Photographer Jason Bradley has photographed some pretty freaky things while working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Institute and the Moss Landing Marine laboratories on a project to document previously unseen deep sea creatures.

Outstanding underwater photography by Octavio Aburto

These handmade science-themed blank books by Grimm are ready to be filled with all your big ideas, sketches and field/lab notes.

Jellyfish paintings by Scott Sjobakken

Beautiful ocean prints for your home from SevenElevenStudios on Etsy.

Amazing underwater photography by Jacques de Vos

Images from the Census of Marine Life

About:

The first Census of Marine Life produced the most comprehensive inventory of known marine life ever compiled and cataloged it as a basis for future research—30 million records as of January 2011 and counting! This first baseline picture of ocean life—past, present, and future—can be used to forecast, measure, and understand changes in the global marine environment, as well as to inform the management and conservation of marine resources. The Census investigated life in the global ocean from microbes to whales, from top to bottom, from pole to pole, bringing together the world’s preeminent marine biologists, who shared ideas, data, and results. During their 10 years of discovery, Census scientists discovered new species, habitats, and connections and unlocked many of the ocean’s long-held secrets. They found and formally described more than1, 200 new marine species, with another 5,000 or more in the pipeline awaiting formal description. They discovered areas in the ocean where animals congregate, from white shark cafés in the open ocean to an evening rush hour in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to a shoal of fish the size of Manhattan off the coast of New Jersey, USA. They unearthed a rare biosphere in the microbial world, where scarce species lie in wait to become dominant if change goes their way, and found species believed to reside at both poles. While unlocking many secrets, investigators also documented long-term and widespread declines in marine life as well as resilience of the ocean in areas where recovery was apparent.

Some amazing photos of the Arabian Seas by Thomas P. Peschak for National Geographic.

Some of the winners of the annual underwater photo contest put on by the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science.

View this Telegraph gallery of creatures of the deep at your own risk. They are the stuff nightmares are made of.

Hadal by Angelo Musco

About the piece:

Definition: Hadal zone (Greek for “like Hades”, in other words “unseen”) or Hadopelagic zone is the delineation for the deepest trenches in the ocean. This zone is found from a depth of around 6,000 meters (20,000ft) to the bottom of the ocean. In 1960 Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh reached the Marianas Trench, the deepest trench on Earth, and observed light. It is believed that most life at this depth is sustained by marine snow or the chemical reactions around thermal vents. The lack of light and intense pressure create hostile living conditions, and few species are adapted to these conditions. As no sunlight reaches this layer of the ocean, deep sea creatures have adapted and most of the bottom dwelling creatures lack any pigmentation since colorization is not useful in an environment with no light. Creatures removed from this zone will die in the lower-pressure areas above. ‘Hadal’ is a French word meaning “house of the dead”, which is in turn from the Greek god Hades, the god of the dead, and his domain. 

Conceptual Description: Turning reality upside down, and creating works against preconceived ideas is one of the elements of this new photo project - Structures of life (ie: nests) in an hostile threatening atmosphere (ie: Hadal zone). Musco creates an ominous dark world where a gigantic nest floats in the darkness near the ocean floor, a world seen as a conceptual amniotic dimension. The nest is made by hundreds of nude silver bodies where each body is like a branch pulled into the nest structure.

Traveling down to the darkest depths of the ocean one would expect to find a hostile dead zone when in fact the environment is a vibrant and mysterious cross-section of life. This faraway environment symbolizes the depth of emotion aroused in connection with vulnerability of early life. The image of the nest is teaming with hundreds of silver bodies announcing an unexpected presence of life. The silver bodies are also reminiscent of gigantic school of fish, each one actually being a nude human form, bonding with hundreds of others in a frenzied swirl of life.

These beautiful glass creatures by Kenny Talamas are available for purchase in his Vortex Glassworks Etsy store.

Talamas on his work:

Some things can’t be spoken, I like to use patterns found in nature, animals and sacred geometric proportions to express the greater beauty of our world. As all things are connected, I believe we are all artists and work together to create our world. Nothing we do is outside the art of life.