Often extremely elusive even to the most skillful seamen, the sailfish seems to hunt in large packs around sardines. This photoset from National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen is stunning.

Source: Sailfish – Photo Gallery.

“For Benjamin Wilken, it was the chance of a lifetime. He wrote a 300-word essay on how he became a young explorer, attached a photograph he took, put it in the mail and now, months later, he is packing his bags for an all-expense-paid trip down under with National Geographic.”

When I was younger I remember my grandparent’s library holding hundreds of copies of National Geographic Magazine.  They had a subscription to the magazine for, what had to be, decades.  The best part about it was that they shared this subscription with my father, who would take an edition home after my grandfather was done reading it.  I would, in turn, read (or at the very least look at the photos) the editions after he was done.

At the time I didn’t really realize how great an opportunity I had, being exposed to such incredible journalism and information from around the world at my finger-tips, long before I ever signed onto the Internet.

Benjamin Wilken, who started playing with a digital camera around the age of 6, went a step further than I ever did.  He read the magazines and even entered a contest in it.  To be fair, he has a subscription to National Geographic Kids – perhaps the reading is a tad-bit lighter.

His love for photography, the subscription to the magazine, and his attention to the material is now paying dividends. He and his father have an all-expense paid trip to Tazmania. Based on the experience Leo Laporte had (which I loosely linked to in April of this year), I’m sure he’s in for an incredible Australian adventure.

Source: Wayne County Student on Aussie Adventure.

Steve Winter, wildlife photographer, set up some cameras to take photos of Snow Leopards.  The result ends up being a pretty great set of photos that could have never been taken by humans because of the Leopards notorious reclusive nature.

Almost looks fake doesn’t it?  Beautiful.

Source: Out of the Shadows – Photo Gallery, National Geographic Magazine.
Hat tip: Apple, Inc. 

A “Sea Pig”.

Who hasn’t always wanted to be a marine biologist? Earth’s oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers are by far the largest untapped and ill-explored territory – which is what makes discoveries like the ones mention by this National Geographic article possible.

“This sea cucumber—held by Sadie Mills of New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research—is known as a sea pig.” … “Sea cucumbers are part of a group of marine animals that inhabit the seafloor, including sea squirts, sea stars (starfish), sea slugs, corals, clams, sponges, and urchins.”

The team from NIWA of NZ (no idea if that is the correct acronym) collected around “30,000 animals, during a marine census of southern Antarctica in early 2008″, many of them considered brand new undiscovered species.

Source: National Geographic News Photo Gallery: Giant, Unknown Animals Found off Antarctica
Via: Boing Boing