Ocean Blog
Patience is a VirtuePublished by: Brian Skerry - Jun 18, 2012As an underwater photographer, time in the field is the most valuable thing I can be given. With time, I can usually overcome challenges and the problems that occur. Time also allows me to learn firsthand about the place in which I am working, what happens at different times of day and how animals behave. But oftentimes the best images are made when something unexpected happens. I love the discoveries that come from taking my time in a place and allowing opportunities to present themselves. |
 Brian Skerry photographing a large tiger shark in the Bahamas.
Copyright © Mark Conlin
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Scuba Diving Course a Success for IBRC StudentsPublished by: Maggy Hunter Benson - Jun 15, 2012For the past week, the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center (IBRC) diving class of 2012 has seen countless fish in shades of pink, blue, yellow, red, and green darting through corals and the overhangs of a shipwreck. They witnessed stunning bioluminescent plankton flash like fireflies in the dark ocean surf. Best yet, they have grown together as one unit, united through scuba diving. |
 The 2012 scientific diving class stands together at the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center's headquarters in Sanur, Bali. The class participated in an intensive one week scientific diving course, learning how to use scuba diving as a tool for scientific research.
Samantha Cheng
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Ray Bradbury and the SeaPublished by: Hannah Waters - Jun 6, 2012Today Ray Bradbury died. It might seem strange that I'm writing about Bradbury here on the Ocean Portal, as he's best known for his short stories about space exploration and strange aliens. But he also considered the unexplored realms of our own planet: the ocean. |
 A sea monster attacks a ship in an illustration for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.
Wikimedia Commons, Pierre-Jules Hetzel
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Live from the Field: Bali, IndonesiaPublished by: Maggy Hunter Benson - Jun 4, 2012It’s not everyday that I get to collect and gather data right alongside our Museum’s researchers. So, imagine my recent delight when the opportunity was presented to me to travel half way around the world to Bali, Indonesia to participate in a research and education field project. |
 The sun sets over Sanur in Bali, Indonesia during low tide.
Smithsonian Institution
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Life in the FieldPublished by: Brian Skerry - May 31, 2012To a photographer, all that matters is the image, the picture that results when the shutter is released. This is what people will see and what will remain of that moment in time, captured forever. But for wildlife photographers and especially underwater wildlife photographers, so much has to happen just to get to that moment when your finger is on the shutter release. |
 Crabeater seal resting on an iceberg.
Copyright Brian Skerry/National Geographic Magazine
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A World Adrift: Life in the SargassumPublished by: Seabird McKeon - May 30, 2012The open ocean is surprisingly barren to the naked eye. Every now and again you will encounter a school of fish and their attendant predators, but most of the life that you find is gathered around some sort of sheltering structure like a coral reef. |
 Relatively slow moving, juvenile plane-head filefish Monacanthus hispidus (Monacanthidae) travel along with the algae. They pick off and eat small animals as they move around in the rotating sargassum ball. Adult filefish only grow to be about 11 inches long.
Seabird McKeon
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Dancing for the OceansPublished by: Hannah Waters - May 25, 2012If you were choreographing a dance about the ocean, how would you do it? Would you dart around like a lobster in a hurry? Dive like a dolphin? Float like a jellyfish? |
 The food web, demonstrated by interpretive dancers in the production Ocean.
William Roden/Spector Dance
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Whale fossils on the mainland, and into a CT scannerPublished by: Nicholas D. Pyenson - May 21, 2012After a few long days of hard work on the island, we were finally able to excavate and remove, not just one, but two skeletons of an early "toothed" baleen whale from the rocks near the Carmanah Lighthouse. All told, it took our team 3 days, along with assistance from Parks Canada, a chartered boat, a chartered helicopter, car ferries, and one really nice diamond-bladed rock saw. |
 Gabor Szathmary secures one of the plaster jackets containing a fossil "toothed" mysticete that was excavated on Vancouver Island.
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Tagging and Tracking Animals UnderwaterPublished by: Emily Frost - May 16, 2012How do we know where ocean animals swim day and night? Scientists are getting snapshots into the daily lives of whales, sharks, and even fish by tagging the animals to track their movements. |
 “Manta rays sometimes approach divers; an up-close encounter with such a huge, peaceful animal is unforgettable!” -- Nature's Best photographer, Deborah Smrekar. Equipment Used to Capture the Shot: Nikon D70; 12-24mm; 1/100 sec at ƒ/11; Ikelite strobe.
Deborah Smrekar/Nature’s Best Photography
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Dispatches from the Field: Treacherous stream crossings and a new fossil findPublished by: Nicholas D. Pyenson - May 11, 2012Editor's note: Read Nick's first blog post about "toothed" baleen whales to see what their team is excavating on Vancouver Island. |
 Nick Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, holds an arm bone from a "toothed" mysticete from Vancouver Island.
J. A. Goldbogen
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