Pyrosome drifting through a kelp forest, Catalina Island. Pyrosomes are free-floating colonial tunicates that usually live in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas. Pyrosomes are cylindrical or cone-shaped colonies made up of hundreds to thousands of individuals, known as zooids.
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 37166
Kelp fronds and pneumatocysts. Pneumatocysts, gas-filled bladders, float the kelp off the ocean bottom toward the surface and sunlight, where the leaf-like blades and stipes of the kelp plant grow fastest. Catalina Island, California.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 37282
Kelp fronds and pneumatocysts. Pneumatocysts, gas-filled bladders, float the kelp off the ocean bottom toward the surface and sunlight, where the leaf-like blades and stipes of the kelp plant grow fastest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 37297
Giant Kelp Forest, West End Catalina Island, rendered in the round by a circular fisheye lens.
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 38480
Giant Kelp Forest, West End Catalina Island, rendered in the round by a circular fisheye lens.
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 38481
Giant Black Sea Bass with Distinctive Identifying Black Spots that allow researchers to carry out sight/resight studies on the animals distributions and growth. Black sea bass can reach 500 pounds and 8 feet in length.
Species: Giant black sea bass, Stereolepis gigas
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 39437
Giant black sea bass in the kelp forest at Catalina Island. An Endangered Giant Sea Bass can reach up to 8 feet in length and 500 pounds, seen here amid the giant kelp forest of Catalina Island. Once nearly fished to extinction and now thought to be at risk of a genetic bottleneck, the giant sea bass is slowly recovering and can be seen in summer months in California's kelp forests.
Species: Giant black sea bass, Stereolepis gigas
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 39439
Red gorgonian Leptogorgia chilensis, purple hydrocoral Stylaster californicus, and yellow zoanthid anemone Epizoanthus giveni, at Farnsworth Banks, Catalina Island.
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 39539