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Jul 9 2010 - 1:41pm
The arrows show the direction of ocean currents recorded by William Dampier while crossing “La Grande Mer du Sud”—the Pacific Ocean. The map appeared in Dampier’s second book, Voyages and Descriptions, published in early 1699.
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Jul 9 2012 - 9:33am
Two bright orange anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) poke their heads between anemone tentacles. Anemonefish are able to swim amongst the stinging tentacles without getting stung -- but no one knows exactly sure how. One dominant theory explains that they have a protective slime coating their...
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Dec 9 2010 - 1:32pm
The first underwater robotic vehicle—or “glider”—to cross an ocean is the centerpiece of a new exhibit at the Smithsonian. Rutgers University professor Scott Glenn explains that the technology is now being used to study the Gulf oil spill. Read more about the glider's historic Atlantic crossing,...
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Dec 11 2012 - 9:29am
A tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) in flight against a gray sky in Alaska’s Pribilof Islands (USA). Puffins are charismatic seabirds that delight wildlife enthusiasts and draw tourists to the islands where they nest. Read about the return of Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) to Maine in...
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Jan 26 2012 - 11:45am
Geologist Charles Paull (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) investigates geologic features similar to pingos (Earth covered ice mounds found in the Arctic) on the Arctic Ocean floor where methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—bubbles through sediments and forms hundreds of low hills. Read an...
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Jan 4 2013 - 9:03am
A colony of 100 million flame shells (Limaria hians) was discovered in Scotland in 2012, and is thought to be the biggest in the world. Flame shells are bivalve mollusks that are shaped a bit like scallops—but they have bright orange tentacles exuding from their shells. Despite their bright color...
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Apr 2 2010 - 12:16pm
In this episode of the Podcast of Life, learn how three fiery, painful stings during an early morning swim in Hawaii changed the life of researcher Angel Yanagihara. Once the young biochemist had recovered from her box jelly encounter, Carybdea alata had her full attention. Now she works to unlock...
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Aug 6 2012 - 10:05am
Deep-sea species like this dragonfish (Bathophilus indicus) live in cold, dark waters and may go weeks or months between meals. When food is found, the fish uses its impressive teeth—including some on its tongue—to get a tight grip on its prey.
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Jan 26 2012 - 5:34pm
'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to...
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Aug 10 2010 - 5:06pm
No iguana wants to be cooked alive on a hot rock and then served up as dinner for a Galapagos hawk. But it turns out the marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) have a strategy that warns them of the presence of hawks they can’t see. They learned to tune in to a kind of police scanner…the alarm...
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Nov 20 2012 - 11:24am
This lanternfish (Diaphus sp.), found in the Red Sea, has light-producing photophores along its ventral surface (belly), and a nasal light organ that acts like a headlight. Hear scientists tell stories about encountering bioluminescent marine animals in the deep sea.
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Mar 6 2013 - 8:27am
This 1874 photo of a squid draped over a bathtub was the first ever taken of a giant squid. It belonged to the Reverend Moses Harvey of Newfoundland. More about the giant squid can be found in the Giant Squid section.
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Sep 14 2012 - 12:33pm
For centuries, the Baltic Sea has provided European flounder (Platichthys flesus) and other fish for millions of people. Since the early 1980s, the nations surrounding the sea have coordinated their efforts to protect its health through the Helsinki Commission.
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Mar 19 2013 - 9:00am
This foraminifer was collected as it floated about 3 meters below the surface off the coast of Puerto Rico. The central dark area is the shell surrounded by spines. The tiny yellow dots are symbiotic algae, which live in the protoplasm of the host organism. When the foraminifer dies, the...
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Oct 15 2012 - 9:30am
This close-up photo shows the tough, serrated ring around the opening of a giant squid sucker. The ring is made of chitin—the same material that’s in your fingernails. Using suction, the sucker tightly grips the squid’s prey. The ring digs into the skin of the giant squid’s only predator—the sperm...
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Mar 11 2013 - 7:27am
Fish swim around the wreck of the HMT Bedfordshire, an Arctic fishing trawler that was converted into an anti-submarine warship during World War II. Originally part of Great Britain's Royal Navy, it was sent to assist the United States Navy in 1941. In Spring 1942, the HMT Bedfordshire ...
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Jun 22 2012 - 10:13am
A blue cod and sea pens, a unique type of cnidarian, speckle the seafloor in New Zealand's Fiordland region.You can see more beautiful underwater photos from Brian Skerry in his image gallery.
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Oct 2 2012 - 10:09am
These large jellyfish (Chrysaora fuscescens) are most commonly found along the coasts of California and Oregon. (They're also popular in the displays of public aquaria.) Their bells can grow to a diameter of around 1 foot (30 cm), with red stinging tentacles and oral arms extending far below....
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Apr 3 2013 - 9:04am
Harp seals are protected in the United States by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Although they are not considered endangered, as sea ice melting earlier and earlier each year, available harp seal breeding grounds are being lost in the North Atlantic and Arctic.
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May 7 2013 - 9:45am
This beautiful bromeliad, also called an air plant because it gets its nutrients and water from the air, is a flowering plant in the pineapple family. All of them are epiphytes, meaning they get their support from and grow on other plants. Many are found in mangrove forests, such as this one making...
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Feb 7 2013 - 9:11am
Photographer David Liittschwager took a 12-inch metal frame to Moorea, French Polynesia, and four other disparate environments to see how much life he could find in one cubic foot. Read more about the project and ocean biodiversity.
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Sep 24 2012 - 10:45am
In this close-up photo, you can actually see the photosynthetic algae, or zooxanthellae, living inside a tiny coral polyp. Look for the brownish-green specks in the colorless polyp. Corals depend on these algae for food and for some of their oxygen. To learn more about coral reefs, explore our...
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Dec 3 2012 - 10:08am
It’s confirmed: both Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice—around 350 billion tons each year—and, as a result, sea level has risen 11.1 millimeters worldwide since 1992. This photo shows a summertime channel created by the flow of melted ice, which ultimately carries the water away from the...
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Aug 14 2012 - 10:12am
Large numbers of grey reef sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) were observed at Jarvis Island, an uninhabited Pacific island, during the 2010 Pacific RAMP expedition of the NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai.
But most reefs don't have so many sharks. Read about it in the blog post "Reef Sharks Repelled by People...
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