Male elephant seals (bulls) rear up on their foreflippers and fight in the surf for access for mating females that are in estrous. Such fighting among elephant seals can take place on the beach or in the water. They bite and tear at each other on the neck and shoulders, drawing blood and creating scars on the tough hides.
Species: Elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris
Location: Piedras Blancas, San Simeon, California
Image ID: 20369
Kelp fronds showing pneumatocysts, bouyant gas-filled bubble-like structures which float the kelp plant off the ocean bottom toward the surface, where it will spread to form a roof-like canopy.
Location: Santa Barbara Island, California
Image ID: 35827
Sunlight glows throughout a giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 37086
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: 37100
Kelp fronds and pneumatocysts. Pneumatocysts, gas-filled bladders, float the kelp off the ocean bottom toward the surface and sunlight, where the leaf-like blades and stipes of the kelp plant grow fastest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 37297
Courting pair of southern right whales underwater, Eubalaena australis. While the posture in this photo isn't quite mating, it is a courting behavior that often precedes mating. The male is below, upside down and trying to access the female belly-to-belly. However, the female does not want to mate, so she has positioned herself upside down at the surface so that the males in the courting group cannot reach her genital slit.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38345
Giant kelp frond showing pneumatocysts. Small gas bladders -- pneumatocysts -- connect the kelp's stipes ("stems") to its blades ("leaves"). These bladders help elevate the kelp plant from the bottom, towards sunlight and the water's surface.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33439
Giant kelp frond showing pneumatocysts. Small gas bladders -- pneumatocysts -- connect the kelp's stipes ("stems") to its blades ("leaves"). These bladders help elevate the kelp plant from the bottom, towards sunlight and the water's surface.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33440
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33441
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33442
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33443
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33444
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33445
Sunlight streams through giant kelp forest. Giant kelp, the fastest growing plant on Earth, reaches from the rocky reef to the ocean's surface like a submarine forest.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33446