In Dominica, Skerry followed a research team led by Shane Gero, a biologist at Denmark's Aarhus University and founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project. Each year Gero's team tracks families of Caribbean sperm whales to try to decode their communication. The research contributes to a broader understanding of whale behavior, which can influence human activity and conservation strategies to help populations rebound.

One day last spring, after a string of fruitless weeks, Skerry got a tip from a research boat that a pod of whales appeared to be moving toward the surface to socialize. Such behavior is rare for people to witness, let alone photograph. Skerry raced to the site and found six sperm whales under sunny skies. He swam with them for more than an hour, filling two memory cards with 1,500 images. Nature often has good reason to frown on humans -- but sometimes it smiles anyway.