Steady Hands and Fins
Exploring the world's waters, National Geographic photographer and Rolex ambassador David Doubilet has photographed in the depths of such places as the southwest Pacific, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Tasmania, Scotland, and the northwest Atlantic. Here, he explores a shipwreck that has been turned into an artificial reef. His work has taken him to freshwater ecosystems such as Botswana's Okavango Delta and Canada's St. Lawrence River. He has photographed stingrays, sponges, and sleeping sharks in the Caribbean as well as shipwrecks in the South Pacific, the Atlantic, and at Pearl Harbor.
“What separates humans from other animals is not just an opposable thumb, not just our ability to create electric trains or build buildings; we have this extraordinary appreciation of beauty. Given the right moments, we also have an extraordinary ability to destroy things. There are a million scientific reasons why we should save a tiger, or a tiger shark, and they are real reasons. But ultimately, the bottom-line reason is because it is beautiful.
"The ocean is beautiful. A coral reef may arguably be the most beautiful environment on the face of the planet. It's a place that's flooded with light, yet has the most intense colors of any other environment on the planet. We can't destroy this; we have to hold onto this thing and pay attention. “