White metridium anemones fed by strong ocean currents, cover a cold water reef teeming with invertebrate life. Browning Pass, Vancouver Island.
Species: Plumose anemone, Metridium senile
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Image ID: 35277
La Sainte-Chapelle, The Holy Chapel, is one of the only surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Ile de la Cite in the heart of Paris, France. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom.
Location: La Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, France
Image ID: 35602
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: 38446
Red gorgonian and California golden gorgonian on underwater rocky reef, San Clemente Island. 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.
Species: Red gorgonian, California golden gorgonian, Leptogorgia chilensis, Lophogorgia chilensis, Muricea californica
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 38499
Humpback whale mother, calf (top), male escort (rear), underwater. A young humpback calf typically swims alongside or above its mother, and male escorts will usually travel behind the mother.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 02819
Adult male humpback whale bubble streaming underwater. The male escort humpback whale seen here is emitting a curtain of bubbles as it swims behind a mother and calf. The bubble curtain may be meant as warning or visual obstruction to other nearby male whales interested in the mother.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 05925
California brown pelican orange morph, preening its feathers while on cliffs over the ocean. While this adult brown pelican exhibits the brown hind neck of a breeding adult, it displays an unusual orange throat rather than the more typical red.
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 38688
Aerial photo of gray whale calf and mother. This baby gray whale was born during the southern migration, far to the north of the Mexican lagoons of Baja California where most gray whale births take place.
Species: Gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus
Location: San Clemente, California
Image ID: 29017
Nevada Falls marks where the Merced River plummets almost 600 through a joint in the Little Yosemite Valley, shooting out from a sheer granite cliff and then down to a boulder pile far below.
Location: Nevada Falls, Yosemite National Park, California
Image ID: 16114
Coastal brown bear in meadow. The tall sedge grasses in this coastal meadow are a food source for brown bears, who may eat 30 lbs of it each day during summer while waiting for their preferred food, salmon, to arrive in the nearby rivers.
Species: Brown bear, Ursus arctos
Location: Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
Image ID: 19138
Coastal brown bear in meadow. The tall sedge grasses in this coastal meadow are a food source for brown bears, who may eat 30 lbs of it each day during summer while waiting for their preferred food, salmon, to arrive in the nearby rivers.
Species: Brown bear, Ursus arctos
Location: Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
Image ID: 19155
Portrait of a young brown bear, pausing while grazing in tall sedge grass. Brown bears can consume 30 lbs of sedge grass daily, waiting weeks until spawning salmon fill the rivers.
Species: Brown bear, Ursus arctos
Location: Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
Image ID: 19157
California sea lion, underwater at Santa Barbara Island. Santa Barbara Island, 38 miles off the coast of southern California, is part of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and Channel Islands National Park. It is home to a large population of sea lions.
Species: California sea lion, Zalophus californianus
Location: Santa Barbara Island, California
Image ID: 23418