Arctic Biologist Shares Astonishing Sea Creatures With the World
THERE IS NO road to the White Sea Biological Station, which sits at latitude 66° N on the cusp of the Arctic Circle. Located on the shores of its namesake, the White Sea, the only way to get there is by boat in summer and snowmobile in winter since the waters of Kandalaksha Bay are frozen six months out of the year.
Inside the station is an unlikely photo studio where Alexander Semenov, 25, is sharing his stunning photographs of arctic sea creatures with the global online community.“I’m trying to act like the Discovery channel, but as a single unit,” says Semenov.
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Alexander Semenov on the White Sea Biological Station dock.
A marine biologist, photographer and head of the WSBS deep-sea diving team, Semenov has been stationed at the WSBS since 2007. Over the years he’s developed a worldwide audience for his photography using Behance, Flickr and his personal blog and website.
“I think all the people in the world know how tigers and lions looks like, but only a few ever know about scyphozoan jellies – that they can grow up to 3 meters in diameter and have tentacles of 36 meters,” says Semenov. “I’m trying to bring these hidden worlds to the masses and it’s much easier to do with internet.”
Semenov’s first ventures into deep-sea photography were merely experiments. He spent his first summer at the research center, operated by the Biology Department of Lomonosovs Moscow State University, photographing invertebrates in the laboratory without any professional equipment. With an entry-level camera, low-light conditions and shaking tripod, Semenov was only able to make a few shots he describes as “not so bad” that he shared with his enthusiastic crew.
Soon after, the official WSBS underwater camera sunk – a loss Semenov actually considers a stroke of luck
“We decided to buy a Canon 400D with some good macro lenses, underwater strobes and housing. When I got this piece of equipment, underwater photography became part of my job.”
Semenov grew up in a family of biologists, surrounded by “hundreds of books about nature, oceans and animals.” He focused on biology at gymnasium (the high school equivalent in Russia) and went on to specialize in marine invertebrates and squid brains at Lomonosovs Moscow State University. At age 19 and in his third year of University, he had his first underwater dive and his passion for deep sea science was fixed.
“When you read about marine life it’s interesting, but it’s only theoretical knowledge,” says Semenov. “When you see all this life with your own eyes it’s an amazing experience. It was at that point I became a ‘real’ marine biologist.”
Semenov’s photographs have been used by scientists, teachers, book authors and encyclopedia editors around the world. His team has identified species that were previously unknown to inhabit the waters of the White Sea, but he says it is rare that his team discovers a new species entirely.
“The important thing is not to find new species but to understand how every creature you already know lives,” says Semenov. “There is not so much information about underwater worlds, because scientific diving isn’t old at all, 60 years maybe. I try to make snapshots of the life-cycles of the animals I see: growth, feeding, copulation, reproduction, birth and death – all these moments can be seen and photographed.”
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Semenov’s team encounter an Octopus dofleini, an animal Semenov refers to as “The King of the Japan Sea.” The Japan Sea borders Russia.
Gearheads will approve of his equipment: He uses a Canon 5DM2 body with a Canon 100mm/f2.8L macro lens in Subal housing with Inon Z-240 strobes, but for Semenov, the photos are more about the experiences behind them.
“Nobody knows what you feel on the other side of the camera,” says Semenov, who considers his photographs of a sea angel his biggest triumph (Clione limacina, seen on slide 3 in the gallery above).
“The sea angel is a planktonic pteropod mollusk, that lost its shell in the evolution process and became a swimmer,” explains Semenov. “Sea angels feed exclusively on Sea Butterflies (Limacina Helicina), also pteropod mollusks. Angels have six large hook-shaped buccal conuses, hidden inside their head; w
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