Seascapes - Queen of the school

Photo: Simon Rogerson

Scalloped hammerheads are notoriously shy. At remote Wolf Island in the northern Galápagos, I found a big school obscured by a thermocline, a shimmering band of water where cold and warm layers meet. There is a theory that the schools are composed in a loosely hierarchical structure, with the dominant females occupying the prime places in the centre. Frustrated by the veil of the thermocline, I launched myself off the reef and into the blue, sending the outriders scattering as I approached the heart of the school. There, a 3m-long female held her place resolutely, allowing me to photograph her at close quarters. All this took place in a raging current – it took me five minutes and 80 bar to get back to the reef wall.