Stunning Marine Life Pictures Made Accessible

A new website, sealife.is , offers a vast collection of pictures of marine life in Icelandic waters. The man behind the website, Erlendur Bogason, has probably spent more time under water than any other Icelander. He is a diver who likes to bring his camera along when he goes diving, documenting life in the ocean around the country.

He tells Morgunblaðið that he wanted to make his pictures accessible to the public, not least because such pictures are not easy to come by. “I have stored the pictures on a hard drive on a shelf, where they are of use to no one, so hopefully, this is a way for them to become useful to students and scientists,” he explains.

Numerous photos are already available on the website, all of them carefully organized. There are four main categories: fish, invertebrates, mammals and algae. Every species has its own page, including several pictures and a one-page informative text in English, as well as Icelandic.

Erlingur plans to add even more pictures to the website, along with videos. “Gradually expanding the website is a never-ending project,” he admits, “because numerous marine animals are still missing in the collection, and the flora and fauna of the ocean is perpetually changing, introducing new species, while others disappear.” He adds that other photographers are welcome to submit their own photos.

He foresees the website being used as an educational tool in the country’s schools. “Teachers and students in grade schools, secondary schools and at the university level will be allowed to use the pictures when making overheads and writing papers, while companies and organizations wishing to use the material for publication and ads will be charged a moderate fee, which hopefully suffices to cover the cost of running the website,” Erlendur explains.

Check out more stunning photos here . The ones in the article are published with permission.