Female blanket octopus in Palm Beach, Florida. All images licensed, © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs
After sunset, self-taught photographer plunges into the open ocean around Palm Beach to shoot the minuscule, unassuming creatures floating in the depths. He’s spent the last eight years on blackwater dives about 730 feet off the eastern coast of Florida in a process that “entails drifting near the surface at night from 0 to 100 feet over very deep water.” Often framing species rarely seen by humans, Kovac shoots the larval fish against the dark backdrop in a way that highlights the most striking aspects of their bodies, including wispy, translucent fins, iridescent features, and bulbous eyes.
Because Kovacs doesn’t have formal training in marine biology, he often enlists the help of scientists around the world to identify many of the rare fish he photographs. At the top of his list for future encounters are three cusk eel species and the female blanket octopus, a creature known for unveiling a that’s shown above.
Prints of Kovacs’s images are available from, and you can keep up with his underwater excursions on .
Male Paper Nautiluses, Argonauta species, in Palm Beach, Florida. © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs
Acanthonus armatus, the bethypelagic species of Cusk Eel, in Palm Beach, Florida. © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs
Left: Ribbonfish in Palm Beach, Florida. Right: Fish in the Ipnops family in Palm Beach, Florida. © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs
Brotulotaenia species of Cusk Eel in Palm Beach, Florida. © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs
Larval Wonderpus in Anilao, Philippines. © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs
Larval Pancake Batfish in Palm Beach, Florida. © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs
Tripodfish in Palm Beach, Flordia. © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs
Larval flounder in Palm Beach, Florida. © BluePlanetArchive/Steven Kovacs