About this series

The World Ocean is as close as you can get to outer space without leaving Earth. It's an entirely different universe, nothing like the life we have on land. And while people dream about alien life forms from other planets, there is another universe right here, closer than anyone expects.

The World Ocean is a living system of unimaginable scale: it covers 71% of the planet's surface, and life is distributed over the entire volume, with an average depth of 4 kilometres. In over 2,000 years of ocean exploration, we have discovered and described a little more than 240,000 species of marine organisms. And scientists estimate that this represents only 15% of the total biodiversity of all sea life. This means that there are 2-3 million species in the depths that human eyes have never seen. Ever. We do not even know what they might look like!

However, most people do not even know the look of many creatures that scientists are aware of. Everyone knows about sharks, whales, turtles, jellyfish, and other large marine animals, which have made their way into movies and encyclopedias. But the average person has never heard of salps, siphonophores, comb jellies, appendicularians, ascidians, and many others. As a marine biologist and underwater photographer, I strive to show everyone this completely different world full of weird, beautiful, and wildly exciting things.

This collection represents my finest, all-time favourite photos from 15 years of underwater exploration. They are 1/1 editions of unique creatures that are the real jewels from the depths of the Ocean. Beyond bringing all the fantastic biodiversity I have found and studied to the blockchain, I want to extend this work with the help of the NFT. I plan to set up my own independent production studio focused on educational and scientific content creation for all curious people.

Alexander Semenov

aquatilis.eth

Marine biologist | Underwater photographer and DOP | National Geographic Explorer 2022 | Head of Aquatilis Expedition | Head of the Scientific Diving Department at the White Sea Biological Station