Diver captures first-known Ross seal underwater pictures

These pictures of a Ross seal, a species discovered solely in essentially the most distant components of Antarctica, are thought more likely to be the primary ever captured beneath the floor – by US underwater photographer Justin Hofman.

“This animal lives so deep within the Antarctic pack-ice that its life history is not very well understood, and it is not seen very often,” says Hofman. “In 15 seasons of working in Antarctica, I have seen only two Ross seals, and this is the second one.”

The dive skilled had lengthy been conscious of the problem of capturing underwater pictures of Ross seals (Ommatophoca rossii), as a result of the species was confined up to now to the south. “I didn’t think about it in the way that someone thinks about a goal or a target subject – I never thought that it was an actual possibility,” he says.

However, the photographer’s “Christmas came early” when, as a part of his job as an undersea specialist with Lindblad Expeditions, he joined the National Geographic Resolution cruise ship because it set its personal report for penetrating furthest south into the Antarctic. Fellow-diver Ayla Townsend was additionally in a position to seize video footage of the seal on the voyage.

Foraging in open ocean

The Ross seal is the smallest Antarctic true seal and the one species in its genus. It is estimated to make up not more than 1% of Antarctic seal populations, although it’s labeled as of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

The large-eyed, solitary species grows to about 2.3m lengthy and has a life-span of as much as 20 years. Ross seals are born and bred on dense, hard-to-reach pack-ice however spend a lot of their time foraging in open ocean, diving greater than 100 occasions a day to depths as nice as 300m in quest of the squid and fish which might be their staple food regimen.

Justin Hofman is a marine biologist who started working repeatedly on expedition vessels in 2008 as undersea specialist, photographer, expedition information and divemaster.

One of his best-known images, displaying a seahorse holding onto a cotton-bud in Indonesian waters, was a finalist within the 2017 NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitors.

Hofman can be among the many small variety of individuals to have dived in Antarctica’s ice-covered Lake Untersee, and was a part of the primary dive-team to make use of rebreathers there.