Demon Fish (46 page)

A local villager out on community patrol near the island of Batanta, Raja Ampat, guarding against cyanide and blast fishing.
Photo by Sterling Zumbrunn/Copyright © Conservation International

Wayag Lagoon, in Raja Ampat, is host to an array of fish species and hard corals. After years of negotiations, Selpele and Salio villagers agreed to ban damaging fishing practices in the area.
Photo by Sterling Zumbrunn/Copyright © Conservation International

A whale shark swims on May 28, 2010, in waters off Sarasota, Florida, where it was satellite-tagged for research by scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory. Mote researchers are using satellite tagging to track the travels of whale sharks, whose migration patterns they still do not fully understand.
Photo by Kim Hull/Mote Marine Laboratory

A great white pursues a seal—one of its favorite prey species—off the coast of South Africa.
Photo by Neil Hammerschlag

Great whites are perhaps best known for their teeth, which grow in rows to replace those that break or become worn.
Photo by Neil Hammerschlag

In less than a second, a great white launches its one-ton body in pursuit of a seal off Seal Island, South Africa, a frequent phenomenon that attracts both tourists and researchers to the area.
Photo by Neil Hammerschlag

A rare oceanic white tip, accompanied by pilot fish, cuts through the open ocean in the Indian Ocean’s Mozambique Channel. This species used to be common, but researchers have found it declined by 99 percent during the second half of the twentieth century.
Photo by Neil Hammerschlag

A curious blue shark cruises in from the open seas off Rhode Island to investigate the scene. The species engages in such a rough mating ritual that female blue sharks have significantly thicker skin than their male counterparts.
Photo by Neil Hammerschlag