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The currents of the North Pacific gyre collect trash—mostly bits of microscopic plastic—into what are known as "garbage patches."
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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Orange roughy and various marine species, bycatch, on the deck of a research trawler
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Orange Roughy and Bycatch

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Smithsonian scientist who discovered new species in her laboratory
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Smithsonian Scientist Discovers New Fish Species

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This painting of swarthy buccaneers in the midst of a fierce battle was painted by the prolific American marine painter Frederick J. Waugh, and won the Thomas B. Clarke award in 1910 for the best American figure composition.
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The Buccaneers painting

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In the X-ray image of this Viper Moray Eel (Enchelynassa canina), note the second set of jaws in the “throat”; these are the gill arches, which are present in all fish.
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X-Ray Image of a Viper Moray Eel

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Jellyfish illustrations from Ernst Haeckel.
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Semaeostome Jellyfish

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This 1874 illustration of California gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) shows a group of individuals at the edge of their modern day range in the North Pacific Ocean, blocked from traveling further east into Arctic waters by thick ice barriers.
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California Grays Among the Ice

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Convict surgeonfish are the roaming sheep of the reef but, instead of noshing on grass, they feed on algae.
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Surgeonfish: Indicators of a Healthy Reef

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The New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands site was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1998. The islands are particularly notable for the abundance and diversity of nesting pelagic seabirds and penguins (including macaroni penguins, Eudyptes chrysolophus,
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New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, New Zealand

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The Gough and Inaccessible Islands site in the United Kingdom was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1995. The site, located in the south Atlantic, is one of the least-disrupted island and marine ecosystems in the cool temperate zone. The spectacular
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Gough and Inaccessible Islands, United Kingdom

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A Socotra cormorant dries its wings on the shore at the Socotra Archipelago in Yemen.
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Socotra Archipelago, Yemen

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The Komodo National Park site in Indonesia was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1991. The site hosts "Komodo dragons" (Varanus komodoensis), a unique species that exists nowhere else in the world and is of great interest to scientists studying evolu
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Komodo National Park, Indonesia

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