Foreign Policy Blogs

Extraordinary Photos of Arctic Underwater Life

Alitta virens. (c) Alexander Semenov

Many people know the Arctic as the home of fuzzy white polar bears, smiling beluga whales, and mythical-looking narwhals. Yet through his underwater photography, Russian marine biologist Alexander Semenov is trying to publicize the more unknown creatures of the White Sea, located off the coast of northwestern Russia near the Kola Peninsula. Massive scyphozoan jellies, monstrous Atlantic wolffish, and many-legged annelid worms are some of his subjects. Semenov, who takes the photos during his underwater dives, says, “I’m trying to bring these hidden worlds to the masses and it’s much easier to do with internet.”  Wired has the full story, and you can also check out the photos on his website.

 

Author

Mia Bennett
Mia Bennett

Mia Bennett is pursuing an MPhil in Polar Studies at the University of Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute as a Gates Scholar. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with degrees in Political Science and European Studies and minors in Geospatial Information Systems & Technology, Scandinavian, and French. As an undergraduate, she studied abroad at Lund University in Sweden and Sciences Po in Paris, France. Mia also interned for the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway.

She examines how climate change is reshaping the geopolitics of the Arctic through an investigation of transportation and trade networks, governance, and natural resource development. Her masters dissertation will investigate the extent of an Asian-Arctic region. Mia's work has appeared in ReNew Canada, Water Canada, FACTA, and Baltic Rim Economies, among other publications.

She speaks French, Swedish, and is learning Russian.

Follow her on Twitter @miageografia

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