Liam Moriarty chats with veteran scuba diver Laura James. She answers Liam’s first question from 30 feet below the surface

…“I’m swimming through an amazing school of different types of small fish. There’s hundreds of them, and they’re swimming along with me.”KPLU environment reporter 

Liam: What’s the appeal?

Laura: It’s seeing all the creatures in their environment. Aquariums are great for introducing kids to different sea creatures, but it’s so much different to actually be out there in their world. You’re a visitor on their planet.

Liam: What’s their world like?

Laura: So, there’s little animals like the barnacles that when they’re babies, they float around in the water column and then they plant themselves on a rock or a piling and they spend their whole life just cleaning the water in their area. You’ve got other animals that swim hundreds of miles, porpoises and our six-gill sharks and things …

See/hear this full story and some great accompanying video and other stories about the Salish Sea at Reflections on the Water