Wildlife viewing is what draws many of us to the underwater depths. Who can forget your first time swimming into a school of fish? Or the time you saw your first white-tip shark prowling stealthily in the distance? We all have our favorite underwater animals, and moments.
In celebration of our planet’s wildlife and in honor of World Wildlife Day, we recently asked you to identify for us and vote on your favorite marine creatures.
We ran the numbers and your votes ran the gamut from micro to macro, Seahorses to Whale Sharks, pygmies to pelagics. One voter cheekily remarked that their favorite marine life is “lion fish with coconut breading and a spicy coconut dipping sauce.” We’re not sure if that answer aligns with the intentions of World Wildlife Day, but we agree that spicy dipping sauce can be delicious.
Some voters couldn’t bear to choose only one species, and that makes sense, because there are so many amazing animals under the ocean’s surface. But as it’s the animal kingdom we’re talking about, there were winners and losers in this cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest social media survey. We’re saddened to report that turtes did not prevail.
The Top Contenders
1st: Sharks
2nd: Mantas
3rd: Dolphins
Your Votes
At Oceanic, we know that your passion for underwater wildlife is one of the things that motivates you to explore. As a community, we’re all aligned in our love of marine environments, so we wanted to highlight your responses below:
Gaby Pons Hunting school of fish!!! #bait ball!!
Robert Schwartz I have to say lion fish with coconut breading and a spicy coconut dipping sauce
Chris Derwa Whale shark
Fabienne Goossens Seahorse
Linda Dougherty Manta Rays!
Caitlin Truswell I love dolphins
Charles Burch Garibaldi
Willeka Cox Manta… or seahorses… or weedy sea dragons… can’t choose! 😬
Rhonda Bumbaugh Dolphins
Lisa Mc hmm…Octopus…maybe nudibranchs….
Rosi MacKinnon Orca, Wolf eel and sharks
Gary Honeycutt All of them.
Travis Stadler Any sharks!!
Kennon Williamson Turtles
Rebecca Hill Sharks ❤🦈
Greg Murphy Sharks
Richard Lao Cuttlefish!
Sean Whittaker Manta!
Ciaran Magill Me
Sam Morse Seals
Steve Drury Sepia!
Jason Mills Scalloped hammerheads.
Linda Dougherty Manta Rays!