I swam with my first shark in the 1980s. I was 20 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, working with a group of marine scientists. Late in the day, a 5-foot long blue shark swam into our chum slick. For the next hour, I marveled at the animal's stunning indigo color and the elegant way she moved effortlessly through the sea.

Brian Skerry

Categorized in : Day Long Blue Sea

The oceans are in trouble. There are some serious problems out there that I believe are not clear to many people. My hope is to continually find new ways of creating images and stories that both celebrate the sea yet also highlight environmental problems. Photography can be a powerful instrument for change.

Brian Skerry

powerful photography believe

Last year the [harp seal] pup mortality rate was 100 percent in parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Brian Skerry

pups ocean years

There's still a lot of people out there who think the only good shark is a dead shark.

Brian Skerry

sharks ocean thinking

The Internet and my web site have grown to become essential components of my business. The expertise and support that LuxSci continually delivers is crucial to maintaining the worldwide contact I need to succeed. LuxSci provides peace of mind!

Brian Skerry

maintaining support mind

Remove the predators, and the whole ecosystem begins to crash like a house of cards. As the sharks disappear, the predator-prey balance dramatically shifts, and the health of our oceans declines.

Brian Skerry

balance health house cards

I think that going to the beach as a child, being in the water and smelling that salt air and hearing the seagulls, it had a real calming effect. But also, it was a mysterious thing - I remember wondering what was under those dark New England seas.

Brian Skerry

child dark water beach

The Bahamas has mangrove nurseries, coral reefs, shallow sea grass beds, and deep oceanic trenches - all perfect ecosystems for sharks. Photographing multiple shark species in exquisite water was the assignment I had dreamed about from the start.

Brian Skerry

deep start sea water

I love storytelling, I love being a visual person, and it just made perfect sense to be an underwater photographer and explore the ocean and work with scientists.

Brian Skerry

ocean perfect work love

I have been blessed to realize my dream of becoming an underwater photojournalist, but with that, I feel an obligation and sense of urgency to share what I have seen with others.

Brian Skerry

realize feel blessed dream

Most whale photos you see show whales in this beautiful blue water - it's almost like space.

Brian Skerry

you blue beautiful water

I typically shoot underwater with my regular camera in an underwater housing, and then I usually have two big strobes that I use to light. But with whales, you're not going to be able to really light a 45-foot subject. Your strobes are only effective for maybe five or six feet underwater.

Brian Skerry

camera you light feet

Under the snowcapped mountains of Fiordland National Park, freshwater streams empty into the saltwater fiords, creating a unique ecosystem. This is a heavily wooded park, so the water in the streams is stained with tannin, a substance found in plants that makes clean water seem dirty, though it isn't.

Brian Skerry

plants mountains unique water

Photography can be a powerful instrument for change, and photojournalists can tell stories that make a difference.

Brian Skerry

make-a-difference powerful change

For where Kingman is located, the coral cover is unique in the world. I refer to it as a universe of hard corals. You are not going to find soft corals like in the western Pacific - places like Indonesia, Palau, or Fiji.

Brian Skerry

you universe unique world

New England waters are some of my favorite - they are some of the richest waters because they are temperate waters and nutrient-rich, and therefore provide food for so many animals, from giant whales to sharks to everything else.

Brian Skerry

animals new everything food

I've been diving for about 30 years, and I can honestly say that I've had some amazing encounters with sharks, squids, and other whales. But the encounter with the right whales in the Auckland Islands was probably the best thing I've ever done. It was just that amazing.

Brian Skerry

amazing best i-can done

For a photographer, sharks are a stirring subject, possessing a perfect blend of grace and power. They have been sculpted by evolution and are ideally suited for whichever ecosystem they inhabit, from coral reefs to the open ocean.

Brian Skerry

ocean grace power perfect

I have photographed sharks in waters around the globe, and I always want more and yearn to peer deeper into their world. To feed my passion and to raise awareness, I developed a story about sharks for 'National Geographic' magazine.

Brian Skerry

story passion want world

Kneeling on the sea bottom in a place known as Tiger Beach, I watched a 12-foot- long female tiger shark cruise over the turtle grass with three silver bar jacks swimming in front of her nose.

Brian Skerry

swimming sea beach long

As a young boy, I was very interested - as I still am - in all sorts of adventure and exploration. I thought about being an astronaut, a dinosaur scientist, or marine biologist, but I clearly was drawn to the ocean and to the water.

Brian Skerry

boy ocean adventure water