© Andrey Narchuk
Photographer Andrey Narchuk was on an expedition to the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East, and his intention on this day was to photograph salmon. But as soon as he jumped into the water, he found himself surrounded by thousands of mating sea angels. Quickly swapping to his macro equipment, he began photographing the pairs, 3 centimeters long and swirling around in the current. It was late summer and peak phytoplankton time, so there would be abundant food for the resulting larvae. To photograph them mating, Narchuk had to battle against strong currents and avoid a wall of gill netting, and when he was swept into the net and his equipment became snared, he was forced to make an emergency ascent, but not before he had got his shot. The following day, there wasn’t a single angel to be seen.
