A huge blue whale swims through the open ocean in this underwater photograph. The blue whale is the largest animal ever to live on Earth.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Image ID: 03027
Garibaldi swims in the kelp forest, sunlight filters through towering giant kelp plants rising from the ocean bottom to the surface, underwater.
Species: Garibaldi, Hypsypops rubicundus
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 23419
Blue whale. The sleek hydrodynamic shape of the enormous blue whale allows it to swim swiftly through the ocean, at times over one hundred miles in a single day.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 21250
Newborn harbor seal pup watches a Western seagull approach. The gull is trying to pick at placenta on the sandy beach as the seal pup, born just moments before, watches and tries to understand what is going on. Within an hour of being born, this pup had learned to nurse and had entered the ocean for its first swim.
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 39076
A huge blue whale swims through the open ocean in this aerial photograph. The blue whale is the largest animal ever to live on Earth.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Image ID: 02169
A male giant sea bass nudges a female giant sea bass to encourage spawning as they swim in a tight circle. This courting pair of giant sea bass is deep in the kelp forest at Catalina Island. In summer months, giant sea bass gather in kelp forests in California to form courtship and mating aggregations, eventually leading to spawning.
Species: Giant black sea bass, Stereolepis gigas
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 39435
Divers Swim Over the Wreck of the HMCS Yukon in San Diego. Deliberately sunk in 2000 at San Diego's Wreck Alley to form an artifical reef, the HMCS Yukon is a 366-foot-long former Canadian destroyer. It is encrusted with a variety of invertebrate life, including Cornyactis anemones which provide much of the color seen here.
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 39474
Whale hair on the rostrum and chin of a southern right whale, sidelit by the setting sun. These individual hairs provide sensor information to the whale as it swims through ocean currents or touches the ocean bottom.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38331
Humpback whale mother, calf (top), male escort (rear), underwater. A young humpback calf typically swims alongside or above its mother, and male escorts will usually travel behind the mother.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 02819
Adult male humpback whale bubble streaming underwater. The male escort humpback whale seen here is emitting a curtain of bubbles as it swims behind a female (left) during a competitive group. The bubble curtain may be meant as warning or visual obstruction to other male whales interested in the mother.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 02828
Adult male humpback whale bubble streaming underwater. The male escort humpback whale seen here is emitting a curtain of bubbles as it swims behind a mother and calf. The bubble curtain may be meant as warning or visual obstruction to other nearby male whales interested in the mother.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 05925
Newborn harbor seal pup is protected by its mother from a seagull. The seagull most likely wants to feed on the placenta, but it may also peck at and injure the pup. The seal mother does a good job of keeping birds off its newborn pup. Within an hour of being born, this pup had learned to nurse and had entered the ocean for its first swim.
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 39075
A newborn harbor seal pup in the water at the oceans edge, born just moments before in the ocean and immediately able to swim ashore. The pups placenta and mother are seen in the background.
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 39101