Brian Skerry

Brian Skerry

Brian Skerry

Brian Skerry is a photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998 he has been a contract photographer for National Geographic Magazine covering a wide range of subjects and stories about the ocean.

He has also worked on assignment for or had images featured in magazines such as Sports Illustrated, US News and World Report, BBC Wildlife, GEO, Smithsonian, Esquire, Audubon, Men’s Journal. His latest monograph Ocean Soul has received worldwide acclaim.

In 2010 National Geographic magazine named one of Brian’s images among their 50 Greatest Photographs Of All Time. A new exhibit of Brian’s work will be open through May 2015 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

For more information on Brian and his work visit his website brianskerry.com.

First Swim – 2003 – Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada – A harp seal pup, about 14 days old, makes its first swim in the icy waters of Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence.

A harp seal pup rests on the ice at sunset in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence, awaiting its mothers return.

Florida Manatee swimming within a fresh water spring on Crystal River in Florida. Fish aggregate around the manatee and eat algae on the manatee’s body.

Shark Nursery – 2005 – Bimini Island – Lemon Shark Pups, like this one are born in the spring and spend the first 2-3 years of their lives in mangrove nurseries, where they find protection and sustenance among the roots. To make this picture I spent days lying in the 12” deep water allowing the pups to acclimate to me. This little shark was about 16” in length and cruised gracefully through its unique marine realm. Much of Bimini’s mangroves are presently being destroyed for the development of resorts and golf courses.

Like a kaleidoscope always moving with color and light, the kelp forest sea floor of Cortes Banks teams with life.

Soft corals called sea pens, usually found at depth, and a blue cod appear in shallow waters in Long Sound reserve, where tannin-stained surface water blocks sunlight. Fragile marine ecosystems such as this are thriving in New Zealand due to federal protection. This picture was made at a depth of 23-meters, where no ambient light exists and deep-water animals (like sea pens) are tricked into emerging into shallower depths.

Schooling Spadefish (Batfish) off of Muko Jima Island, Japan. Ogasawara Islands

Shrimp In Anemone – 2007 – Kingman Reef, Central Pacific Ocean – I found this tiny, translucent shrimp living inside a colorful anemone while working in Kingman Reef; a remote atoll located about 1200 miles south of Hawaii. The shrimp is about half the size of a grain of rice.

Pelagic Predator – 2006 – Central Bahamas – An Oceanic Whitetip Shark swims past biologist Wes Pratt in rich, blue Bahamian waters. Oceanic Whitetip Sharks are considered the fourth most dangerous species of shark, but are 98% in decline in most of their habitats worldwide due to over fishing.

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