Wreck Diving with Sand Tigers
Shark diving has grown in popularity and North Carolina boasts incredible opportunities for divers to get up-close-and-personal.
Alert Diver Category: Life Aquatic
California’s Squid Run
As you drop into water as black as night, thousands of pulsating squid in search of mates suddenly surround you. Mating activity is everywhere as multiple males attack single females. The excited squids’ chromatophores (pigment cells) flash colors reminiscent of a Las Vegas neon sign and put you in the middle of a living, moving light show. The action is so frenetic that animals are in your gear and bounce off every inch of your body.
Dancing in the Dark
Fish completely enclose me. Their tiny, silvery bodies twinkle in the half-light as I float suspended in the center of a sphere of clear, warm water. I feel like I am inside a disco glitter ball.
In the Company of Polar Bears
Polar bears are magnificent creatures and one photographer made it their work to capture them on film. The photographer traveled to the cold depths of the globe to find the white bears. Learn more about this polar bear venture.
Beneath the Fin
Sharks are among the ocean’s oldest survivors. They have cruised through Earth’s seas for more than 450 million years — long before the first trees grew or Saturn formed its rings.
Parrotfish: Grazers of the Reef
Colorful parrotfish may be vital to a coral reef’s survival. Because of their specific feeding habits — and what they eat — they keep algae down.
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.
The Evolutionary Puzzle of Fish Colors
The wild, psychedelic colors of reef fish are often what first enraptures divers. Is there an evolutionary explanation for why small, tasty animals adorn themselves in vivid colors instead of camouflaging themselves from hungry predators?
Marine Biogeography
Marine biodiversity is vast and each river, lake, ocean and reef has different life. But what underlies regional diversities in marine biodiversity? How can one place support more life compared to others? Learn more about this kind of biodiversity.
