Gray reef sharks and red snappers hover above a patch of table coral, waiting for prey fish to emerge. "They go after everything that moves," observed Enric Sala, a marine ecologist on Spain’s National Council for Scientific Research and a National Geographic fellow. Because of their abundance and the resulting competition for food, the sharks and snappers at Kingman Reef, Sala said, "are always on the verge of hunger." Kingman Reef is part of a chain of Pacific atolls and islands (called the Line Islands) that straddles the Equator south of Hawaii.
Nestled 3,000 feet [900 meters] deep into Havasu Canyon lies the land of the Havasupai. The native Indians are named for the area, the people of the Blue Green. The area is known around the world for its blue waters and spectacular waterfalls. Havasu Creek, a year-round stream with incredible aquamarine water, flows by the village and descends another 1,400 feet [425 meters], passing over five waterfalls. Navajo Falls is the most secluded and is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
A quarter-mile-long (0.4-kilometer-long) wheel line spritzes an Oregon alfalfa field. Many farmers in the upper reaches of the Klamath Basin are replacing such wheel-line irrigation with more modern methods, and improving the water efficiency of their operations.
