Florida
A Waco bi-plane glides over the mixing blue waters that are the birthplace of the Gulf Stream Current in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Key West, Florida.
Florida
Endangered loggerhead turtles form a mating group with a large female on the bottom in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo, Florida.
Australia
Middleton Reef blooms like an orchid in the sea 555 kilometers off New South Wales, Australia. It is among the southernmost platform reefs in the world and a killer of ships.
Australia
A black cod peers into my camera after following me around on an entire dive to photograph many shipwrecks off Middleton Reef. I finally took his portrait and it reminds me of my Uncle Lou, minus the cigar.
Australia
A Maori wrasse engaged me with excited curiosity as we worked on Opal Reef, Great Barrier Reef. These large (up to 6 feet) creatures are a now a rare site on coral reefs around the Pacific due to over fishing.
Papua New Guinea
A clownfish peeks from the poisonous and protective tentacles of a bleached bubble tipped anemone in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. Clownfish need specific host anemones to survive and thrive.
Galapagos Islands
I watched as a lone parrotfish regarded a perfectly formed school of grey grunts off Cousins Rock, Galapagos Islands. I like that this image means different things to different people: loneliness, defiance, challenge…unity.
Cayman Islands
I was swimming away as my partner Jennifer Hayes knelt briefly below the bow of the Russian Destroyer 356 off Cayman Brac. I turned and made a single frame that captured the size and sculptural essence of shipwrecks in the sea.
Galapagos Islands
Galapagos sea lions search the sand for tiny shrimp to eat in a desperate struggle to survive the 1997-1998 El Niño event that drove their fish prey out of reach into deeper waters.
Cayman Islands
Three southern stingrays glide across the bottom of North Sound, Grand Cayman Island. The stingrays are oceanic ambassadors to thousands of tourists who visit these waters each day.
Malaysia
A tower of barracuda rises from the depths to form a question mark that surrounds a diver off Sipadan, Malaysia. The sleek fish often form large circular schools as a defense against predation.
Hawaii
A manta rises to feed on a galaxy of plankton that was attracted to the shaft of light spearing into the night sea off Kona, Hawaii.
Indonesia
A chromodoris nudibranch appears to salute the camera as it raises it mantle. Nudibranchs are sea-going slugs that display shockingly vibrant colors to advertise they are poisonous to eat.
Indonesia
A periclemenes shrimp is a symbiotic passenger aboard this chromodoris nudibranch. The shrimp seeks protective cover and keeps the surface of the nudibranch free of detritus.
Botswana
A Bayei fisherman in a wooden mokoro glides across delicate and dangerous lily gardens that thrive in the Okavango River, Botswana.
Botswana
A baby Nile crocodile seeks the cover and protection of a curtain of algae in the Ncamasere Channel of the Okavango River, Botswana.
Botswana
The tigerfish of Botswana’s Okavango Delta are fierce predator game fish with razor-sharp interlocking teeth. They are fast, muscular, and able to detect prey vibrations through the water.
Botswana
An African elephant frolics in the cool and refreshing waters of the channels that crisscross the Okavango Delta. The elephant uses the sandy bottom like dental floss to clean its tusks.
Antarctica
Icebergs are a metaphor for the oceans, we can only see their surface, what lies below is a mystery. Icebergs are the ultimate sculptural form of freshwater.
Antarctica
A group of chinstrap and gentoo penguins rest near Danko Island, Antarctica. As I snorkeled around their ice island they were wary that I was a hungry leopard seal looking for a meal.
Cayman Islands
A southern stingray soars across the sand bar of North Sound. The tip of ray’s pectoral wing mirrors the curve of the wave above.
U.S. Virgin Islands
Pompanette fish follow a perfect pedicure looking for a microscopic meal among the disturbed sands.
Galapagos Islands
A circle of silvery salema form a defensive circle of confusion around a starving juvenile Galapagos sea lion during the 1998 El Niño event near Cousins Rock, Galapagos Islands.
French Polynesia
A baby green sea turtle paddles towards the protection of the open sea off the French Polynesia atoll Nengo Nengo.
Australia
A group of Australian sea lions play in a sea grass meadow off Hopkins Island in South Australia. These pinnipeds nearly vanished off the planet due to hunting before the 1972 National Parks and Wildlife Act.
Australia
A juvenile Australian sea lion peers deeply into my camera off Hopkins Island, South Australia. The juveniles are curious and playful, pulling at mask straps, fins and strobe cords.
South Africa
A great white shark prepares to swallow the camera off Gansbaai, South Africa. I used a camera mounted on an extension pole to make close encounter images like this bite shot.
Australia
A sleeping bridled parrotfish seems to smile with a set of unusually perfect teeth that they use for chomping coral and turning it into sand.
Australia
A silvertip shark cruises across the robust corals of the northern and remote Great Detached Reef, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The presence of sharks is an indicator of a healthy reef system.
Australia
A small sand cay near Number 10 Ribbon Reef in the far North of the Great Barrier Reef is surrounded by a delicate garden of mixed hard corals.
Indonesia
A Papuan fisherman stands in wooden outriggers above a flashing carousel of silvery baitfish in a remote corner of Raja Ampat, Indonesia. These waters are among the most biologically diverse on our planet.
Indonesia
A stargazer fish looks like a Mayan mask as it peers from a veil of dark volcanic sand in Lembeh Strait, Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Philippines
A male tomato clownfish in Anilao, Philippines aerates and defends his clutch of eggs until they hatch after about one week.
Australia
A weedy sea dragon looks like a Victorian tintype toy as it paddles through its kelp forest home in Waterfall Bay, Tasmania. Sadly, much of Tasmania’s kelp forest habitat has been lost.
Cuba
A school of silky sharks swirl in an outgoing tide in the Gardens of the Queen Archipelago off the coast of Cuba. Cuban reefs are a defacto marine protected area due to political isolation.
The Bahamas
A crystal wave breaks over a group of lemon sharks on patrol at the edge of the Great Bahama Banks. The Bahama government banned commercial shark fishing in 2011.
Australia
An endemic double headed wrasse searches for an urchin meal on the world’s southern-most coral reefs off remote Lord Howe Island, Australia.
Australia
A DeHavailland Beaver floatplane delivers divers to the massive Hook and Hardy Reef system in the mid region of the Great Barrier Reef.
Cuba
A shortnose batfish portrait with revolutionary red lips, Isle of Youth, Cuba. Batfish patrol the sand and rubble bottom for invertebrate meals.
Papua New Guinea
Chevron barracuda form a living circle around Dinah Halstead in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. This magnificent school circled her three times and dissolved into the sea.
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