Satellite image of sand and seaweed in the Bahamas

We have NASA’s Landsat programmed to thank for this rare view of the Atlantic Ocean in the Bahamas as captured by satellite. The patterns you see are sand and seaweed beds that have been sculpted by ocean currents. That dark spot? It’s called the Tongue of the Ocean. The tongue is a deep, dark trench that separates the islands of Andros and New Providence in the Bahamas and connects to a larger geological feature known as the Great Bahama Canyon. 

The world’s second-largest animal

This year marks the fifth anniversary of this United Nations-backed celebration of the world’s wild animals and plants. And this is the first year that World Wildlife Day is focusing on marine life. Fin whales, like the one in our photo today, are listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the conservation status rankings. They’re threatened by climate change, pollution, shipping and other concerns, but they’ve bounced back from the brink of extinction in the early 1900s. It is the second-largest mammal in the world after the blue whale, reaching up to 27 meters (nearly 90 feet) in length when fully grown.