Blue whale. The sleek hydrodynamic shape of the enormous blue whale allows it to swim swiftly through the ocean, at times over one hundred miles in a single day.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 21250
Makena Beach State Park aerial photo, Maui, Hawaii. Big Beach on the right, Little Beach on the left, Haleakala rising in the distance on the right, West Maui Mountains in the distance on the left.
Location: Makena, Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 38214
Panorama dimensions: 5567 x 12626
Blue whale fluking up (raising its tail) before a dive to forage for krill, Baja California (Mexico).
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Image ID: 03332
Plexauridae sea fan or gorgonian on coral reef. This gorgonian is a type of colonial alcyonacea soft coral that filters plankton from passing ocean currents.
Species: Gorgonian, Gorgonacea
Location: Bligh Waters, Fiji
Image ID: 34750
Carlsbad Coast Highway Sunset, from Terramar and North Ponto to Oceanside and Camp Pendleton. The smoke stack that marked the old Encina Power Plant was removed in 2021. Oceanside Pier is seen beautifully lit in the distance. Rising in the distance is San Onofre Mountain (1722') topped by a tall signal tower, one of the southern peaks in the Santa Ana Mountains.
Location: Carlsbad, California
Image ID: 37479
Chocolate lily growing among grasses on oak-covered hillsides. The chocolate lily is a herbaceous perennial monocot that is increasingly difficult to find in the wild due to habitat loss. The flower is a striking brown color akin to the color of chocolate.
Location: Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, Murrieta, California
Image ID: 33151
Adult male humpback whale singing, suspended motionless underwater. Only male humpbacks have been observed singing. All humpbacks in the North Pacific sing the same whale song each year, and the song changes slightly from one year to the next.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 02796
Carlsbad Coast at Sunset, Terramar and the Oceanside Pier, with Camp Pendleton and the San Onofre power plant in the distance on this incredibly clean and crisp evening view. Rising in the distance is San Onofre Mountain (1722') topped by a tall signal tower, one of the southern peaks in the Santa Ana Mountains.
Location: Carlsbad, California
Image ID: 37482
Panorama dimensions: 1106 x 3500
A small harbor seal pup only a few hours old, resting on a sand beach in San Diego between episodes of nursing on its mother. Over 50 harbor seal pups were born in La Jolla during the 2023 birthing season.
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 39067
Marriott Hotel towers, rising above the Embarcadero Marine Park and yacht marina.
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 22291
Ancient bristlecone pine tree, rising above the arid, dolomite-rich slopes of the Schulman Grove in the White Mountains at an elevation of 9500 above sea level, along the Methuselah Walk. The oldest bristlecone pines in the world are found in the Schulman Grove, some of them over 4700 years old. Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
Species: Bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva
Location: White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, California
Image ID: 23233
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
Blue whale and San Onofre Nuclear Power generating station, raising fluke prior to diving for food, fluking up, lifting its tail as it swims in the open ocean foraging for food.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: Dana Point, California
Image ID: 27337
The corallimorph Corynactis californica, similar to both stony corals and anemones, is typified by a wide oral disk and short tentacles that radiate from the mouth. The tentacles grasp food passing by in ocean currents.
Species: Strawberry anemone, Corynactis californica
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 37212
The corallimorph Corynactis californica, similar to both stony corals and anemones, is typified by a wide oral disk and short tentacles that radiate from the mouth. The tentacles grasp food passing by in ocean currents.
Species: Strawberry anemone, Corynactis californica
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 37215