This Week's Most Frequently Viewed Images

Macrocystis kelp growing up from a rocky reef, the kelp's holdfast is like a root cluster which attaches the kelp to the rocky reef on the oceans bottom. Kelp blades are visible above the holdfast, swaying in the current.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 37053  

Vernal Falls and Merced River in spring, heavy flow due to snow melt in the high country above Yosemite Valley.
Location: Vernal Falls, Yosemite National Park, California
Image ID: 09195  

King angelfish.
Species: King angelfish, Holacanthus passer
Image ID: 09226  

Old Wife.
Species: Old wife, Enoplosus armatus
Image ID: 09240  

Sohal tang or Arabian surgeonfish.
Species: Arabian surgeonfish, Acanthurus sohal
Image ID: 09350  

Yellow longnose butterfly fish (forceps butterfly).
Species: Yellow longnose butterflyfish, Forcipiger flavissimus
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 09454  

Mexican hogfish, adult male showing fleshy bump on head.
Species: Mexican hogfish, Bodianus diplotaenia
Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 09621  

Gray whales, two males both with extended penis during courtship socialization, Laguna San Ignacio.
Species: Gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus
Location: San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 06431  

A bull elephant seal forceably mates (copulates) with a much smaller female, often biting her into submission and using his weight to keep her from fleeing. Males may up to 5000 lbs, triple the size of females. Sandy beach rookery, winter, Central California.
Species: Elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris
Location: Piedras Blancas, San Simeon, California
Image ID: 15451  

California poppies, wildflowers blooming in huge swaths of spring color in Antelope Valley.
Species: California poppy, Eschscholtzia californica, Eschscholzia californica
Location: Lancaster, California
Image ID: 25233  

Garibaldi fish on kelp forest reef, underwater.
Species: Garibaldi, Hypsypops rubicundus
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 25424  

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: 25429  

Humpback whales lunge feed on Antarctic krill, engulfing huge mouthfuls of the tiny crustacean.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Gerlache Strait, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica
Image ID: 25688  

Zodiac cruising in Neko Harbor.
Location: Neko Harbor, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica
Image ID: 25731  

Giant black sea bass, gathering in a mating - courtship aggregation amid kelp forest, Catalina Island.
Species: Giant black sea bass, Stereolepis gigas
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 33368  

Purple lupine flowers bloom in late summer, along a stream that feeds to Lake Evelyn in the high Sierra Nevada near Vogelsang High Sierra Camp.
Location: Yosemite National Park, California
Image ID: 25763  

Southern Stingrays, Stingray City, Grand Cayman Island.
Species: Southern stingray, Dasyatis americana
Location: Stingray City, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Image ID: 32235  

California sea lion underwater.
Species: California sea lion, Zalophus californianus
Location: Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 27420  

Scissortail damselfish, Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico.
Species: Scissortail damselfish, Chromis atrilobata
Location: Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 27560  

Breaking wave, morning, barrel shaped surf, California.
Location: California
Image ID: 27999  

Ceiling art detail.
Location: Chateau de Versailles, Paris, France
Image ID: 28069  
Panorama dimensions: 5392 x 6250

Aerial Photo of Tijuana River Mouth SMCA. Tijuana River Mouth State Marine Conservation Area borders Imperial Beach and the Mexican Border.
Location: Imperial Beach, California
Image ID: 30647  

Large adult male sea lion underwater.
Species: California sea lion, Zalophus californianus
Location: Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 31248  

USS Kittiwake wreck, sunk off Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman Island to form an underwater marine park and dive attraction.
Location: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Image ID: 32150  

Grouper on coral reef, Grand Cayman Island.
Location: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Image ID: 32172  

La Tour Eiffel at dusk over the River Seine in Paris France. The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, who designed the tower in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair. The Eiffel tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Location: Tour Eiffel, Paris, France
Image ID: 35677  

M/V Polar Star approaches Jenkins Glacier (left), Risting Glacier (center) and a third glacier (right) at the end of Drygalski Fjord.
Location: Drygalski Fjord, South Georgia Island
Image ID: 24688  

Oakum boys, juvenile king penguins at Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island. Named 'oakum boys' by sailors for the resemblance of their brown fluffy plumage to the color of oakum used to caulk timbers on sailing ships, these year-old penguins will soon shed their fluffy brown plumage and adopt the colors of an adult.
Species: King penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus
Location: Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island
Image ID: 24406  

Tall seacliffs overlook the southern Atlantic Ocean, a habitat on which albatross and penguin reside.
Location: New Island, Falkland Islands, United Kingdom
Image ID: 23811  

White southern right whale calf underwater, Eubalaena australis. About five per cent of southern right whales are born white due to a condition known as grey morphism and will gradually turn dark as they age. They are not albino (which is a complete lack of pigmentation). Sometimes referred to as "brindled", the white coloration is a recessive genetic trait and only lasts a few months. Typically, but not always, white calves will become much darker as they mature but will still be somewhat lighter than normal even as adults.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 35908