Accounts and photos about my marine life encounters from around the globe…
Raja Ampat: A Sea of Color, Abundance, and Diversity
A healthy coral reef is a sight to behold. It teems with a variety of fish. It has a complex three-dimensional structure, rich in coral and sponge cover, and provides habitat for countless marine critters. It maintains minimal macro algae and ...
Reefs, Fish and Larvae in the Solomon Islands
With world class diving, beautiful landscapes and a timeless culture few people have experienced; the Solomon Islands are a hidden gem. Located east of Papua New Guinea just south of the equator, the archipelago consists of six major and about ...
Reef Fishes of the Midriff Islands
Roughly 5.3 million years ago tectonic forces rifted the Baja Peninsula off the North American Plate, leaving an enormous fjord scattered with desert islands, now known as the Gulf of California (or the Sea of Cortez). The Gulf has exceptionally ...
Sharks and Bait Balls off Waikiki
“Multiple large sharks spotted at Kaimana Beach”. “Shark warning signs posted”. “Popular Waikiki Beach spot closed intermittently due to shark sightings”. Those were the headlines that cycled through our local news almost daily from mid September through October, 2020. Drone ...
Intense Animal Encounters off Baja California
Cormorants hunting underwater. Aggregations of marlin slicing through baitballs. Mobula rays cruising below by the hundreds. Sea lion pups playing just inches away. For intense, dynamic and unusual wild animal encounters of the salty variety, Mexico is the place. The ...
The Fishy Side of Truk Lagoon
On February 17th and 18th 1944, the US navy launched a crippling air attack on the Japanese Imperial Fleet located inside the sheltered waters of Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon in Micronesia. The assault, code-named "Operation Hailstone”, was multiple times more powerful ...
Oahu’s Blackwater Creatures
I am drifting on flat, calm seas above 1500 feet of water. It is close to 8:30 p.m., three days after the new moon. The Waikiki skyline is glimmering about three miles in the distance. A 10,000-lumen light on the ...
California’s Channel Islands Marine Life
Two years after first diving California’s giant kelp forests, I’m back to experience more of this unique ecosystem. Only this time around, conditions were much different. An out of season mass of cold green water from the north had surrounded ...
A Sperm Whale Carcass in Hawaii!
Majestic, graceful, and ever so vital to the health of our oceans, large predatory sharks are awesome! For me, seeing these apex predators underwater is humbling and a lot of fun. But finding and photographing large sharks up close in ...
Reef Fish Heaven in the Solomon Islands
Want to dive on remote, pristine reefs with an abundance of fish species and no other divers in sight? The Solomon Islands is the place. The archipelago of 990 islands lies in the South Pacific Ocean just east of Papua ...
The Sand Tiger Sharks of North Carolina
Before the construction of lighthouses in the 1800s, the shallow waters around North Carolina’s coast became the resting place for hundreds of vessels lost during storms. In World Wars II, German U-boats destroyed dozens more ships further offshore. Over 400 wrecks ...
Groupers and Sharks Abound in French Polynesia
Big schools of fish; healthy corals; ripping currents; warm, crystal clear blue water and large and diverse shark populations. That’s what makes Fakarava such an exceptional place to dive. The French Polynesian atoll has been an UNESCO biosphere reserve since ...
Colorful Wrasses – Picassos of the Reef
Reef fishes have evolved some of the most amazing color patterns in the animal kingdom and no family holds more species with chromatically intense, out of this world designs than the wrasses. With over 600 species, wrasses are the most ...
The Fish of California’s Kelp Forests
California is known for epic kelp diving but the waters can be a bit chilly for tropical divers like myself. Looking for a quick summer dive trip close to home, I finally grew some skin and booked a trip with ...
Cocos Island Marine Life
Cocos Island is mountainous rainforest paradise, remotely located 300 miles west of Costa Rica. A World Heritage Site and Costa Rica’s largest national park, the island is a biodiverse wonder that spans about 10 square miles. Close to 100 endemic plant and ...
A Stroll Through Singapore’s Seafood Markets
It’s 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. The local wet market is bustling with people. Initially, the strong odor of recently dead fish overwhelms my nose, but this is easily adjusted to. The market’s seafood offering boasts the greatest abundance ...
Blue Sharks of Rhode Island
With an elegant snout, large eyes and a long sleek, brilliantly blue body, the blue shark (Prionace glauca) radiates grace and beauty. Blue sharks are circumglobal—they are found around the world in many different environments. They prefer cooler waters between 40–70°F ...
Palau’s Spawning Aggregations
Palau is an underwater paradise, with more than 700 coral species and 1,500 fish species. Three converging, nutrient-rich ocean currents fuel Palau’s rich biodiversity and create some of the most diverse dive experiences on the planet. Located just two hours ...
The Fish and Critters of Anilao, Philippines
Anilao is a dream location for macro photographers. Located in the northern part of the coral triangle and fueled by the productive currents of the Maricaban Strait, the muck diving mecca is a biodiverse hotspot. Anilao's 40+ dive sites are home ...
Meet The Iconic Green Sea Turtle
Sea turtles lived through the age of the dinosaurs—some as long as 250 million years ago. They have a deep connection within the stories of many different cultures; symbolizing knowledge, wisdom, and immortality. The range of the green sea turtle ...