Oceangrant Images

Manatee Health Assessments

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:05:34 -0500

When I was invited to photograph last week’s Crystal River, Florida, “Manatee Health Assessments” I jumped at the chance to observe this fascinating partnership in action! As you may know, my passion is capturing photographs of the true nature of the manatee in underwater photographs. But, this opportunity to photograph this event was inspiring, and seeing that I had come across a manatee or two underwater after they had been previously assessed - chalk marked numbers and all - well, this gave me a chance to put all the pieces of the manatee research puzzle together.

The organizations involved are too numerous to list, but a perusal of these photographs will reveal fine institutions, experts, and opinion leaders on many aspects of marine mammal science. I recognized Dr. Mike Walsh, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, from his years of monitoring Winter the Dolphin, who I and dedicated others at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Marine Aquarium and their Marine Animal Stranding Team helped nurse back from the brink to become an inspiration to so many. Michael Lusk, the manager of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, where the research was conducted was there helping also, as were so many others. One thing I would like to note: this was the first time I believe an echocardiogram was done on manatees in the field. It was fascinating to watch the pulsating image almost seem to leap off the computer screen! Now, although I didn’t get an image this time of the echocardiogram on the laptop screen, there is another wonderful photographer who captured it the day prior, Elizabeth L. Palmer Manatee Echocardiogram Photograph. You should look at her fantastic manatee set and article she wrote on the three manatees they assessed on Wednesday.

Dr. Mike Walsh, Dr. Robert K. Bonde and Others Prepare
To Get a Genetic Tissue Sample

Dr. Robert K. Bonde Marks An Assessed Manatee

Here is a link to a series of photographs I took on Thursday, November 10th, when the team captured and assessed the health of five individual manatees.
Link: Photographs - Manatee Research Health Assessments

And also, for my wonderful well-wishers, here is a photograph of me pausing with a friend during the assessments. That’s Captain Stacy Dunn helping out from Manatees in Paradise, on my left. On this day, November 10th, 2011, I was exactly one year out from chemotherapy for breast cancer and I’m doing marvelous. I saw my oncologist the day before I photographed this event and he said everything was so normal with me and my blood work - except for my lungs, which he says are “extraordinary”! ;-)
I tell you it helps to have an oncologist who is an experienced scuba diver! Yes, I’m diving again - full-on! And underwater diver, photographer and survivor for sure!
Best, Carol

Manatees Are Our Friends

Sat, 6 Aug 2011 23:35:33 -0400

How about an endearing photograph of manatees holding flippers? Would it help curb some of the current controversy surrounding these trusting and docile creatures at Crystal River, Florida?

The Wall Street Journal today wrote an interesting article and posted a video regarding this situation. I’ll let the article and video outline the current situation speak for itself, but I’ll add my thoughts on what first comes to my mind after observing so many manatees in recent years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge is trying to implement slow-speed zones all year round throughout the Kings Bay area. More manatees are using the bay in the summer months and the article talks about a number of manatees hit and killed during the months of May to August in Kings Bay. What I want to point out is this: think about how many manatees are hit by boats that are injured and scarred for life in the higher-speed zones? From all the scars I’ve observed on living manatees, I suspect there are quite a number of manatees injured by speeding boats for every manatee hit and actually killed. I fully support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal. If you have any comments to submit here is a link to Frequently Asked Questions and to submit comments before August 22, 2011.

Here is a link to the article in the Wall Street Journal, “Crystal River, Fla., Asks: Can You Love a Manatee Too Much?”

The Wall Street Journal has code to embed their video here so I will try that. Take a minute to watch, it’s very interesting (if video won’t play click on title for link)

“Mellow Manatees at the Center of a Storm”

My Manatee Photo in National Geographic Kids

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:42:57 -0400

National Geographic contacted me a few months ago looking for a shot of a mother and baby manatee looking towards the camera. That request probably sounds a bit easier than that particular photograph is to capture!

I want to thank professional underwater photographer Dr. Alex Mustard, for referring National Geographic. They had a request out for “...a great shot of a mom and a baby, "looking at the camera."” I guess these photographs are quite rare? They wanted to know what else I had and almost settled on a photograph of a mother and calf that hasn’t been published. But, this photograph that is being licensed through Getty Images, is frankly my best mother and baby manatee shot.

Here is a photo of the cover of the June/July Issue of National Geographic Kids
©National Geographic Society

An idea of what is in the issue:

I was very impressed that National Geographic was so kind to send me five copies promptly! I like this magazine. It’s really great for kids!!

This is only one of the manatee projects brewing! More to come,
Best, Carol

Featured Photographer Nature.org

Wed, 2 Feb 2011 14:50:35 -0500

The Nature Conservancy Photography branch contacted me for an interview. What came of it is this thoughtfully written piece that you should take the time to read. It touches upon my love of being underwater, underwater photography, manatees, whales and not to forget our work with stranded marine mammals like the amazing Winter the dolphin. I also mentioned by recent fight with breast cancer and how I stayed positive and helped myself back in the water.
Link:
Nature Conservancy Featured Photographer Carol Grant

Yes, it is a little hard to put oneself out there and speak about breast cancer. But, if I don’t communicate about it I cannot be of any help, and I want to help others - in any way I can.

Sincerely, Carol

manatee photograph is among the “best nature photos of 2010” on Nature.org

Thu, 6 Jan 2011 20:50:26 -0500

Manatees must be popular these days! My photograph here graces the cover of the 2011 Nature Conservancy Calendar and is also included among their “Best Nature Photos of 2010”.

With all the challenges our manatees faced in 2010, I am proud to have played a part in helping their survival. Despite the record number of cold-related manatee deaths during 2010, there were also conservation goals reached to provide a better future. The important acquisition of the pristine warm water manatee site, Three Sisters Springs, Crystal River, Florida, was a combined effort of several organizations. And the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge gained emergency powers to put in place expanded manatee sanctuaries and rules designed to protect this endangered species; this was much needed.

I know this photograph helped draw attention to the manatee’s cause, and I’m very happy to have helped such an amazing creature!

Best, Carol

My First Humpback Whales One Year Ago Today

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:27:02 -0400

Mother and calf humpback whale pairs displaying their close bonds underwater is something I was so privileged to experience, exactly one year ago today, in Vava’u, Tonga. It was such a profound experience and is hard to put into words! I still think about these leviathans several times each and every day....

This is particularly special as I’ve had some physical “rehab” to undergo for the past few months and I have, necessarily, been out of one of my favorite domains, the ocean. Yes, it is difficult, but never fear I will be back in the water in no time, better than ever!

What is wonderful about having incredible experiences, such as observing humpback whales in their natural habitat, is the “dreams” stay with one long afterwards. For instance, when I go over to the “Y” to swim now, I look over while I’m doing laps and picture some of the moms and curious calves I encountered. Then I am encompassed in the same heartfelt feelings I had one year ago. I also remember all the wonderful people who made it possible to realize my dream: Paul and Karen at Dive Vava’u for taking such good care of me; Gene, next door to Dive Vava’u, who cooked for me; Mo’a - the wonderful Tongan female captain who sings to the whales at Beluga Diving; also Tony Wu for helping me with photographic pointers; and the ladies at the Paradise Hotel who made me feel at home.

Here are a few more photographs of some of the mother and calf whale pairs I encountered in Tonga. I was surprised at how many photographs I still have yet to post! It warms my heart to relive these moments again and I hope you enjoy them.

I’ll start with my first humpback whale encounter on August 22, 2009 and it happened to be a mother and calf! Now, obviously this photograph is not as good as my later ones. I learned a lot as I went on about photographing whales! First of all, I stopped using the Nikon 12-24 lens I got especially for this underwater adventure. I found that my Tokina 10-17FE on my Nikon d300, got much better color and clarity, not just because I had to wait for whales to come closer, but that lens along with my Subal FE dome port is such a great combination and lets in so much light for detail and contrast. Yes, I missed some shots when the whales decided not to come close, but the shots I did get had much more color, detail and clarity. Anyway, here the photo of my first humpback whale(s) encounter one year ago today: (taken with Nikon 12-24 lens that I gave up on in favor of the Tokina 10-17FE)

Now this engaging male calf below was part of Tony Wu’s survey of Humpback Whale Calves 2009 #26 - they named him “Nofo”. I encountered the same calf earlier in the day and he took several opportunities to check me out after taking a breath and lollygagging around at the surface. Yes, I have noticed that many whale calves enjoy themselves and satisfy their curiosity with a good “play and look-around” combined with a trip to the surface for a breath. Note, part of the back of mom below and a corner of their male escort.

Here is “Nofo” again, looks like mom is checking in on her son.

This is a very young calf swimming over a reef with mom and a male escort (behind mom). Tony Wu thinks this is a calf he does not have in his 2009 summary. I need to do some additional research to see if I have some more definitive photographs. Photographing humpback whales is not easy, light and water conditions and the mood of the whales is everything!

It was amazing to see these giants sailing over a shallow reef in Vava’u!

And last, but certainly not least, is another photograph of a humpback calf I posted in one of my entries called “Three Very Happy Humpback Whales”. Where is the third whale? You have to click on that post to find out the extremely juicy details... This male calf I named “Happy”. He is #28 of Tony Wu’s Humpback Whale Summary of 2009. More to come! Best, Carol

more manatees on getty images

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:16:01 -0400

Manatees are in the news a lot these days, and will be in the news even more as the year progresses and we see how large the toll taken on our manatee was in early 2010. The unprecedented cold Florida winter temperatures took many of our beloved manatee’s lives.

Getty Images just licensed a few more of my manatee photographs, all in their exclusive “Rights-Managed” category. The photographs should do well as the year progresses and quality manatee photographs are more and more in demand. I think they all resonate “hope”, which is a good thing!

Here are some more that were just added
(See my whole collection on Getty Images - Carol Grant - Here)

Little Boy Blue Manatee

Miss Whiskers - A Young Manatee - Looks For Something To Do

Early One Morning - Two Manatee Socialize

upside-down manatees

Thu, 8 Apr 2010 01:22:04 -0400

Manatees are endearing, there is no doubt about that. But, when they swim or relax in an “upside-down” orientation, I think I enjoy them even more! Here are a few of my upside-down Favs!

Manatee usually swim right-side up, so when I saw this female manatee rolling around, swimming upside-down and seeming to admire her reflection on the water's surface, thoughts came to me of a playful female siren. Is this what early explorers of Florida mistook for a mermaid? She's certainly an enchanting mermaid in my eyes! I was pleased to be able to capture this lighthearted sirenian behavior, especially in a tough year when we lost so many manatee due to the extreme cold temperatures.

Here she is again. Get the idea of early explorers mistaking her for a lovely mermaid? ;-)

Here is a male manatee relaxin’ by a spring. It is usually the males that will sometimes sleep on their backs like this; lettin’ it all hang out...

My manatee photos now on getty images

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:35:28 -0500

Manatees are truly endearing creatures, but this cold winter in particular, has kept them in the news constantly. In fact, I suspect their story will be more and more poignant as the year progresses and it is really seen the toll that the record-breaking cold weather has taken on our endangered manatee populations.

The above photograph became really popular on my Flickr Gallery, as of today with over 27,000 views, 2,077 Favorites and 629 comments, so I knew it would be in demand. Here is just one of the 629 comments about this photograph (I was deeply touched)

“There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread. Let me be another person to appreciate this photo. I simply love this.
yshaincebu.wordpress.com”

This was the main reason I took the chance to accept Getty Images invitation and license this photograph and some of my other manatee images on Getty Images - see them here. Florida manatees will be in the news, around the world, for some time and besides a few photographs from organizations like National Geographic, Getty really didn’t have many excellent manatee images. And since they asked for my best mother and calf manatee photographs especially, I noticed they had almost nothing good in that category.

Getty asked for nine of my images to start with, but I could only license eight to them as they wanted to license the Grand Prize Winner of the Nature Conservancy Contest, but it is going to be printed in a million++ copies of the 2011 Nature Conservancy Calendar and that will, most-likely, conflict with Getty’s licensing. No problem though, because now I’m free to offer prints of that award-winning image and those requests will come after millions of people see that unique image (in fact, the orders have already started and I’m working on getting the print set up for printing at Pictopia.com as we speak. Pictopia’s unrivaled printing quality is used by National Geographic to fulfill print orders among many other noteworthy publications.)

It might be some time till the images on Getty will have the correct keywords to show up in searches for “manatee” etc., but I think they will do quite well [update-Getty is very prompt and my images come up in a “manatee” keyword search now; compare them with images in the same licensing category]. I hope to offer them some more manatee images at some time as I feel, again with manatees so much in the news, that those photographs will be very much in demand. Plus, I have the only good photographs of a newborn baby manatee (hours-old, confirmed by researchers) and other unique aspects to my best manatee images.

Want a manatee image on your website or to help your educational cause? Not to worry, I will still try to help as best I can. I have to be careful now though, as I’ve found out my manatee photographs are pretty valuable! Still, this past week I licensed four manatee images to Project Dragonfly for an educational kiosk, I believe at the Columbus Zoo’s Manatee Exhibit and I also licensed an image to a Professor of Engineering that is publishing a book with a chapter on a light phenomena called “Snell’s window” (here is a web definition of it). I had an image of a manatee swimming into “Snell’s window” and this professor just had to have that image! I guess it isn’t something his colleagues have, a manatee swimming into “Snell’s window” and my fellow underwater photographers will certainly be most impressed (and maybe quite jealous ;-)...) when I tell them one of my photographs is in an engineering publication!

I’ll provide information on both these exciting projects and more, as I get feedback. Then there are the images on Getty and setting up my contest-winning photograph for print sales. Plus, the great thing is I have lots and lots more manatee photographs in the wings! ;-)

Busy, Busy, Best, Carol

manatee calves is curiosity their middle name?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:31:46 -0500

Curious, I think that is a word that can be applied to virtually any little manatee! Manatees in general like to investigate most everything in their environment, but manatee calves are particularly curious and it is one of their most endearing features! Mom usually quells most “over-curiousness” but, even she knows that her baby needs to know about the things in its environment. Also, sometimes I think manatee moms are just too “beat” to argue with their offspring - possibly that situation will sound familiar to some human parents? ;-)

Here is the little boy coming in for a closer look. Mom is resting, while floating and catching a breath; the bream that are gathering around her don’t seem to bother her rest too much. Sunfish (bream) pick at bits off the manatee and while it is unclear if there is any benefit to the manatee (I think not) the little bream aren’t too irritating in this case.

I photographed this charismatic duo on Monday, March 8th, before our strong spout of bad weather arrived. Best, Carol

Grand Prize Winner Nature Conservancy Photo Contest

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:36:34 -0500

Looks like I’ve been a bit remiss on my blog here; about a month ago this photograph won the Grand Prize in the Nature Conservancy Photo Contest, link here.

To make up for it I’ll give you all a “sneak peak” on what my copy will say, below my photograph (in fact, Dr. Bob Bonde really liked what I wrote; I ran it by him first)

Also, you know they print over a million of these calendars. So, if three people look at each calendar - uh, that’s sure a lot of manatee conservation!!!

It will say:

Photographer: Carol Grant
Photo Location: Three Sisters Springs, Crystal River, Florida.

“My plan was to wait for the right moment and be very still at a spot in the springs where the lovely light rays sometimes penetrate the clear, blue water. On this cold winter day, the manatee also knew where the perfect spot would be for a warm bask in the sunlight. I was thrilled to capture this moment and convey how important these natural warm spring wintering sites are for the manatee’s survival. Preserving amazing underwater life for our children to enjoy is a top priority for me, and my biggest passion is helping the Florida manatee. I applaud The Nature Conservancy for playing a key role in effective efforts to save this endearing, but endangered, marine mammal.”

OK, so I’ve traded everyone a peak - for me being so swamped I forgot to post.... Best, Carol

Baby Manatee Itch Itch scratch scratch

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:28:53 -0500

Baby manatee are just downright adorable, there is no doubting that! Although born with smooth skin (see this photo of the newborn, hours-old infant I named Angel, below) it can change.

After their smooth skin infant phase, sometimes they develop various patches or even continuous “bumpiness” that can be very *itchy* for the little ones. Some of the skin conditions are possibly brought on by a kind of virus, but some develop based on what type of water the young manatee spends its first weeks in and may even be made a little worse in fresh water.

Regardless, certain little manatees have very very itchy skin and will go to great lengths to learn how to maneuver their little flippers to scratch themselves. That’s what the little manatee at the top of the page is doing: scratch scratch, rub rub.... Of course, as his proud mom looks on, she seems delighted with his new-found skill!

Here is another manatee calf, who is a little older, rubbing his tummy. I ask you, could anything possibly be cuter? ;-)

Yes, in case you have noticed, these images are from last year and a couple of years before. I do have many brand new manatee photographs currently, be assured, but I’ve been so swamped (I think that is an appropriate word...) that I haven’t been able to sort them yet. In addition my manatee photographs have been more in demand for licensing in various projects: from a manatee conservation kiosk in the Columbus Zoo to an Engineering textbook on a light phenomena known as “Snell’s Window”. So, things are exciting to say the least and there will be many more manatee images to come - too many to count!! Best, Carol