Wes Skiles Photography - National Geographic

Maya Skull
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Octavio del Rio examines an ancient Maya skull, well-preserved in the low-oxygen environment of an underwater cave. The scene was captured by underwater photographer and explorer Wes C. Skiles, whose incredible images grace this gallery. Skiles died July 21 while filming and diving in the ocean off the Florida coast. His breathtaking coverage of blue holes is National Geographic magazine’s August cover story.
“Wes was a true explorer in every sense and a wonderful spirit,” Editor in Chief Chris Johns said. "He set a standard for underwater photography, cinematography, and exploration that is unsurpassed. It was an honor to work with him, and he will be deeply missed."
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Among many other endeavors, Skiles was a key part of the Blue Holes Project.
Cenote Descent
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Archaeologists descend into the magical world of a cenote, one of hundreds of limestone sinkholes that dot the Yucatán Peninsula. These flooded caves are linked by a massive system of underground rivers extending to the sea—where freshwater bubbles from offshore cave openings. The ancient Maya believed that cenotes were entrances to the underworld, and thus spiritually significant. Centuries later their remains lie well-preserved in the deep.
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Cow Skull
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Sinkholes provide a rare window into history—both natural and human. By studying the composition of geological cave formations scientists can learn about fluctuations of the ancient climate. The caves also hold the remains of ancient, sometimes extinct animals—preserved for posterity in a low-oxygen environment. Modern animals, such as cattle, may also meet their fate by slipping into the depths of a cenote.
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Diepolder Cave
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
No light reaches the depths of Diepolder Cave, save that carried by divers exploring north Florida’s sprawling spring system. The springs seem a world apart but they are intimately connected to the human world above, which means human actions directly impact the aquifer system. Contamination, whether from industry, agriculture, or development, threatens the quality of groundwater on which many Floridians depend.
(Related: "The Effects of Global Warming on the Human Body")
Beam of Sunlight
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Sunlight streams through the entrance to the blue hole at Florida’s Ichetucknee Springs State Park. Divers are not the only animals that use such openings to move in and out of the cave environment. American eels haunt cave openings where a bounty of larval insects can be found, and catfish have been spotted hundreds of feet inside caves. Several small fish, salamanders, and crayfish also visit the cave habitat but do not dwell in the darkness full time.
(Related: "What You Can Do to Reduce Pollution and Save Energy")
Cave Diving
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Diver Ron Simmons enters a cave in Florida’s Peacock Springs State Park, home to one of the longest underwater cave systems in the United States. Cave diving is dangerous—an average of 20 divers die worldwide each year. Many caves are vast, limestone labyrinths with dead-ends, tight passages, treacherous currents, and uncertain visibility. Divers rely on redundancy and training to get in and out safely, and use guidelines like breadcrumbs leading back to the surface.
(Related: "Water Conservation 101")
Ginnie Springs
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
A diver enjoys the scenery at Ginnie Springs, Florida. Springs occur at openings where the aquifer system’s caves and channels meet the surface and discharge billions of gallons of clear water. Though springs are an exit for pressurized water, for cave divers they are doorways representing an entrance to the underground world. Ginnie Springs Cavern is a particular gateway for many beginning divers—but there is nothing pedestrian about the site. Jacques Cousteau once described it as “visibility forever.”
(Related: "Ecotourism and Travel")
Ocean Fountain
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Divers’ floodlights illuminate a freshwater fountain in the open sea. The ancient Maya, who believed that inland cenote sinkholes were gateways to the underworld, were onto something: They are, in fact, physical gateways to the undersea world. Cenotes are connected by miles of underground channels to offshore cave openings like this one, where their pressurized freshwater gushes dramatically into the ocean.
(Related: "Core Aspects of Ecotourism")
Into the Devil's Ear
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Taking aim at what looks like a hole in the water, divers plunge through an opening on the bed of Florida’s Santa Fe River and descend into the darkness of the “Devil’s Ear.” Though the river’s water is darkened by plant tannins, the liquid emerging from the underground aquifer at the “ear” remains crystal clear.
(Related: "Types of Ecotourism")
Cypress Spring, Florida
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Visitors need not dive to enjoy Florida’s freshwater springs. The view from a canoe is also beautiful, especially at Cypress Spring, which discharges more than 90 million gallons (340 million liters) of crystal-clear water every day. The state’s 600-plus springs draw swimmers and snorkelers, fossil hunters and fishermen, all seeking to experience the amazing spots where the subterranean and surface worlds collide.
(Related: "How to Travel Sustainably")
Wakulla Springs State Park
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
A diver enters a cave at Florida’s Wakulla Springs State Park. The spot is just one of the countless entrances to a 450-square-mile (1,165-square-kilometer) underground cave and river system, the Woodville Karst Plain, which stretches all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. This wonderland of caverns and passages is little known to many northern Floridians, though it lies just beneath their feet and supplies much of the water they drink.
(Related: "Pictures: Threatened Environments")
Cave Diver on the Surface
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Florida is flat on the surface, but below exists a wondrous landscape of flooded caverns and canyons carved by the same forces of aquatic erosion that sculpted the American West. Florida is essentially a limestone peninsula. Over the eons, surface water percolated into this bedrock and moved through it as groundwater, dissolving and eroding rock to carve the maze of caves, channels, sinkholes, and other features of the state’s karst topography. Because of their inaccessibility these wonders remain hidden from all but a fortunate few.
(Related: "Photo Gallery: Freshwater")
Tight Squeeze
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Lamar Hires and dive buddy Dell Montes explore the Hart Springs cave system. The environment of an underwater cave is totally lightless and accessible to humans only with extensive training and high–tech equipment. Yet many animals find such sites quite hospitable, and they thrive on the consistent water quality and temperatures. Pale and sightless crustaceans are common cave creatures. Many limestone walls tell a different and older tale. They are filled with fossils of ancient sea creatures left behind long before the caves were formed.
(Related: "How to Recycle Water")
River Channel
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Mark Long explores the quiet depths of Sweetwater cave system in Jackson County, Florida, in a shot taken by dive buddy Wes C. Skiles. Skiles was a native of Florida, home to more known freshwater caves and caverns than any other spot on Earth. The state’s limestone bedrock is riddled with river channels and caverns that move a staggering eight billion gallons (30 billion liters) of fresh water to the surface every day. All of that water emerges at the surface through more than 600 natural springs.
(Related: "How to Take an Eco-friendly Tour")
Underwater Scientists
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Scientists, like these at work in Florida’s Fern Hammock spring, are exploring underwater cave and river systems on both the macro and micro levels. By mapping their extent and interconnectedness, researchers are shedding light on a critical and vulnerable part of the state’s freshwater ecosystem. By studying often tiny cave dwellers, they are learning how life survives in an environment lacking sunlight or abundant natural nutrients.
(Related: "How to Take an Eco-friendly Adventure")
Taking Notes
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles
Octavio del Rio records the details of a Maya skull while working deep within a sinkhole in the Yucatán jungle. The Maya deposited some of their dead in these sinkholes, including people likely sacrificed by priests. But the human connection to such sites stretches back even further: At one nearby cenote, scientists found evidence of a 10,200-year-old bonfire.
(Related: "How to Choose Eco-Friendly Lodging")

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