A photographer has captured the first images of the rare and adorable Ross seal swimming in the icy waters of Antarctica.
Justin Hofman spent 16 seasons diving on cruise ships as part of his role as an oceanographer. At that time, the photographer had only seen one seal of Ross.
Ross seals live deep in the Antarctic ice pack, and because the species does not leave the Southern Ocean, little is known about it.
But in the summer of 2025, the cruise ship that Hofman works on managed to go further south than usual. “We didn’t expect to get Ross’s seals,” says Hofman PetaPixel. “The captain of the ship saw an opportunity to board the ship far to the south, which is a great area for Ross seals.”
Hofman said he noticed a few years ago that a Ross seal had never been photographed underwater before and realized he had a chance to be the first. But it was never his main goal; it was more Wouldn’t it be great to have the first underwater photos of this animal?
Global warming has given Hofman an opportunity this winter. He explains: “We were out with the intention of photographing krill near the ice. So I put on my Nauticam EMWL 130 lens. It turns a 90mm lens into an extreme macro wide-angle lens.
Hofman calls it “the wrong underwater style for taking seals,” saying he’s been looking forward to shooting crustaceans. But fate had other plans: while he was in the water, Ross’ seal that was lying on the ice began to cry towards the edge.
“One of my colleagues alerted us that a seal was coming, so we sat patiently and stayed calm in the water,” Hofman explains.
The water temperature was 30 degrees Celsius (minus 1 degree Celsius). My choices were: a large 90mm lens, or a close-up wide-angle lens.
Fortunately, the style turned out to be great. In the summer the plankton bloom had not yet appeared which meant the water was crystal clear. When Ross’s seal entered the water, Hofman and his diving partner stayed behind so as not to disturb the marine mammal. The 90mm lens and clear water suddenly complemented each other beautifully.
“In general when you shoot underwater, you always try to reduce the amount of water between the camera and the subject because water absorbs light and has certain particles in it – which leads to less reduction,” Hofman explains.
“The second lucky thing was that the Sun was out. Knowing that this was a very special encounter I decided not to use my underwater strobes. I try hard not to disturb the animals while I’m photographing them and I didn’t know if the seal would respond to the strobes.
The bright sunlight resisted Hofman’s desire for a strobe, and he was able to capture some beautiful natural images of the beautiful Ross seal.
“All in all, the Ross seal spent about four minutes hanging around the ice, diving deep, and finally disappearing under the ice,” he adds.
Part of Hofman’s job is to take pictures underwater and then give a presentation to the guests on board about what he saw.
He says: “It’s really the best job in the world because I get to travel the world, dive in wild places, and teach tourists about what’s going on under the water in the places they visit.”
“Most of the places I work in are places with cold water like Greenland, Alaska, Antarctica, etc., so visitors are always surprised by the living marine environment in these places.”
It means Hofman isn’t always focused on maximizing the shot; he may only get one dive attempt at a certain location, so he must have a lot of money.
“Expedition diving is one of the hardest dives in the world, and throwing a camera into the mix makes it even more difficult,” he says.
“My main goal in my work is to teach, so you don’t need to be a good person to teach visitors about what goes on underwater. I just do it for fun.”
He continues: “I rarely make art or make an event. Unless it’s something special like the Ross seal, I’m not going to come back from a dive with just one good photo; I need to cover the event and let visitors know what it’s like to dive in Antarctica.”
But as Hofman points out, Ross’ seal is something very special. “Every time I look at his face it makes me smile. For the first few days, I just looked at him,” she says.
Hofman hopes his photographs will encourage people to “go down the rabbit hole” and learn not only about seals, but the entire Antarctic environment in which they live.
“Personally, this meeting and the photos it produced make me very happy because it is the culmination of decades of watching wild animals,” the photographer thinks.
“15 years ago I might have blown it because I was impatient, or maybe I didn’t get in the water that day because there wasn’t much shooting.
But these days I will always take advantage of the opportunity to get in the water because every now and then you are surprised and see something that no one has seen before.”
Although Hofman is excited to swim and photograph the Ross seal, he knows that the rapidly warming planet and the lack of sea ice have given him a first chance.
He says: “These are the things that prevent me from enduring all this environmental grief that I feel when I see the environment that I love being destroyed every year.
“These are the things that inspire me, I feel like I owe these places and these animals to try to bring them to the community and give evidence.
“So this photo is very high on my list of accomplishments because it’s the moment I can say without a doubt that I brought something to the world that no one has ever seen, and with that, I increased the collective consciousness of our species a little bit more.”
More of Hofman’s work can be found on Instagram and his website.
Image credits: Photos by Justin Hofman
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