Tag: blue

cetacean-nation:

nubbsgalore:

“they were highly curious. they would come within inches of me with great curiosity, but no aggression,” notes brian skerry, who was photographing southern right whales in the auckland islands marine reserve.

said brian, i’ve been diving for about thirty years, and i can honestly say that i’ve had some amazing encounters with sharks, squids, and other whales. but the encounter with the right whales in the auckland islands was probably the best thing i’ve ever done.“

as brian recounts, “i was swimming alongside this huge whale, kicking as hard as i can to keep up…but i had to take a break, so i stopped and kneeled down on the bottom. instead of continuing, the whale stops and turns and waits for me, as if to say ‘i’ll wait for you to catch your breath.’

“after a while it would get bored and go back up to the surface, so i would ascend to kind of remind it that i was still around. it would see me, and i’d go back down. and sure enough, the whale would follow me. It was like swimming around with a friend.”

Classic photos! Brian Skerry has great underwater photography!

giffingsharks:

The Wobbegong shark is a dorsoventrally flattened fish. There are twelve species of Wobbegongs and they all have these little stylish fleshy tabs on their chins for camouflage; Wobbegong comes from an aboriginal name meaning “shaggy beard.” Because Wobbegongs are extremely confident in their camouflage, they cause no threat to divers. In fact, divers can swim up to one and it just sits there and doesn’t move, completely convinced that it can’t be seen. Unlike most sharks, which breathe through their mouth, the Wobbegong breathes through a pair of spiracles that are kind of like nostrils that don’t smell, they’re on the top of the head. This is because the mouth is down so low to the sand, if they were breathing through their mouth, they would just get a mouthful of sand. Yuck.