360° Underwater National Park | National Geographic

[Music] Initially, I just wanted to be an underwater explorer. [Music] But shortly after becoming a diver, I realized that the perfect way for me to explore the ocean was with a camera. [Music] My name is Brian Scarry and I'm a National Geographic magazine photographer that specializes in ocean wildlife. Buck Island is this spectacular coral reef; you feel like you're in a storybook. [Music] You drift through this place and you see these stands of elkhorn coral reaching up like the uplifted arms of a statue toward the sky, and they have that beautiful orangey golden color. [Music] I'm here on Buck Island as one of the components of my story for National Geographic magazine right now.

You know, there are very few places in U.S. waters that are fully protected, but yet on land, the national parks have been called America's best idea. [Music] A single photograph can move that agenda forward; it can really wake people up. [Music] There's a lot of stresses on sea turtle populations because this place is protected. Those numbers have recovered. You're on the beach watching the hatchlings emerge. Your heart goes out to these little guys. They're struggling as they break through their shell and dig out through the sand. [Music] And these little beautiful nuggets of turtle have to now scramble to the ocean. [Music] I feel privileged to be able to see it. [Music]

Buck Island was one of the very first marine national monuments that was created by President Kennedy in 1961. [Music] From the air, you see that glowing crystal-clear water. [Music] The blues and the aquas and the greens—it is a jewel. I think my role as a photographer is to tell a story. [Music] I want to use the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service in the United States of America to bring attention to places that are protected and places not yet protected, but ones that we hope someday will be. These places are vulnerable and they're fragile, and a single bottom trawl net could toe through one of these places and destroy it for generations, and it would be gone with a whimper; nobody would ever know that it existed. [Music]

But I think there's also reasons to be hopeful. I think we're at a moment in history where we at least know what can happen if you protect places—that they do come back, that the ocean is resilient. With the right amount of protection and management and love, these places will restore themselves. [Music] You