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A whale shark swims through the open ocean in the Galapagos Islands. The whale shark is the largest shark on Earth, but is harmless eating plankton and small fish.
Image ID: 01520
Species: Whale shark, Rhincodon typus
Location: Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador | Bryozoan grows on a 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.
Image ID: 25395
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA | 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.
Image ID: 25393
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA |
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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.
Image ID: 25394
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA | Freediver photographing pelagic gelatinous zooplankton, adrift in the open ocean.
Image ID: 26817
Species: Fried-egg jellyfish, Phacellophora camtschatica
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Bottlenose dolphins swim through red tide, hunt a school of fish, lit by glowing bioluminescence caused by microscopic Lingulodinium polyedrum dinoflagellate organisms which glow blue when agitated at night.
Image ID: 27066
Species: Lingulodinium polyedrum
Location: La Jolla, California, USA |
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Lingulodinium polyedrum red tide dinoflagellate plankton, glows blue when it is agitated in wave and is visible at night.
Image ID: 27064
Species: Lingulodinium polyedrum
Location: La Jolla, California, USA | Freediving photographer in a cloud of salps, gelatinous zooplankton that drifts with open ocean currents.
Image ID: 27012
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Red gorgonian polyps. The red gorgonian is a colonial organism composed of thousands of tiny polyps. Each polyp secretes calcium which accumulates to form the structure of the colony. The fan-shaped gorgonian is oriented perpendicular to prevailing ocean currents to better enable to filter-feeding polyps to capture passing plankton and detritus passing by.
Image ID: 03480
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA |
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Egg-yolk jellyfish, fried egg jelly.
Image ID: 14035
Species: Fried egg jellyfish, Phacellophora camtschatica | Purple-striped jelly.
Image ID: 14061
Species: Purple-striped jellyfish, Chrysaora colorata | Sea nettles.
Image ID: 14081
Species: Sea nettles, Chrysaora fuscescens |
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Sea nettles.
Image ID: 14083
Species: Sea nettles, Chrysaora fuscescens | Sea nettles.
Image ID: 14084
Species: Sea nettles, Chrysaora fuscescens | Sea nettles.
Image ID: 14087
Species: Sea nettles, Chrysaora fuscescens |
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Purple-striped jelly.
Image ID: 14923
Species: Purple-striped jellyfish, Chrysaora colorata | Sea nettles.
Image ID: 14928
Species: Sea nettles, Chrysaora fuscescens | 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.
Image ID: 23420
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA |
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California golden gorgonian and small juvenile sheephead fishes on rocky reef, below kelp forest, underwater. The golden gorgonian is a filter-feeding temperate colonial species that lives on the rocky bottom at depths between 50 to 200 feet deep. Each individual polyp is a distinct animal, together they secrete calcium that forms the structure of the colony. Gorgonians are oriented at right angles to prevailing water currents to capture plankton drifting by.
Image ID: 23421
Species: California golden gorgonian, Muricea californica, Semicossyphus pulcher
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA | 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.
Image ID: 23425
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA | 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.
Image ID: 23431
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA |
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California golden gorgonian on rocky reef, underwater. The golden gorgonian is a filter-feeding temperate colonial species that lives on the rocky bottom at depths between 50 to 200 feet deep. Each individual polyp is a distinct animal, together they secrete calcium that forms the structure of the colony. Gorgonians are oriented at right angles to prevailing water currents to capture plankton drifting by.
Image ID: 25397
Species: California golden gorgonian, Muricea californica
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA | Brown gorgonians on rocky reef, below kelp forest, underwater. Gorgonians are filter-feeding temperate colonial species that live on the rocky bottom at depths between 50 to 200 feet deep. Each individual polyp is a distinct animal, together they secrete calcium that forms the structure of the colony. Gorgonians are oriented at right angles to prevailing water currents to capture plankton drifting by.
Image ID: 25398
Species: Brown gorgonian, Muricea fruticosa
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA | 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.
Image ID: 25406
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA |
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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.
Image ID: 25407
Species: Red gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA | Colonial planktonic pelagic tunicate, adrift in the open ocean, forms rings and chains as it drifts with ocean currents.
Image ID: 26819
Species: Salp, Cyclosalpa affinis
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Colonial planktonic pelagic tunicate, adrift in the open ocean, forms rings and chains as it drifts with ocean currents.
Image ID: 26823
Species: Salp, Cyclosalpa affinis
Location: San Diego, California, USA |
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Purple-striped jellyfish.
Image ID: 01034
Species: Purple-striped jellyfish, Chrysaora colorata
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Salp (pelagic tunicate) reproduction, open ocean.
Image ID: 01263
Species: Salp, Cyclosalpa affinis
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Hydromedusa with amphipod, open ocean.
Image ID: 02491
Species: Hydromedusa, Mitrocoma cellularia
Location: San Diego, California, USA |