Diving in the icy kingdom of Antarctica soon brings you face-to-face with one of the continent’s most highly regarded predators of the sea, the powerful leopard seal. And yet, when our co-founders Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier share a remarkable encounter with one special seal, the experience reveals a charismatic and nurturing side to these animals rarely shared with the rest of the world.

“Being in the water with a leopard seal is one of the most beautiful things you can ever experience in life. They’re very, very curious. And their curiosity, I think it’s what’s special,” Paul Nicklen. The leopard seal patrols the frigid realm with ease, grace, and endless wonder toward any life that enters its home. However, the future of its domain remains in peril. Covering nearly 20% of Earth’s southern hemisphere, Antarctica regulates the global climate, slowing down warming temperatures and capturing carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. The continent also creates a nutrient-rich environment for phytoplankton, the very foundation of the world’s food web, to grow and thrive. Today, Antarctica is vulnerable to melting ice shelves, losing land mass to rising sea levels, rampant overfishing, and increasing algae blooms that greatly limit the growth of vital plankton. But there is still hope to save its ecosystem.