The Escort

A great white shark sweeps over a kelp-covered reef in South Australia, one of the few places on Earth where large white sharks can be photographed reliably in clear water.

Most white shark pictures are taken in open blue. This one has a reef and kelp under the animal, which gives it scale and place: a predator moving over the country it belongs to.

The most dramatic print of the set. On HD metal the dark reef and the pale underside of the shark separate cleanly.

The great white shark is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. It has been protected in California waters since 1994 and in South Australia, where this picture was taken, since the late 1990s. Off California the population is slowly recovering, and juveniles now spend summers along Southern California beaches.

The reef under this shark is covered in kelp, and that matters as much as the animal. Kelp forests shelter the fish and seals a white shark hunts. In Southern California we have lost large stretches of kelp to warm water and sea urchins, and bringing it back is the work of our Guardians of the Kelp program.

Protect the forest and the predator comes with it. A print of a white shark over healthy kelp is a picture of the ocean we are trying to restore.

Read about Guardians of the Kelp and our guide to ocean conservation in Southern California. Species guide: Great White Shark.

• HD Metal · Printed onto white gloss aluminum, luminous and sharp; ships boxed, ready to hang. From $245.
• HD Acrylic · Printed behind crystal-clear acrylic for depth and color that glows; ships boxed, ready to hang. From $295.
• Fine Art Paper · Archival fine art paper, ships rolled in a tube for your own frame. From $145.
• Sizes · 12 × 18, 16 × 24, 20 × 30, 24 × 36 inches. Printed to order in the USA and shipped insured within the US.
• Where the money goes · a print is a purchase, not a donation, so there is no tax receipt. My Clean Ocean keeps the profit for its youth programs.