This Week's Most Frequently Viewed Images

Hang Glider soaring at Torrey Pines Gliderport, sunset, flying over the Pacific Ocean.
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 24290  

Adelie penguin on an iceberg.
Species: Adelie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae
Location: Brown Bluff, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica
Image ID: 25006  

Kelp fronds and pneumatocysts. Pneumatocysts, gas-filled bladders, float the kelp plant off the ocean bottom toward the surface and sunlight, where the leaf-like blades and stipes of the kelp plant grow fastest. Giant kelp can grow up to 2' in a single day given optimal conditions. Epic submarine forests of kelp grow throughout California's Southern Channel Islands.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 25396  

Chipmunk.
Species: Chipmunk, Tamias
Location: Oregon Caves National Monument
Image ID: 25876  

Joshua trees, a species of yucca common in the lower Colorado desert and upper Mojave desert ecosystems.
Species: Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia
Location: Joshua Tree National Park, California
Image ID: 26747  

Scarring of this humpback whale's fluke allow researchers to identify this particular whale from season to season.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Santa Rosa Island, California
Image ID: 27027  

King angelfish in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico.
Species: King angelfish, Holacanthus passer
Location: Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 27474  

Blue whale 80-feet long, full body photograph of an enormous blue whale showing rostrom head to fluke tail, taken at close range with very wide lens.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 27967  

Red gorgonian on rocky reef, below kelp forest, underwater. The red gorgonian is a filter-feeding temperate colonial species that lives on the rocky bottom at depths between 50 to 200 feet deep. Gorgonians are oriented at right angles to prevailing water currents to capture plankton drifting by.
Species: Red gorgonian, Leptogorgia chilensis, Lophogorgia chilensis, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 23487  

San Diego Coronado Bridge, known locally as the Coronado Bridge, links San Diego with Coronado, California. The bridge was completed in 1969 and was a toll bridge until 2002. It is 2.1 miles long and reaches a height of 200 feet above San Diego Bay. Coronado Island is to the left, and downtown San Diego is to the right in this view looking north.
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 22365  

Percula clownfish anemonefish.
Species: Percula clownfish, Amphiprion percula
Image ID: 13678  

Four-eyed fish, found in the Amazon River delta of South America. The name four-eyed fish is actually a misnomer. It has only two eyes, but both are divided into aerial and aquatic parts. The two retinal regions of each eye, working in concert with two different curvatures of the eyeball above and below water to account for the difference in light refractivity for air and water, allow this amazing fish to see clearly above and below the water surface simultaneously.
Species: Four-eyed fish, Anableps anableps
Image ID: 14723  

Tube, Cylinders, the Wedge.
Location: The Wedge, Newport Beach, California
Image ID: 16996  

Lemon shark with live sharksuckers.
Species: Lemon shark, Echeneis naucrates, Negaprion brevirostris
Location: Bahamas
Image ID: 10752  

Black bear walking in a grassy meadow. Black bears can live 25 years or more, and range in color from deepest black to chocolate and cinnamon brown. Adult males typically weigh up to 600 pounds. Adult females weight up to 400 pounds and reach sexual maturity at 3 or 4 years of age. Adults stand about 3' tall at the shoulder.
Species: American black bear, Ursus americanus
Location: Orr, Minnesota
Image ID: 18793  

Sea lion head profile, showing small external ear, prominant forehead typical of adult males, whiskers. This sea lion is hauled out on public docks in Astoria's East Mooring Basin. This bachelor colony of adult males takes up residence for several weeks in late summer on public docks in Astoria after having fed upon migrating salmon in the Columbia River. The sea lions can damage or even sink docks and some critics feel that they cost the city money in the form of lost dock fees.
Species: California sea lion, Zalophus californianus
Location: Columbia River, Astoria, Oregon
Image ID: 19420  

Elk, bull elk, adult male elk with large set of antlers. By September, this bull elk's antlers have reached their full size and the velvet has fallen off. This bull elk has sparred with other bulls for access to herds of females in estrous and ready to mate.
Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis
Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Image ID: 19763  

California sea lion hauled out on rocks beside the ocean.
Species: California sea lion, Zalophus californianus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 20129  

North Pacific humpback whale calf, Mikako Kotani.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 01208  

Chestnut cowry, mantle exposed.
Species: Chestnut cowrie, Date cowrie, Cypraea spadicea
Location: San Miguel Island, California
Image ID: 00624