Underwater world

Northern pike (Esox lucius), a fierce predator, resides in the verdant waters of Šićki Kop lake. Its green scales blend in with the towering lake weed, while speed remains a hidden weapon. The quickness becomes an imperative in the hunt which starts a moment after this creature breaks its camouflage. Most of the attacks are unsuccessful, while in the successful ones, when caught, prey has little to no chance to escape.

An undulating Atlantic white-spotted octopus verifies the edibility of my dome port during a night session . This strictly nocturnal creature has tentacles up to a meter long on a body lenght of 15 cm., hence its latin name Callistoctopus macropus. Despite its worrying appeal, and its "red devil" colour, it is indeed a fragile gentle creature.

Honor award  Girona's Region

As a rider rides his steed, in this image we can see an amphipod (Hyperiidea), resembling more to an Alien than to an animal of this planet, on top of a anthomedusa from the species Neoturris pileata ploughing the currents.

During the Marlin Run you spend days looking out for bait balls and marlins in the middle of the Pacific. But is not just that. You can find dolphins, whales or in this case devil rays (Mobula sp.). That day we had everything. Suddenly some rays just jumped out of the water, flapping their wings. We jumped ourselves into the water to be able to view this group flying elegantly under the sea forming an almost perfect circle.

Lit by a polarised strobe, a Common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) poses as it flashes iridescent hues otherwise invisible to the human eye. Recent scientific experiments suggest that cuttlefish might be using the iridescent portion of their colouration to produce polarised light messages only visible to conspecifics, while and at the same time modulating their solid colours to help camouflage them against predators

On Noto Island in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, in early summer, if you are lucky, you can see a large school of jellyfish (Medusozoa). I was fascinated by so many jellyfish that I could see them from the boat. As soon as I entered the sea, I was surrounded by a swarm of jellyfish. No matter which direction I looked, I was surrounded by jellyfish. What could be a more mystical sight?

While observing this Atlantic goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) surround by many round scads (Decapterus punctatus), it looked like it swims through a tunnel of fish. This reminded me of a moment in Gulliver’s Travels: When Gulliver arrives at Lilliput and walks carefully not to step on the tiny Lilliputians. To give a sense of movement, I used a slow shutter speed, creating motion blur, and waited for a goliath to ‘emerge’ out of the school.