Hannah Waters

A Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) poses in the waters off Acadia National Park in Maine. Grey seals live on both coasts of the Northern Atlantic, with breeding colonies in Great Britain, Ireland, and down the eastern coast of North America from Canada down to New Jersey.

They used to be hunted in the United States, but their numbers have grown since the passing of the US Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972.

A sea monster attacks a ship in an illustration for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. The illustration is by publisher and artist Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who is most famous for his drawings in Verne's books.

This terrifying monster looks a lot like an octopus or squid, which do little harm to people. Read about how author Ray Bradbury encouraged people to sympathize with sea beasts in one of his short stories.

Three dancers demonstrate the food web in the production Ocean, which blends dance with scientist interviews, facts, and ocean photography. The choreographer, Fran Spector Atkins, hopes dance will help her message of ocean conservation reach more people. "With words, people just tune out after a while," she said. "But bringing the emotional of dance with the visual imagery and the words will reach people at different levels at the same time."

Read more about the production on the Ocean Portal blog.

Male northern elephant seals face off on the beach by vocalizing through their extended noses, called proboscises. Every winter, when the seals return to the beach where they were born to breed, males arrive first to tussle for territory. The winners of these fights are the "alpha" males, and they get the biggest and best territories. After the beachfront property is divvied among the alpha males, the females arrive for breeding.