SLOW PHOTOGRAPHY #82 : Clear Waters ?

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Snorkeling, I float in twelve feet of sunlit Bahamas water. The sand below is crisscrossed with past wave ridges and present wave shadows that intersect in a matrix of dancing light and dark.

 A single sea biscuit rests on the bottom. It seems to call down the suns rays to the sandy bottom. The biscuit is a skeleton from a black sea urchin. 

 Five grooves radiate from its mouth, now filled with the tiny shells of a marine creature. It looks like the center of a flower. I swim closer. A photograph blooms.

 In the Bahamas, a sea biscuit shell is a good marine bio indicator. It is a marker, a natural measure of any toxins in the sea. When analyzed, the shell's composition lets us infer the amount and intensity of metal contaminants like lead and cadmium that have accumulated in the ocean.

 Jim Austin Jimages
www.shootslow.blogspot.com


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