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Aug 27 2012 - 11:52am
"I was photographing this beautiful school of jacks when a diver slowly approached from beneath. I shifted my position to capture the moment he entered the ball of fish. Seconds later, he was completely immersed in the school.” -- Nature's Best photographer, Steve De Neef
See a slideshow of...
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Jan 6 2011 - 10:56am
Ice divers use a quadrat to study the density of creatures living on the underside of Arctic ice floes. A quadrat is a standardized square used to take sample measurements that allow researchers to get an accurate estimate of the number of particular animals living in a larger space.
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Jan 6 2011 - 10:48am
Ice divers Katrin Iken (left) and Elizabeth Siddon are about to descend through a hole in the Arctic ice and into the frigid world below.
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Dec 23 2010 - 2:52pm
“Manta rays sometimes approach divers; an up-close encounter with such a huge, peaceful animal is unforgettable!” -- Nature's Best photographer, Deborah Smrekar.
See more beautiful ocean photos in our slideshow of winners from the 2010 Nature's Best Ocean Views photo contest.
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Apr 26 2011 - 12:36pm
Plastic trash floats in the waters off the Smithsonian's Carrie Bow Cay field station, in Belize. This image is a still taken from a video recorded by Laurie Penland, a Smithsonian dive officer.
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Oct 13 2010 - 10:51am
For those of you who have had the opportunity to visit a coral reef, you know that it’s an experience you are unlikely to forget.
Coral reefs are among the world’s most magnificent ecosystems. Their beauty alone makes them incalculably valuable, but beyond aesthetics, their importance to both...
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Jan 6 2011 - 10:28am
Arctic Ice diver Shawn Harper “stands” on the ice ceiling above him.
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
Dr. Claude Payri, a researcher working on the Moorea Biocode Project, collects samples on the reef slope of Moorea, French Polynesia. More about the Island of Moorea can be found in our Scientists Catalog Life on the Island of Moorea section.
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Jan 5 2011 - 4:43pm
It takes special equipment and many warm layers of clothing to dive safely beneath Arctic sea ice. Ice divers look for holes in a melt pond in order to enter the frigid waters.
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Apr 17 2010 - 12:00pm
A cameraman navigates a smack of sea nettles (Chrysaora fuscescens) in Monterey Bay. A group of jellies is known as a "smack."
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Apr 26 2011 - 12:49pm
It blew in for two solid days: a flotilla of plastic forks, soda bottles, rubber gloves, and other refuse. I tried to pick everything up off the beach, but when I turned around, you couldn’t tell that I had cleaned at all. When we went out in the boats, we had to go slowly in order to dodge the...
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Mar 5 2010 - 4:29pm
Manta rays are related to sharks, but have quite a different reputation among humans. They are often called the gentle giants of the sea because of their curious nature and graceful movements. This one glides up, as if to greet a diver in the blue water, near San Benedicto, Mexico.
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Jul 15 2011 - 5:00pm
"Cold-Water Diving: Going to Extremes for Research" is a video produced by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) that shows the focus needed to do scientific work in cold water. The gear is bulkier and heavier, cold affects dexterity and capacity, and dives must be shorter yet still get the...
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Jul 27 2011 - 12:11pm
Dr. Peter Auster gets ready for a dive to study the ecology of fish predators at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Georgia.
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May 25 2012 - 12:14pm
Underwater photographer, Brian Skerry, prepares for an icy dive off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan. With all the specialized gear and the large amount of travel necessary to take photos underwater, Skerry says that "being a National Geographic magazine photographer is not unlike being a professional...
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May 17 2010 - 3:18pm
A scientific diver collects data on an underwater slate. Over the past several decades, scuba diving has become a serious, rigorous research tool that has an enormous impact on our understanding of this blue planet.
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Nov 11 2009 - 5:48pm
Scientists on the tiny island of Moorea, in the Pacific, are gathering one of every life form large enough to pick up with tweezers. They're on a quest to build a detailed catalog of the entire ecosystem. Learn more about the island and the research being done there in our Casting a Wide Net...
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Jul 27 2011 - 12:14pm
Auster gets ready to study fish predators at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Georgia.
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
Dr. Valerie Paul is studying chemical defenses that may protect coral reefs from many species of herbivores that live on coral reefs. In this picture she is examining tropical seaweeds on northwestern Guam’s coral reefs. Dr. Paul is the director of the Smithsonian Marine Station (SMS) at Fort...
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
Chris Meyer takes his nephew’s friend, Flat Stanley, for a dive in Moorea.
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May 22 2010 - 11:30am
Two divers, one in an atmospheric dive suit (left) and the other in standard dive gear (right), prepare to explore the Lusitania shipwreck in 1935. Over the decades, diving gear has evolved and changed, and its role in marine research has expanded. Scuba and other forms of diving have allowed...
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Apr 26 2011 - 12:22pm
Laurie Penland is a professional photographer and the Diving Officer for the Smithsonian Institution.
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Jan 6 2011 - 10:18am
The world beneath the Arctic ice is magical, but cold. Divers have to tolerate temperatures of 30 degrees Fahrenheit (about -2° Celsius.) To stay warm they wear thermal undergarments and use special gear called dry suits. Sunlight filters through the ice layer bathing the underwater habitats...
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Jul 15 2011 - 4:51pm
"Inside the Open Ocean: Blue Water Diving" produced by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), describes a specialized diving technique that lets biologists study the ocean's most fragile beings--soft, transparent animals such as jellyfish that are crushed by traditional tools such as plankton...
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