rhamphotheca:

The Ocean Photography of Brian Skerry

by Jaymi Heimbuch

Brian Skerry’s photography is nothing short of amazing. Working as a conservation photographer, he pushes his images to do more than look nice — he wants them to inspire change, to improve how we treat the oceans and the lifeforms living in it.

Ocean Soul, his newest book, shows off the amazing photographs Skerry has taken over the years, and describes the ocean “as a place of beauty and mystery, a place in trouble, and ultimately, a place of hope that will rebound with the proper attention and care.”…

(read more: TreeHugger)

Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum)

The nurse shark (not to be confused with the Grey Nurse Shark (Carcharias taurus), which is a terribly deceptive nickname for the sand tiger shark) is a species of carpet shark that is mostly harmless to humans. They use a bellows apparatus created by the fact that their throat is much larger than their mouth to create a powerful suction (no oral sex jokes. See? I can be mature! …hehe…suction) that they use to trap their prey. This suction can get so strong as to create pressures of -760 mm Hg (link is a PDF), which is enough to pull a sea snail right out of its shell. As far as interaction with humans is concerned, most of the time, if one is calm and non-aggressive, one can actually swim up to— and sometimes even stroke—wild nurse sharks with little to no danger to one’s self.

<Photos: Christine Schmidt & “Captain DJ”>

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