A diver interacts with a tiger shark at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas. (Brian Skerry)
National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry has spent more than 10,000 hours underwater in the past 30 years. His photographs of great whites, tiger sharks, oceanic whitetips and many others help demonstrate how integral the animals are to the ecosystem. His new book is called "Shark."
Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd speaks with Skerry (@Brian_Skerry) about what it took to get the images.
An oceanic whitetip Shark swims past biologist Wes Pratt inside the shark cage in the Bahamas. (Brian Skerry)A great white shark, estimated to be between 16-18 feet in length, attacking a seal decoy off Chatham, Mass. This region is a newly forming hub of white shark activity, due to the growing population of gray seals since the creation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. (Brian Skerry)Dr. Greg Skomal conducting research on great white sharks off Chatham, Mass. Dr. Skomal began a population study in 2014 to determine how many individual animals are frequenting this region. To do this, he uses a spotter pilot to find sharks from the air, then from a boat uses a small video camera to obtain footage of the shark underwater. From the video, he and his colleagues can identify the sharks. (Brian Skerry)
