Serigala-Belut

ASK DIVERS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST what makes for a great dive, and most will agree that a wolf-eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) is involved. There is something about the face of an adult wolf-eel staring at you from its den that turns an ordinary dive into a great one. The specific conditions don’t matter. Cold temperatures, terrible visibility, or strong currents are easy to forget when a wolfie — as we call them locally — appears. 

wolf-eel out of its den

Under the Jetties in the Southern Australia Seas

It is early June, the onset of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and an army has just reached its destination. It has marched from the ocean’s depths into the shallows, amassing among the pilings at Blairgowrie Pier in Port Phillip Bay, south of Melbourne, Australia. 

Rapid Bay Jetty is a great dive site where one has a good chance of seeing leafy seadragons and other fascinating marine life.

Impacts of Climate Change on a Deep-Sea Fish

As I drove west past Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on my way to a photo shoot, I watched in disbelief as the temperature gauge in my vehicle rose from 64°F (18°C) to 113°F (45°C). I thought something was wrong with my gauge, but a local radio station reported the same temperature. British Columbia had record-high temperatures throughout the province that week in June 2021.

A plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus) in the Salish Sea

Getting to the Point with Billfish

When you think of a billfish, what comes to mind? Perhaps it’s a swordfish, a sailfish, or even the giant marlin from Ernest Hemingway’s classic The Old Man and the Sea. It can be confusing because 12 species are collectively known as billfish: one swordfish, four spearfish, two sailfish, and five marlins.

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The Lives of Spiny Lobsters

Her legs move quickly as she scrambles over the sand toward a large coral reef. It’s a bold and risky move, as the expanses of sand between coral patches are full of predators waiting to take advantage of a lone spiny lobster. 

Caribbean spiny lobsters
Indonesian