellyfish habitat, and stand up shut with a child squid. And at last, a once-in-a-lifetime second: Christian Miller had the chance to return face-to-face with the biggest animal on Earth.
Visiting the portfolio of the character and wildlife photographer Jocelyn Ho is like touring to an alien world. On the time she photographed this child squid in Tulamben, Bali, he was mere hours away from hatching. “As I photographed him, I watched one among his siblings break away,” she explains. “This was positively one of many tougher topics I’ve ever photographed. The eggs, relying on the angle, have been at instances translucent and different instances opaque.”
Joost van Uffelen, an underwater photographer and advocate for ocean conservation, encountered this sea lion pup in Los Islotes, an island off the coast of Baja California Sur. These curious sea lions dwell in a protected space, however as Joost has witnessed again and again, human exercise has a ripple impact all through our planet’s marine environments.
“Feminine sea lions alongside the Californian shoreline at the moment have a tough time offering for his or her younger since adjustments in sea temperatures appear to have an effect on the presence of prey like sardines,” he wrote in 2015. Consequently, the pups have been being underfed. By sharing the tales behind their pictures, photographers can draw consideration to the threats dealing with these magical animals—and pave the best way for a extra sustainable future.
“I believe one among my most uncommon underwater encounters was with American crocodiles down in Banco Chinchorro, Mexico,” the Hawaii-based panorama and nature photographer Leighton Lum tells me. “There’s one thing totally different about being within the water with these dwelling dinosaurs. Understanding how highly effective they’re and but studying to work together with them of their pure habitat was past something I’d ever performed.”
Whereas on location, Leighton at all times follows leave-no-trace rules. “As a photographer, you will need to make sure that we depart our capturing areas in the identical situation or higher than once we confirmed up, leaving no hint of our existence,” he says.
The photographer Warren Lo noticed this Christmas tree worm whereas visiting the island of Bonaire within the southern Caribbean. These tiny, tropical creatures dwell in coral reefs and have a lifespan of as much as 40 years.
“My encounter with whale sharks close to the Isla Mujeres in Mexico was extraordinary,” the underwater nature photographer Vincent Pommeyrol tells me. “Their conduct and the interactions I had with them touched me very a lot: they flip their heads towards you whereas taking a look at you. I discovered myself close to their tail fins a number of instances due to the turbulence whereas swimming, however they gently averted me, taking care to not stumble upon me. These are animals of uncommon magnificence.”
“The ever fashionable Jellyfish Lake in Palau [is] a saltwater lake lower off from the ocean for the final 12,000 years, which has allowed this actually stunning and distinctive state of affairs to happen,” the photographer and scuba diver Lachlan Dunwoodie shares. “Hundreds of jellyfish fill the lake and feed on a selected algae and are in flip preyed on by the anemone inhabiting the sides of the lake.”
Cleaner shrimp and moray eels get pleasure from a symbiotic relationship, as seen on this {photograph} by Peter Pinnock. “Right here, a cleaner shrimp removes parasites from the mouth of a moray eel and good points a free meal,” the photographer shares. “In return, the eel doesn’t eat the shrimp. As a substitute, he has a complimentary dental therapy.”
Serge Melesan calls Mayotte, a French archipelago nestled between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique, “the misplaced paradise.” He hopes his work helps to share the story of this stunning place and advocate for its safety amid threats wrought by local weather change and overpopulation. This explicit fish is not any greater than a grain of rice.
“The enormous hammerhead shark is without doubt one of the most admirable creatures I’ve ever had the chance to dive with,” the photographer Kadu Pinheiro tells me. “They’re majestic and imposing predators able to looking saltwater crocodiles that may attain as much as 5 meters in size. I encountered them in Bimini within the Bahamas.”
He continues, “Underwater photographers tackle the mission of showing this underwater world to those that don’t have the chance to admire it with their very own eyes. It’s our responsibility to boost consciousness concerning the significance and safety of those environments.”
“I believe that is my all-time favourite picture that I’ve taken,” the award-winning wildlife photographer Nadia Aly admits. “This can be a bushy frogfish within the waters of Lembeh, Indonesia, taken with a snoot at evening. I used to be fortunate to seek out this stunning animal and return on an evening dive to get this shot. He/she was sitting at a depth of 70 toes, with a slight present that helped raise the hairs the best way they’re proven.”
The photographer Jacques de Vos reveals the astonishing magnificence and variety of the False Bay kelp forest in South Africa. “As unimaginable as it’d sound, you do not want to be a ‘diver’ to get pleasure from scenes like this one,” he says. “Kelp forests are by their very nature proper towards shore, and one thing like this may be present in shallow areas of lower than two meters (6.5 ft) depth, solely a stone’s throw from the coast, excellent for snorkeling.”
Within the Mediterranean, you may be fortunate sufficient to seek out the so-called “fried egg jellyfish,” photographed right here in Begur (Catalonia) by David Antoja. “This jellyfish, one of the crucial colourful of the Mediterranean, is called so due to the form of its hat,” the photographer explains [translated from the original Catalan].
The journey and conservation photographer Ian Rock had the chance to witness the work performed by the Osa Conservation Sea Turtle Hatchery in Costa Rica, capturing the second simply earlier than these Olive Ridley sea turtles have been launched into the ocean. “In 2018, the Osa Conservation Sea Turtle program relocated 451 Olive Ridley sea turtle nests to their hatchery, defending them from predators and poachers and permitting hundreds of infants to hatch in security,” Ian explains.
The photographer Christian Miller noticed blue whales in individual whereas working with SnotBot, a modified shopper drone that collects whale “snot,” thereby offering invaluable details about the whales and their well being. This non-invasive technique means the whales don’t even know that knowledge is being collected, so it has no impact on their well being or conduct.
“Being nose to nose with the biggest animal which ever existed is difficult to prime,” Christian explains. Then, he tells me, “Marine conservation is what I exist for. To ensure that us to create the adjustments we have to make to cease impacts on our oceans and marine life, we have to act from all totally different angles. Storytelling is a necessary a part of capturing folks’s feelings, each love and grief. We defend what we love—and what we concern shedding.”
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