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Two thorny seahorses sit back to back underwater.

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Seahorse Lovebirds

February 2018

This urchin (Echinocrepis rostrata) leaves tracks as it moves across the ocean floor.

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Deep-Sea Urchin

January 2010

Venus fly-trap anemone in the Gulf of Mexico

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Venus Fly-Trap Anemone in the Gulf of Mexico

June 2017

Arrow crabs are small, spider-like crabs that live on coral reefs.(CLICK IMAGE TO OPEN SLIDESHOW WITH MORE WINNING PHOTOS FROM THE CONTEST)

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Spiders from Mars

June 2015

Photograph of a bristly brown and white worm, with one end pressed against a pale green coral.

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Fireworm Takes on Fire Coral

September 2017

These zooplankton collected on a research cruise include a jellyfish, a lanternfish, a snipe eel, two large orange shrimp, a fuzzy pyrosome (which is bioluminescent), and several smaller animals.

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Counting the Ocean's Diversity

February 2018

This tentacle belongs to a blue button. While it has a central “float” with streaming tentacles like typical jellyfish, the blue button is a colony of many small hydroid animals.

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Blue Button Tentacle

February 2014

Blue Dragon nudibranchs are very common to the southeast coast of Australia and have a few color variations. Juveniles are white with blue rhinophores, and adults vary from dark purple to lavender to golden brown.

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Serpent Pteraeolidia

May 2015

This close-up view of salps, which have aggregated together into a long chain, have brilliant red guts from eating red plankton.

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Close-up View of Salps

September 2012

This purple urchin Paleopneustes cristatus is seldom seen by itself, and can be found in groups of hundreds.

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Purple Sea Urchin

August 2012

Japanese scientists videotaped this female giant squid, alive, at the water's surface

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Caught on Video: Giant Squid

July 2015

A red and white colored bristle worm swims in the water column.

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A Striped Deep Sea Worm

June 2017