18 Brian Skerry Quotes for You to Enjoy

Brian Skerry

American Photographer

Born: 1962

Great Ocean Sharks Water World You

Related authors: Annie Leibovitz Ansel Adams Berenice Abbott Diane Arbus Dorothea Lange Gordon Parks Imogen Cunningham Robert Mapplethorpe

I swam with my first shark in the 1980s. I was 20 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, working with a group of marine scientists. Late in the day, a 5-foot long blue shark swam into our chum slick. For the next hour, I marveled at the animal's stunning indigo color and the elegant way she moved effortlessly through the sea. Brian Skerry

Day Animal Long First Group Late Our Slick Way Color Through Shark Hour Stunning She Island Scientists Off Effortlessly Blue Moved Rhode Rhode Island Next Working Miles Sea Coast Elegant Marine

The Bahamas has mangrove nurseries, coral reefs, shallow sea grass beds, and deep oceanic trenches - all perfect ecosystems for sharks. Photographing multiple shark species in exquisite water was the assignment I had dreamed about from the start. Brian Skerry

I typically shoot underwater with my regular camera in an underwater housing, and then I usually have two big strobes that I use to light. But with whales, you're not going to be able to really light a 45-foot subject. Your strobes are only effective for maybe five or six feet underwater. Brian Skerry

Under the snowcapped mountains of Fiordland National Park, freshwater streams empty into the saltwater fiords, creating a unique ecosystem. This is a heavily wooded park, so the water in the streams is stained with tannin, a substance found in plants that makes clean water seem dirty, though it isn't. Brian Skerry

Photography can be a powerful instrument for change, and photojournalists can tell stories that make a difference. Brian Skerry

Change Photography Tell Powerful Instrument Make Make A Difference Difference Stories

New England waters are some of my favorite - they are some of the richest waters because they are temperate waters and nutrient-rich, and therefore provide food for so many animals, from giant whales to sharks to everything else. Brian Skerry

Kneeling on the sea bottom in a place known as Tiger Beach, I watched a 12-foot- long female tiger shark cruise over the turtle grass with three silver bar jacks swimming in front of her nose. Brian Skerry

As a young boy, I was very interested - as I still am - in all sorts of adventure and exploration. I thought about being an astronaut, a dinosaur scientist, or marine biologist, but I clearly was drawn to the ocean and to the water. Brian Skerry

On Cape Cod, great white shark stocks have been growing, or at least becoming more concentrated, because of the multiplying numbers of seals around Monomoy Island. We are fortunate to have such abundance of these sharks in our own waters. Around the globe, we are killing in excess of 100 million sharks each year. Brian Skerry

Great Sharks Year Own White Waters Our More Excess Shark Abundance Concentrated Globe Because Around Island Becoming Least Been Stocks Cape Fortunate Seals Each Growing Multiplying Each Year Million Numbers

Since the majority of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean, not to mention much of the world's protein, it is not an exaggeration to say that when our oceans' health declines, our very survival is at risk. Brian Skerry

Health Survival Exaggeration World Ocean Our Say Risk Mention Since Majority Protein Oceans Very Oxygen Breathe Much

I still think there's a big part of the population that has a lot of misinformation about sharks. But I think it's beginning to change a little bit. As good information about sharks permeates popular culture, things may start to change. Brian Skerry

Good Change Culture Sharks Big Beginning Think Bit About Misinformation Part Still Lot Big Part May Information Little Little Bit Popular Popular Culture Population Things Start

The bohar snapper - they have these huge canines. I got bit by one. One took a chunk out of my ear - they are much scarier than the sharks. Brian Skerry

Sharks Took Chunk Bit Out Got Huge Than Much Ear

I think that most people would associate big schools of fish with healthy coral reefs. At Kingman, the predators keep the herd thin, so there aren't a lot of big fish schools. Brian Skerry

People Big Healthy Think Herd Would Most Schools Fish Big Fish Lot Predators Keep Thin Coral Associate

I flipped through a book on harp seals in the late 1970s and saw images of them swimming in emerald green pools of water surrounded by huge sheets of ice. Right then I was hooked, and I knew this was a story I wanted to do. Brian Skerry

I was the first journalist allowed on a hunting boat during harp seal season in almost 15 years. Around the late 1970s, white coat pups became the poster child for the anti-fur movement, and by the '80s, the media was lambasting the hunters for killing them. Brian Skerry

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