Three very different habitats, all essential to life in the ocean. MANGROVES Nursery grounds for young fish, sharks, and rays while helping protect coastlines. CORAL REEFS Home to an incredible diversity of marine life and important shelter, feeding, and breeding grounds. KELP FORESTS Underwater forests that provide food, shelter, and nursery habitat for countless species. Different habitats. One connected ocean. Protect the places that protect marine life. --- Photos by @annieguttridge #MarineHabitats #Mangroves #CoralReefs #KelpForest #MarineLife #OceanLife #MarineBiology #OceanConservation #Nature #SavingTheBlue

Quiet moments beneath the surface. Manta rays are constantly on the move, using their large cephalic fins to help direct plankton-rich water toward their mouths as they feed. Seeing one glide effortlessly over the reef is a pretty incredible reminder of how much life exists just below the surface. --- Photo by @annieguttridge #MantaRay #Rays #MarineLife #OceanLife #MarineBiology #UnderwaterPhotography #Nature #Wildlife #OceanConservation #SavingTheBlue

Mangroves aren’t just trees — for young lemon sharks, they can be a nursery. 🌱🦈 Juvenile lemon sharks commonly use shallow mangrove-fringed habitats during their early years. The warm, protected waters provide plenty of food while the shallow depths and complex mangrove roots can reduce exposure to larger sharks. Young lemon sharks also show strong site fidelity, meaning they may return to and remain within the same nursery areas for extended periods. Protecting mangroves therefore means protecting habitat that can be important during one of the most vulnerable stages of a shark’s life. Healthy mangroves = healthy beginnings. 💙🌊 --- Photo by @annieguttridge #LemonShark #Sharks #Mangroves #MarineBiology #MarineLife #OceanLife #Nature #SharkConservation #OceanConservation #SavingTheBlue

For anyone who’s been on a research trip with us… let’s see what you remember. What is this tag and device, and what does it do? Think you know the answer? Drop it in the comments before checking the answer below. ---- S P O I L E R S : Answer: PIT tag + scanner — a tiny ID system that helps us recognize individual sharks over time. ---- Photo by @annieguttridge #Sharks #SharkResearch #MarineBiology #MarineScience #OceanLife #SharkTagging #Nature #Wildlife #UnderwaterPhotography #SavingTheBlue

just swimming by to say hi ♡ Nurse sharks are often found resting on sandy bottoms and around reefs, using their barbels near the mouth to help locate food along the seafloor. They’re generally slow-moving and spend much of their time close to the bottom, making them one of the more laid-back sharks you might encounter underwater. A little underwater hello from one of the ocean’s most curious residents. ---- Photo by @annieguttridge

October 17th was International Sawfish Day! 🩵🦈 Sawfish are among the most endangered marine fishes in the world, making conservation efforts more important than ever. In Andros, Saving the Blue is working with local communities to learn more about these incredible animals through documenting sightings, collecting sawfish rostrums, and conducting DNA sampling. These efforts help us better understand sawfish populations and support research that can guide future conservation efforts.

GUESS THE SHARK 👀 This one might be a little trickier… 👇 🔎 Hint: Look closely at that smooth, slender body and the shape of its fins. This shark has a pretty streamlined look compared to some of the larger species you might be used to seeing. Think you know it? Drop your guess in the comments! 🦈🌊 --- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #nature #shark #marinebiology #SharkResearch #SharkScience #MarineLife #OceanLife #Sharks #OceanConservation

There’s a whole world beneath the surface. 🌊🪽 Eagle rays gliding through the blue are a pretty incredible reminder of just how much beauty exists in our oceans. Sometimes, you just have to get in and experience it for yourself. 🤿💙 Go diving. Go snorkeling. Get your feet in the water. Immerse yourself in the ocean and see what you’re protecting. And if getting in the water isn’t your thing, that’s okay too. Pick up trash on the beach, protect the habitats around you, and leave the coastline a little better than you found it. 🌊 You don’t have to be a diver to make a difference. The ocean needs all of us. 💙 ---- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #EagleRay #AndrosBahamas #OceanConservation #MarineConservation #Ocean #MarineLife #ProtectOurOceans #Travel #Bahamas #Nature

Tag. Track. Learn. Protect. 🦈🌊 A SPOT tag helps us follow shark movements after release, giving us a glimpse into a world we can’t observe from the boat. SPOT tags are a powerful tool for tracking shark movements in the wild. 🦈 Attached to the dorsal fin, the tag sends the shark’s location to satellites whenever the fin breaks the surface. This allows us to follow their movements, sometimes receiving updates daily, for up to two years. 🌊💙 savingtheblue.org/sharktags ---

What happens beneath the surface matters! 🌊🦈 Sharks are part of a much bigger ocean ecosystem, and understanding where they go, how they use their environment, and what pressures they face helps us understand how to better protect them. There’s still so much we don’t know. That’s why we keep looking beneath the surface. 💙 ---- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #SilkyShark #SharkResearch #SharkConservation #MarineBiology #SharkScience #Nature

Why should we care about a sawfish? 🩵🌊 Because losing a species doesn't happen overnight. Smalltooth sawfish have disappeared from much of their historic range, with fishing bycatch and the destruction of shallow coastal habitats among the major threats. And because they reproduce slowly, rebuilding their populations takes time. Our work in Andros is helping fill some of the gaps in what we know, looking for important habitats, documenting where sawfish are found, and working with local communities to turn that knowledge into conservation action. The more we know, the more we can do. Explore our Sawfish Research savingtheblue.org/sawfish ---- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #SmalltoothSawfish #nature #MarineConservation #earth #EndangeredSpecies #AndrosBahamas #life #OceanScience #conservation

There’s a whole world down here worth protecting. 💙🌊 Every reef, every species, every stretch of blue plays a role in the bigger picture of our ocean. The more we explore, the more we understand, and the more there is to protect. --- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #OceanConservation #MarineConservation #OceanLife #MarineLife #UnderwaterWorld #BluePlanet #ProtectOurOceans

Great hammerheads can travel across large areas, which means understanding their movements is an important part of conservation. By tracking and studying these sharks, we can start to see the bigger picture of where they go and what habitats matter most. Dive deeper into our hammerhead research: 👇 savingtheblue.org/hammerhead… --- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #GreatHammerhead #HammerheadShark #SharkTracking #SharkResearch #SharkConservation #MarineScience #OceanConservation #SharkScience

A shark that knows how to work the seafloor. 🦈 Great hammerheads are known for hunting along the seafloor, where they feed on fish, squid, crustaceans, and especially stingrays. They can use their wide pectoral fins to make tight turns and even pin rays against the bottom. Pretty impressive technique 👀🌊 ---- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #GreatHammerhead #HammerheadShark #SharkFacts #SharkBehavior #SharkResearch #SharkScience #SharkConservation #MarineLife #OceanLife

POV: your friends have fins 🦈 These lemon sharks are right at home in the warm, shallow waters of the Bahamas. Their yellow-brown coloring helps them blend in with sandy bottoms while they cruise around looking for their next meal. 🌊💛 Just another day in the field :) ---- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #LemonShark #SharkResearch #SharkFacts #SharkLife #SharkConservation #Bahamas #OceanLife #MarineBiology #Sharks

Golden hour hits differently in the open ocean. 🌅💙 As the sun goes down, things start to shift beneath the surface. Silky sharks are active hunters, and their movements can change around dusk as they take advantage of changes in prey availability. Many ocean animals change where they’re found throughout the day and night, creating new feeding opportunities for predators. 🦈🌊 ---- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #SilkyShark #SharkResearch #SharkConservation #SharkBehavior #OceanConservation #MarineLife #SharkScience #OceanLife #Sharks

Why silky shark research matters 🦈 Silky sharks are the second most harvested shark species globally, facing significant pressure from both targeted fisheries and bycatch. In some regions, populations have declined dramatically, making understanding their movements and population structure more important than ever. 🌊 Saving the Blue is studying where silky sharks travel, how populations are connected, and whether they return to specific sites to reproduce. Researchers are also working to identify important aggregation and nursery areas that could be critical for the species’ future. By combining movement and genetic research, we can better understand these highly mobile sharks, and help inform conservation strategies that protect them across the U.S., The Bahamas, and the wider Caribbean. 💙 ---- Photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #SilkyShark #SharkResearch #SharkConservation #MarineResearch #SharkScience #OceanConservation #CarcharhinusFalciformis #TheBlue

Welcome October! 🍂🦈 As the seasons change above the surface, they change beneath it too. 🌊 Autumn into winter can mean seasonal movements for hammerheads as they follow warmer waters and changing environmental conditions. The ocean is constantly moving, and so are the animals that call it home. 💙 ---- Photo By @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #HappyOctober #GreatHammerhead #HammerheadShark #SharkResearch #Life #SharkConservation #Nature #Ocean #Sharks

It takes a team. 🦈 Shark research is anything but a one-person job. From getting the shark alongside the boat to collecting data and safely returning it to the water, every person on the team has a role to play. Science happens out here. 🌊💙 #SavingTheBlue #SharkResearch #SharkScience #MarineResearch #SharkConservation #OceanResearch #MarineBiology #Sharks

Behind every shark we tag is a whole lot of questions. 🦈 Where will it go? What habitats will it use? Will we see it again? Tagging gives us a way to start answering those questions and better understand how sharks move through their environment. 🌊 ---- photo by @annieguttridge #SavingTheBlue #SharkResearch #SharkTagging #SharkScience #MarineConservation #OceanResearch #SharkConservation #MarineLife