iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 07/07/2026

I believe this is an undescribed #anglerfish that has been locally referred to as “Andrea’s Angler” which I found this past Friday. I noticed it has two very bright barbel like structures under its chin inside its bubble. #marinelife #underwaterphotography #blackwater

A semi transparent larval anglerfish in its biological bubble. Its main body retains a pink hue and while two bright orange barbles hang from its chin. Tiny versions of the distinctive anglerfish teeth are visible in its mouth.

410515

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 29/10/2025

Happy National #SeaSlug Day! They are one of my favorite things to show people who don’t know about a local urban wildlife, especially since they live closer than you think! #nudibranch #marinescience #marinelife #underwaterphotography

0122

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 30/05/2025

The legendary rainbow tripod fish ( #Bathypteroisphenax) eventually settles on the seabed and lives its life sitting on its fintips above the silty abyssal plane. In its larval form is is one of the most stunning fish we see on our #blackwater dives. #deepsea #marinelife

A rainbow tripod fish looks directly at the viewer with large green, blue, yellow, and purple fins that radiate in almost a complete circle from its body. The fin ray tips end in purple tips.

49925

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 06/05/2025

A #blanketoctopus (genus #tremoctopus) three ways. The little bubbles on each of her back suckers are pieces of siphonophore that it tears off to use as a “spicy” stinging shield. #marinelife #plankton

Three views of a red and purple larval blanket octopus. It has little bubbles on its arms and sticks two little arms in front like superman

09420

Reposted by Gabriel Jensen

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Fun fact, the worms have eyes, THEY CAN SEE YOU 👀 I can't tell for sure which type this species would have, but they are all cool 🧪🦑 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Top: Three species of sabellids (left to right: Anamobaea sp., Bispira sp., and Megalomma interrupta) detailing general arrangements of radiolar eyes (arrowheads). The picture of M. interrupta includes a diagram of the anterior end of the worm’s body within the tube. Bottom: Images of radiolar eyes from eight species of sabellids organized by increasing sophistication from no eyes, to ocellar clusters, to compound eyes. Scale bar = 200 μm.

210729

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 18/04/2025

Christmas tree worms extend their spiraled feeding crowns, while a spinyhead #blenny peeks from its burrow in front of one—two tiny reef icons sharing the same real estate in #PuertoRico. Life on the reef is small, colorful, and endlessly intertwined. #marinelife

A close-up of several colorful Christmas tree worms, showing their symmetrical spiral feeding crowns in orange, purple, and blue hues, radiating like fireworks across the reef.

A small spinyhead blenny with bright green eyes peeks out of its burrow. Behind it, a large pink-and-orange Christmas tree worm is softly blurred, creating a dramatic background.

05316

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 16/03/2025

This longsnout seahorse (hippocampus reidi) has been taunting me by hiding inside of hydroids for my last few visits, but I finally found him puttering about at night. I love how striking they are compared to the typical lined seahorses. #seahorse #sygnathid #marinebiology #marinelife #ocean

An artistic photograph of an orange longsnout seahorse, the background has red streaks and it it hiding among the hydroids.

0182

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 17/02/2025

I was recently challenged by a scientist to image the pharynx of #HermodiceCaruculata, the bearded fireworm. This was my best attempt at playing #fireworm dentist. Imaged using the Nauticam SMC-2, the most powerful underwater magnifier in the world. #marinelife

2389

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 14/02/2025

For my #plankton lovers I have a few blackwater and larval #marinelife Valentine’s Day cards you can steal for your special someone. #valentinesday #marinebiology 🦑

An image of a blue and yellow larval tube anemone with the text “Hey Baby, I’d settle down with you harder than an anemone larva on a prime piece of substrate”

A collage of various stages of larval crabs with text that reads “Hey girl, our love is more complicated than a crabs lifecycle… but luckily I’m into it”

An image of a blue larval dragonfish with text that reads “Hey girl, I’d go through 17 awkward larval stages just to be with you. Happy Valentine’s Day”

Image of a blue and purple Portuguese man of water and man-o-war fish swimming in the tentacles. Text on the image says “hey girl, our love is like a siphonophore… technically a colony but still a big beautiful mess. Happy Valentine’s Day”

084

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 11/02/2025

This is a pelagic #mollusk called a sea elephant and they’ve never known a hard surface in their entire life. What do you think this one’s name is. I think they look like a “Gumbert” #marinelife #plankton

1230

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 10/02/2025

At nearly 6 inches long Felimare juliae are one of the biggest nudibranchs we have on the Florida reef tract. This giant has striking aposematic coloration warning predators of its toxic body. #nudibranch #seaslug #scuba #underwaterphotography #marinelife

A yellow and blue nudibranch crawls towards the viewer on a bed of algea. It’s two blue rhinophores look like bunny ears.

A yellow and blue striped nudibranch crawls on a white background.

0234

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 05/02/2025

Last night we encountered 8 species of #dragonfish larvae will drifting in the Gulf Stream. Goofy as kids, they have a goth glow up as adults. At this stage their digestive tract trails outside of their body for some reason. #marinelife #plankton

A translucent dragonfish larvae squirms and looks at the camera with a goofy smiley face in inky dark night time. There are pink dots that run the length of its body.

The black adult form of the dragonfish lives beyond the reach of sunlight in the mesophotic zone. Illustration by GM Woodward public domain.

1154

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 03/02/2025

Nomeus gronovii, or man o’ war fish, share a symbiotic relationship with the Portuguese man o’ war. Partially immune to the venom of the man o’war, these fish can live among the man o’war’s tentacles and feed on them. This particular one hit me in the head while I drifted offshore. #marinelife

A blue, silver, and black man o war fish swims in the pink and blue stinging tentacles of a Portuguese man o war. Image taken at night, the fish is reflected on the mirror like surface.

050

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 30/01/2025

This has been my face for the last ten or so days. Pelagic lined seahorse found drifting in the gulfstream. #seahorse #marinelife #grumpy

A seahorse looks at the viewer with a grumpy face. Fleshy cirri are visible on its head and back

1100

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 24/01/2025

Titled “Everything’s A-OK” I am reminded by this bold doctorfish to hold fast with a smile, stay prickly when challenged, and calmly know we’ll make it through. I am pleased to have secured First Place in CUPOTY with this image today. #marinelife #fish #doctorfish #lizardfish

A doctorfish seemingly smiles at the camera while getting swallowed by a lizardfish. The lizardfish has sharp needle like teeth but the doctorfish doesn’t seem to care.

0153

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 19/01/2025

It’s #siphonophore Sunday!!! I believe this is Forskalia formosa and they can pack quit a sting if they bump into the space between my mask and my stache. #marinelife #plankton #blackwater

A jelly like siphonophore has dozens of siphons like bells placed over a mess of fine jelly tentacles on a black background.

0243

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 17/01/2025

Recently we were treated to fantastic visibility under Blue Heron Bridge, so much so that I couldn’t help but bring out my wide angle lens (for once!) in the first image we have a big ‘ol 12oz steak size Warty Sidegill slug, Pleurobranchus areolatus. #marinelife #seaslug 🦑 #malacology

At night, a diver looks on from the background as an orange, red, and white mottled sea slug crawls along sand and gravel.

1294

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 16/01/2025

Just letting Bluesky know that I am an independent dive guide that specializes is showing all the weird and exotic underwater #urbanwildlife you see on my feed to my guests. If you ever want to see the very best critters in Soflo, check out my website in bio. #scuba #marinelife

Granger here loved seeing this polka dot batfish. An orange triangular batfish swims on a rubble bottom with a scuba diver looking on from behind.

A yellow seahorse perches on an orange sponge with a diver looking on from behind. The water is blue and the surface is visible.

0111

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 16/01/2025

Hot on the heels of naming my #simplifiedseas project I present an image of a lined seahorse from earlier this week. On the shallow seagrass beds, these are the big dogs, effective pipette feeding predators that need to eat almost constantly. #seahorse #white #marinelife #underwaterphotography

0183

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 13/01/2025

This is kinda different than my normal type of picture, but I enjoyed the reflections made by the manatees against the still spring water. #manatee #reflection #marinelife

A closeup of a manatee taking a breath at the waters surface with its reflection looking back at it. The image is flipped 180 degrees to emphasize the reflection. The manatees big tooth is visible through its floppy lips

0173

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 12/01/2025

The Mad Manatee’s Mullet Monocle. I had fun swimming with these Potatoes in the springs today. #marinelife #manatee #marinemammal #underwaterphotography

A mullet fish swims directly in front of a manatees face, making the fish eye appear to be the manatees eye. A scar on the manatees head makes the fish eye look like an angry eye

Two Florida manatees swim in crystal clear blue spring water over white sand. Their reflections appear on the waters surface

0292

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 10/01/2025

The orange cup coral was first observed in Puerto Rico in 1943, scientists believe these corals first made their way to the Western Atlantic from the indo-pacific by hitching a ride and spawning along the way inside of the ballast water on ships. #invasivespecies #coral #marinelife

A bright orange colony of anemone-like cup coral extend their tentacles like fireworks on a white background

0183

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 08/01/2025

The #Atlantidae is a group of planktonic gastropods, which all demonstrate a strong adaptation to pelagic life. I love them because they endlessly flap those lil wingys (part of its mantle) and have funny googly eyes. #marinelife 🦑 #plankton #blackwater

A semi transparent pelagic snail flaps its wing like appendages to stay afloat in the plankton cloud. On one side you can see two googly eyes and a pinkish swirling shell.

16415

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 06/01/2025

Most divers need to fly to Indonesia to find the legendary Leaf Sheep/Shawn the sheep/Eyespot Costasiella, but we have a population living in a ditch on the side of the road right here in South Florida. #marinelife 🦑 #seaslug #sacoglossa

14511

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 02/01/2025

For my #newyearnewnudi contribution here is Plocamopherus lucayensis. Fun fact these guys will blink with (very weak) bioluminescence if I disturb their bryozoans home. #nudibranch #marinelife #underwater #🦑

Plocamopherus lucayensis are red orange Nudibranchs that have heads that look like sock puppets and purple beards. They are plentiful on the feather bryozoans all over the bridge.

0256

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 30/12/2024

As the temps finally drop here in Florida, the Manatees move into their winter homes here in the springs. Happy #Manatee season! #marinelife 🦑 #marinemammal

In crystal clear blue water, a manatee lifts its nose to the surface to take a breath of air, seen from below. It’s elephant like front flippers hang down with fingernails visible.

A Florida manatee looks at the camera, it holds its position with its flippers on white sand and crystal clear blue spring water extends to the distance.

03910

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 23/12/2024

The lined #seahorse (Hippocampus erectus) are poor swimmers and rely on their coloring and texture to camouflage themselves among the sea bed where they ambush much smaller prey by sucking them into their toothless snouts. #fishmas #sygnathid #marinelife 🦑 these are wild animals, imaged on scuba.

Two brown camouflaged seahorses against a stark white background look back at the viewer with red eyes. Their fleshy fibrous cirri grow from several places blow in the current like a bad toupee.

0202

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 23/12/2024

The sad clown. This polka dot #batfish was fishing with its lure and using a snoot I believe I have found Emmett Kelly, the sad clown, in his next life. #marinelife 🦑 #wildlife

A polka dot batfish displays a luring behavior with its built in lure, a top down spotlight makes it appear to have a very human “sad clown face” with an orange nose and big red frowny lips.

0303

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 20/12/2024

For this 20th day of #crustmas I present to you the double rainbow of tropical western Atlantic urchinspotters, both G. Americanum and G. Mineri on ONE urchin AND in the same frame! Typically I see urchins colonized by one or the other. #marinelife #seaurchin #shrimp

On a white urchins with purple and pick spines, a while and brown camouflaged Squat urchin shrimp blends in with a spine, while a bright yellow and blue bumblebee shrimp crawls close by.

0424

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 20/12/2024

A duo of amphipods have made this radiolarian their home. Radiolarians are part of the marine #plankton. Individual radiolarians are normally hundredths to tenths of millimeters in size, but some species amass into colonies like this one which may reach size of a whole centimeter! #marinelife 🦑

Two bug like amphipods rest on either side of a cylindrical shaped radiolarian colony. The colony appears to be a series of 8 polka dot yellow spheres smushed into a line surrounded by a halo of blue dots representing a mucus layer.

26215

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 18/12/2024

These sea angels typically whizz by super fast, though if you’re lucky, you can see them drifting with its egg cloud. To me it looks like they are laying a mini galaxy. #plankton #marinelife #seaangel #mollusk 🦑 🤿

A small white and purple pelagic mollusk with wings attached to a round cloud of white specks on a black background.

13711

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 16/12/2024

ne of my favorite local slugs, the gold Line Sea Goddess (#Felimareruthae) can usually be found feeding on the encrusting sponges found under rubble and shells at the bottom of South Florida Canals. #nudibranch #seaslug #underwaterphotography #blueheronbridge #marinelife

1339

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 14/12/2024

The holidays are upon us and today/tomorrow are the last days to order from my ocean nerd plankton & Nudi merch shop! I suggest yall check it out, at least for a laugh. www.etsy.com/listing/1753...

051

Reposted by Gabriel Jensen

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Think carefully before buying a Greenland shark for the holidays. They are, after all, the world’s longest-living vertebrate.

Greenland shark with “I am not a toy, I am a 400 year commitment” text

603187723

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 12/12/2024

I guess I’m a psychic because about an hour after I posted about my wonderful arrow crab friend, I got notification that the same photo is 1st place in the NOAA sanctuaries photo contest. #noaa #noaasanctuaries

240

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 12/12/2024

On the 12th day of #crustmas I present The yellow line arrow #crab Stenorhynchus seticornis. This guy isn’t typically built for camouflage, but he is right at home posing in front of this Diadema long spine #urchin. #marinelife 🦑 #scuba #underwater

A yellowline arrow crab poses in front of a long spine urchin. It’s long rostrum blends into the urchins spines.

4232

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 11/12/2024

Merry #crustmas This inch long #bumblebeeshrimp (Gnathophyllum americanum) hitches a ride on a three-rowed #seacucumber (Isostichopus badionotus). Not unlike the Fremen of Dune riding the sand worms, Hitching rides on enchinoderms provides safety for these little shrimp. #shrimplore #marinelife 🦑

2467

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 11/12/2024

Freedrifting longsnout seahorse (hippocampus reidi) about three miles offshore while drifting in the #gulfstream. After a #seahorse give birth, their larvae sometimes get swept out to sea, joining the #plankton where they will then grow up on the drifting seaweed. #marinelife 🦑 #blackwater

1307

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 10/12/2024

In honor of #reeffutures I present a single free swimming coral planula. In late August I see plenty of these drifting with the #plankton swarms on gulfstream blackwater dives. They are about the size of a grain of rice. #coral #reefrestoration #planula #marinelife 🦑

2110

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 10/12/2024

Lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus) are masters of camouflage and can change color or grow cirri over time to match their home. Cirri are skin filaments that #seahorses grow on their bodies to help them camouflage in their surroundings. #seahorse #sygnathid #marinelife 🦑 #wildlife

28414

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 05/12/2024

The longfin inshore #squid (Doryteuthis pealeii) Is a common visitor on #Blackwater dives in Gulfstream. I frequently see them hunting in pack surrounding the down light. This big one has just munched on a squirlfish and inked me so it got a pic. #marinelife 🦑 #underwaterphotography

3245

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 01/12/2024

I found this cool pteropod on my shark dives this weekend! Its two back appendages have evolved to look like leaves. How the heck does a mollusk that never sees dry land let alone the sea bed evolve to look like leaves from a tree? Any malacologists on here? #mollusk #🦑 #marinelife #plankton

1200

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 24/11/2024

During their Larval stage, Remora hang in the water column amongst the plankton and display huge, colorful caudal fins. This 2 inch long specimen displayed their yellow fin so brightly I thought it was bioluminescent. #marinelife #plankton #nekton #blackwater 🦑

2454

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 24/11/2024

Happy to have my image “everything’s A-OK” featured on @forbes.com as party of the CUPOTY shortlist. You can read more about this image here: tinyurl.com/24hee2m2

In this case, the lizardfish grapples with a challengingly-large doctorfish, its eyes perhaps larger than its mouth.

The comically calm doctorfish steals the limelight, displaying a remarkable defense mechanism, with splayed pectoral and dorsal spines. As the lizardfish struggled for a few minutes, the doctorfish was eventually able to escape.

150

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 22/11/2024

The #bioluminescent Phylliroe genus of nudibranch are pelagic and will never encounter a solid surface during their entire life cycle. Due to convergent evolution, their bodies have taken a form similar to a tiny fish. This gives them better control during their nightly hunt for food. #nudivember 🦑

A pair of bioluminescent Phylliroe Nudibranchs swims with fish light bodies in the dark ocean waters of the Gulf Stream over hundreds of feet of depth. Each slug has two long tentacles that come from the front they use for steering.

0100

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 22/11/2024

A 3 mm Ercolania fuscata traverses a blade of Stalked Grape Algae (Caulerpa lamourouxii) in its quest to find more chloroplasts to slurp. These little #sacoglossan slugs come to visit us in the tropical western Atlantic for a short time in late summer and fall. #nudivember #seaslug #marinelife 🦑

A 3mm long Ercolania fuscata crawls on a bright green piece of bubble algae. The slug is dark witch a white patch near its head and rhinophores.

A 3mm long Ercolania fuscata sacoglossan slug crawls on green bubble algea over a white background. Its eye is visible on a white patch near its head.

030

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 20/11/2024

Coryphella verta can be distinguished from all the other local white nudibranchs with red cerata by the thin white lines running on its face and down its body. These guys love to eat hydroids and can move super fast. #nudibranch #seaslug #scuba #blueheronbridge #nudivember #marinelife 🦑

A white Coryphella verta nudibranch with bright red cerata on its back looks directly at the camera over a green bubble background

A white and Red Sea slug coryphella verta turns to its side and shows thin white lines on its mantle over a green bubble background.

26213

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 18/11/2024

Since I’m new here I think it’s also worth mentioning that I’m a nekton enthusiast. Do we have any other blackwater divers on here? Composite image of various planktonic creatures photographed in the Gulfstream off Boyton Beach, FL #blackwater #plankton #nekton #marinelife 🦑

A composite image on a black background featuring various planktonic organisms. These include bioluminescent fish, octopus, crabs, jellyfish, mollusks, nudibranchs, veligers, anemones, scalps, fish, and Zoae larvae.

2202

Gabriel Jensen @shallowseasgallery.com · 18/11/2024

Felimida binza are one of the most common nudibranchs found under the blue heron bridge, A light search around discarded shells is certain to turn up at least a few of these guys! 20mm subject Imaged #marinelife #marinebiology #nudibranch #seaslug #uwphoto 🦑

A red, white, and purple sea slug faces the viewer over a green background, the ridges on its rhinophores are visible.

A larger red white and purple nudibranch touches tips with a smaller version with a dark background over a spongy shell.

09915