Emily Frost

View
Twitter

Underwater photo of Emily Frost snorkeling in St. John, U.S.V.I.

Emily Frost is an Ocean Portal producer. One of her favorite diving experiences ever was seeing green sea turtles munching away on sea grass in the water off of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Emily's interest in the ocean started much earlier, when she was doing science fair projects that studied the movement of zooplankton, tiny animals that are moved through the ocean by currents. She was able to study these movements of zooplankton again while sailing and researching on the Corwith Cramer, a 134 foot tall ship, through the Sea Education Association. Emily linked her degree in aquatic biology from the University of California Santa Barbara to marine policy when she received her Master's in Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School.

Emily loves communicating information about the ocean and its connections to humans to the public. She worked on outreach and communications for the Lenfest Ocean Program and the Ocean Science Division of the Pew Environment Group where her main focus was sharing scientific information with policymakers. Emily has also worked on various outreach and policy projects at the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, the National Aquarium and at the non-profit, Oceana.

Collaborator Contributions

Mandarinfish

These beautiful mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus) are covered in bright blue, red, yellow and orange waves. What they lack, however, are traditional fish scales. They live in western Pacific tropical coral reef ecosystems and instead of your typical fish scales they are covered in a smelly, thick mucus coating. It's possible that this mucus, which not only smells—but tastes—bad, is used as a deterrent to predators.

“It’s quite normal for this type of goby to sit still on hard coral like this. I spotted the first of these very small fish and set up my camera for the shot. Just as I was about to take a picture, a second goby came out of nowhere and sat on the first one. I quickly corrected the frame and took two or three shots before both of them disappeared. It was an incredible moment.”-- Nature's Best Photographer, Tobias Friedrich

Gobies on Coral, Near Marsa Alam, Egypt

Gobies make up the largest family (Gobiidae) of fishes in the world, with over 2,000 species. In this large family you can also find the smallest fish. The gobies in this photo are about one inch long (2.5 cm), and most in the family are less than four inches. Because of their small size gobies must work to evade their many predators, often through burrowing or special mutualistic relationships with other animals.

Two sea lions interact amongst schools of small fish.

Seal or Sea Lion?

Seals and sea lions have many similarities, and are in the same family of Pinnipeds, but they lead very different lives. Seals are smaller than sea lions; male Stellar sea lions can grow to be up to 2,200 pounds. Seals also are suited to spend more time in the water than sea lions, which can "walk" on shore with their large flippers and spend time in large social groups. Another give-away is that sea lions have external ear flaps, whereas seals don't have external ears—if you look closely you can see tiny ear holes.

A polar bear and its cub in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

Polar Bear Mother and Cub

The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is found in the Arctic and classified as a vulnerable species by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This marine mammal can swim more than 30 miles when sea ice has receded due to warm temperatures.

A whale shark swims with a diver off the coast of East Africa.

Whale Shark Off Coast of East Africa

When you think of African animals, what do you think of? Probably the “Big Five:” lions, elephants, leopards, buffalo and rhinos. But Africa also has an incredible amount of marine diversity in the coral reefs and open water surrounding the continent. Consider the ocean’s “Big Five”—whale sharks, giant manta rays, humpback whales, dolphins, tiger sharks—in this blog post from a researcher studying marine biodiversity off the African coast.

“Golden sweepers form schools in reef crevices and caves and among coral heads. The technique I employed to make this image was a long exposure and rear curtain synchronization combined with a circular rotation of the camera during the shot. Buyat Bay, a threatened area, is home to one of the highest numbers of coral and fish species in the world.” -- Nature's Best Photographer, Jeff Yonover

Golden Sweepers, Pulau Tulang, Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

These beautiful pink and yellow shimmering fish (Parapriacanthus ransonneti) live in large groups among corals and in caves where they feed on zooplankton at night.

This crab has a parasitic barnacle rooted in its reproductive system.

Parasitic Barnacle on a Crab

This swimming crab (Liocarcinus holsatus) has a parasitic barnacle rooted in its reproductive system. This invasion cuts off all reproduction for an infected crab and can even cause a male crab to change behavior — males don't normally take care of crab eggs, but the infected male will take care of the barnacle as if it is a brood of eggs. Read more about other parasites that you can find in marine organisms.

"This particular shark was just as curious as I was, which enabled me to capture such an amazing shot. His eye came just above the surface and stared back at me as if to show me he was watching, while below the surface his mouth opened to reveal his sharp teeth.” -- Nature's Best Photographer, Deano Cook

Lemon Shark, Offshore Grand Bahamas Island

At night this lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) lurks at the surface, but often during the day they will lie on the ocean bottom. This behavior had been thought to save them energy, but in reality it takes energy for the shark to push water over their gills while not moving. They may be lying still to be cleaned by small fish, like the wrasse.

“The southern elephant seal is a truly restrained behemoth. Males can grow to be five times larger than females, up to 5,000 pounds. This elephant seal may look fierce, but he was simply yawning over and over in the wave-wash. This allowed me to try multiple ways of getting this impressive pose, including lying down in the water without disturbing him.” -- Nature's Best Photographer, Justin Hofman

Southern Elephant Seal, Gold Harbour, South Georgia

The largest of all seal species, the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) is found in chilly Antarctic and Subantarctic waters. The male seals dive as deep as 1,430 meters (over 4,600 feet) and stay at depth for up to two hours.

Bait Ball

This bait ball shows how small fish can react when larger predators are near by gathering tightly together in a ball-like formation that exposes the least number of fish. Fish species found in the open ocean are especially in need of some protection, as they don't have the cracks and crevices that fish in coastal or coral reef habitats have to hide away. Instead, they hide behind one another to form a spherical bait ball, a shape which allows for the protection of the most fish.

FaceBook Twitter