Among Harp Seals
Harp seals are adorable sea critters, adapted perfectly for living in cold climates. Diving with them is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Read more about one diver’s adventures with harp seals.
Alert Diver Category: Life Aquatic
The Blue Desert Conundrum
Where we encounter marine megafauna, we see only a tiny slice of their habitats and lives, which rarely includes feeding. These animals may travel thousands of feet vertically or migrate a few thousand miles horizontally to meet their nutritional needs. Some of them — sperm whales, for example — must do both: descend to depths of up to a mile or more to feast on aggregations of squid and roam across large swaths of the Pacific to avoid depleting their food resources in any one area.
Going Up
Every night as the sun slips below the horizon, countless aquatic creatures begin migrating up from the deep in what is quite possibly the greatest show on Earth. Seeking nourishment […]
Imps of Darkness
IT IS DAY FIVE OF THE VOYAGE, and our liveaboard has finally finished the overnight crossing south from the warm waters of Darwin and Wolf islands to Cape Douglas, Isla Fernandina. Although we don’t travel a great distance …
The Edge of Extinction
I WAS HOOKED THE FIRST TIME I saw a southern sea otter bobbing in the surf off the coast of California’s Big Sur. I didn’t know then that I would be as spellbound by these rare creatures decades later as I was at that very first sighting.
Birds of the Sea
One of the greatest symbols of wildlife in the animal kingdom, penguins endear themselves with their comical antics and wow us by thriving in unbelievably hostile environments.
A Snail’s Tale
AN EDIBLE, SLOW-MOVING ANIMAL that lives in clear, shallow waters doesn’t have a high chance of survival these days. Conchs, specifically queen conchs, used to be widespread throughout the Florida Keys and the Caribbean.
Leaves of Grass
Seagrasses have evolved to thrive in marine environments — adapting to shallow, salty or brackish habitats at least three different times over 100 million years.
Conch
Conch snails are remarkable creatures with a set of eyes, a nose (sort of), a mouth and one foot. And because they’re slow, conches are commonly picked up and are a considered a delicacy in some regions.
