With sharp eyes, the tiger-headed sea eagle searches for herring between large chunks of ice floes in the waters off the Shiretoko Peninsula. Photographed by Brian Skyley
Beneath the ice, an Alaskan king crab, still the size of a coin, crawled "tit-for-tat" over the lumpy body of a starfish. If safe and sound, the crab could grow to the size of a bulldozer's tire in 12 years. Photographed by Brian Skyley
The photographer's assistant grasps the ice cube suspended in the water, and the ice canopy on it can reach seven or eight meters thick in winter, covering the sea surface of the Shiretoko Peninsula. Ten years ago, the waters in this area were frozen for three months a year, but now it is shortened to about two months. Photograph by Brian Skyley
A volcanic sand beach near Toyama Bay flashed with an electric blue light, a firefly squid from females who laid their eggs in the spring and then died and floated to the shore, their tentacles lit up like millions of light-emitting diodes. Photograph by Brian Skyley
These purple sacs filter seawater for food. They all live under a rock in a cave off the coast of Parent Island, and no scientist has yet named them. Photographed by Brian Skyley
They look like a large ball of twisted waste steel, but they are actually a cluster of deep-water gorgonian corals in Suruga Bay. Each branch is covered with the bodies of eating coral hydras, reaching out tiny tentacles to grab the food floating in the current. Photographed by Brian Skyley