Sage Ono's Image

Sage Ono (USA) explores the abundant life around the giant kelp forests in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

For most of the year, the birds usually keep their distance from divers. But in August, Sage became an object of curiosity for young birds that had recently fledged.

They nipped at his mask and fins and at their own reflections in his camera housing, creating slight motion blur in his image. Taken from below, this photograph shows two juveniles among the kelp.

The Brandt’s cormorant is the largest cormorant on North America’s Pacific coast. They keep to the water and feed mainly on fish and squid.

These fledglings will soon become expert divers, plunging from the surface and swimming down as far as 70 metres (230 feet) to catch their prey which they will then swallow head first.