I’ve been using the Sony FE 90 mm G OSS macro lens as my go-to underwater macro photography lens since late 2018. I really enjoy using it – with the exception of poor autofocus in low light underwater using the Sony A7rIII, which I rant about in great detail here.

Every whale shark is identifiable based on their unique spot pattern. Over 8,000 tourists and researchers have submitted photos to a global sighting database (www.whaleshark.org), identifying over 10,000 individual whale sharks. Most of those have been juvenile males, however. Even the largest feeding areas are home to less than 2,000 sharks – and some popular tourist destinations, such as Tanzania and Honduras, seem to have less than 200.

Frame-by-frame video analysis reveals the sharks’ strategy. They lunge forward, then use their big wide pectoral fins to hit the brakes. This stalls their whole body, allowing them to deliver an overhead tail-slap at measured speeds of over 20 meters per second (45 miles per hour). That’s so fast that the tip of the tail literally causes water to bubble.

After a few days on Isabela Island on a wildlife-watching trip (photos to come), we flew over to San Cristobal on a small plane. We wandered down to the “Hammerhead Pier” early the next afternoon and were met by one of the dive guides from the Humboldt Explorer and transferred out to the boat. It was great to see a few familiar faces from past trips, and lots of new ones!

A new paper, led by the Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (LAMAVE), with help from the Tubbataha Management Office and myself, has showcased the benefits to sharks that can be achieved by effective marine protected areas (MPAs).

The animals that live here, are fantastically, mind-blowingly diverse. After three solid days of diving, I’m completely hooked. Tulamben, close to the spectacular Mt Agung, is stunning, Scuba Seraya is one of the nicest little dive resorts I’ve stayed at, and the diving… well. Let’s talk about the diving!

Bored of simply trying to take good photos, with complicated equipment, while lying suspended in thick liquid, within an unbreathable, alien environment? Don’t worry, I have a solution. We’ll do all of the above… at night. Also, let’s add a thick mask filter so you can’t see properly.

So I got this email: Hello! My name is Brianna and I’m from Colorado. I’m going to try to get straight to the point so that I don’t waste your time, Mr. Pierce. A coupe of months ago, I was in my first period Geography class when somehow the girl who sits next to me and I got into a discussion about Shark Tsunamis. Please, don’t close this email I realize how completely dumb this sounds.

My work at Mafia began in 2012. Dr Chris Rohner and I, both from the Marine Megafauna Foundation, won a research contract advertised by WWF Tanzania. Our assigned objectives were to find out what the whale sharks were doing at Mafia, and to identify the factors that influence their abundance.

Plastic in the ocean is a problem. That will be news to precisely none of you. It’s still worth talking about though, even now. Plastic is an obvious part of all of our lives and, despite the global scale of the concern, it’s one of the most immediately actionable marine conservation issues.