“Secrets of the Whales”. Skerry’s photographs celebrate the lives and culture of whales, illuminating recent research and their diverse behaviours. His latest work focuses on four key species: sperm whales, humpbacks, orca and beluga whales. Humpback whales bubble-net feeding off the coast of Alaska. They work cooperatively to feed on herring by blowing a perfect ring of bubbles underwater to form a net encircling the fish. The whales then swim up through the centre of the bubble net with their mouths open. (Photo by Brian Skerry/National Geographic Photo/Visa pour l'Image)

This diver almost got sucked into the mouth of a massive whale shark as it feeds on plankton. But far from staring into the jaws of death – the shark, which are the sea's largest fish, is actually vegetarian. The relieved diver escaped from the encounter unscathed and continued to enjoy the presence of the incredibly docile animals. The stunning photograph, by Mauricio Handler, was taken during a feeding session where more than 600 of the huge creatures gathered to feed on tuna spawn. (Photo by Mauricio Handler/Daily Mail/Solent)

Herring worth millions in exports float dead in Kolgrafafjordur, a small fjord on the northern part of Snaefellsnes peninsula, west Iceland, for the second time in two months. Between 25,000 and 30,000 tons of fish died in December and more now, due to lack of oxygen in the fjord thought to have been caused by a landfill and bridge constructed across the fjord in December 2004. The current export value of the estimated 10,000 tons of herring amounts to $ 9.8 million, according to the newspaper “Morgunbladid”. (Photo by Brynjar Gauti/Associated Press)

A flood affected family moves on a banana raft past a fishing net in Morigaon district, east of Gauhati, northeastern Assam state, India, Sunday, July 31, 2016. A week of heavy rain has killed dozens of people and uprooted tens of thousands of others from their homes. Floods are an annual occurrence in Assam and many parts of India during the June-September monsoon season. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

Onlookers gather around a struggling beached whale in the Yoff neighborhood of Dakar, Senegal Wednesday, May 21, 2008. Residents worked Wednesday morning to save some of the more than 80 whales that were stranded on the beach Tuesday night. This whale was successfully towed out to sea by a fishing boat, though at least 20 others lay dead on the beach by midday Wednesday. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

An orphaned 11 month old cougar cub plays at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on April 26, 2007 in Vallejo, California. Three cougar cubs were given to the park from the Idaho Fish & Game in March after they were found motherless in the wild and it was determined that they would not survive in the wild. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images)

A girl laughs while unloading her boat of produce at a market in Ganvie on January 6, 2012 in Cotonou, Benin. Often called the Venice of Africa, Ganvie is a stilted fishing village on Lake Nokoue, near Cotonou in Benin, the largest such village in Africa, and home to approximately 20,000 residents. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)