David Fleetham
2025. The Cotswolds, UK.
David Fleetham is a scuba diver and underwater photographer for whom the ocean is not a place to visit, but one to return to. When he descends, surface noise fades and the world becomes stripped back and honest. Underwater, there is no haste; life unfolds as it must. Reef fish observe with intent, shrimp clean moray eels that could easily consume them, and manta rays pass effortlessly overhead. Survival depends on balance, and that balance holds.
Through his camera, he reveals details rarely seen—not spectacle, but life that is patient, deliberate, and interconnected. To him, the ocean is not an empty expanse but a neighbourhood, and when it is damaged, the loss feels personal. Witnessing reefs change: coral paling, fewer animals, and silence where there was once movement. The shift is gradual yet undeniable.
For Fleetham, photography creates a moment of pause—where awareness begins. He photographs the ocean so others might recognise it as alive, and worth protecting.
SPERM, 2023, The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.
A sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, moves through clear tropical water as shafts of sunlight penetrate the ocean surface off the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in the Indo-Pacific region. The species is the largest of all toothed cetaceans, with males capable of reaching lengths of up to 60 feet. This powerful deep-diving marine mammal is well adapted for life in open ocean environments, where it hunts squid and other prey at great depths. Yet even remote waters are changing. Increasing ship noise interferes with echolocation, plastic debris is found in stomach contents, and warming oceans alter deep-sea prey distribution. Expanding shipping lanes and fishing gear raise the risk of strikes and entanglement. Images like this document healthy encounters that may depend on future protections across entire migration routes.
TRIGGERFISH, 2024, Batangas, Philippines.
A massive school of redtooth triggerfish (Odonus niger) hide a patch of barrel sponges off Verde Island, Batangas, Philippines. The density of life in this moment reflects a reef still functioning at full strength, where shelter, current, and food remain balanced enough to support large aggregations. Scenes like this are becoming less common as warming water, sediment runoff, and overfishing thin the layers of a reef community. When sponge cover declines, filtration drops and water clarity suffers, affecting plankton feeders such as these triggerfish. This image documents abundance, but also serves as a reference for what intact reef structure should look like before it fades.
TURTLE, 2025, Guam, Micronesia, Mariana Islands, Philippine Sea.
This green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, has come to the reef to get cleaned by yellow tangs, Zebrasoma flavescens, Guam, Micronesia, Mariana Islands, Philippine Sea. Cleaning stations like this are vital meeting points on healthy reefs, where herbivorous fish remove algae, parasites, and dead tissue while the turtle gains improved health and mobility. Such interactions depend on stable coral habitat and clear water. Across the Pacific, coastal development, sediment runoff, and rising ocean temperatures are degrading these reef structures and reducing fish populations that provide cleaning services. Sea turtles also face additional pressure from plastic ingestion, boat strikes, and loss of nesting beaches as shorelines erode. When reef communities decline, even routine behaviors like cleaning visits become less frequent. Images like this capture cooperation within a functioning ecosystem and emphasize how protecting reefs safeguards not only individual species, but the relationships that allow marine life to thrive together.
VELIGER, 2024, Yap, Federated States of Micronesia.
This is the gastropod veliger larva stage of a tonnoid snail. It is the second stage of a larva of a mollusk that will develop into a tonnoid snail. Photographed at night on a blackwater dive in the open Pacific Ocean one mile off the island of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia. The bottom was 3000 feet below. These planktonic stages drift with currents and are highly sensitive to water chemistry. Increasing ocean acidification interferes with shell formation, reducing survival before adulthood. Microplastics are also now found within plankton layers, where larvae can ingest particles mistaken for food. Because many reef species begin life in open water, losses here ripple back to coastal ecosystems. Images of larval life reveal how ocean change starts at the smallest level.