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See the microscopic universe that lives in a single drop of water

Driven by what he calls an “insane passion,” Angel Fitor photographs the minuscule organisms that dwell in the Mediterranean Sea.

Photographer Angel Fitor captured these zooplankton during a starry night on the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain. The tiny animals were on their way to the water’s surface to feed.

Photographs byAngel Fitor

ByAnnie Roth

July 10, 2023

5 min read

Like the vast expanses they constitute, drops of seawater teem with life. Scientists estimate that some may contain as many as a million organisms, most too small to see with the naked eye. But put a drop under a microscope, and you will likely find free-swimming fish larvae, crawling copepods, and peculiar protists. While these minuscule creatures and their water worlds are overlooked by most of us, Spanish photographer Angel Fitor has made them his muse.

The planktonic larvae of a brittle star stands at the verge of a water drop. Its spiny body design does not only protect the two-millimeter larvae from predators, but also increases the its surface to improve its drifting capability. — In four to six years, this brittle star may be as big as a dinner plate. But during the larval stage, seen here, it’s only a sixteenth of an inch long. Until the animal is large enough to sink to the seafloor, it will remain suspended in the water column.

The portrait of a 1500 microns sea sapphire inside a droplet. — In four to six years, this brittle star may be as big as a dinner plate. But during the larval stage, seen here, it’s only a sixteenth of an inch long. Until the animal is large enough to sink to the seafloor, it will remain suspended in the water column.

Two radiolarians, measuring about 700 microns across, drift inside sea water droplets. The one on the left, surrounded by a swarm of copepods. Radiolarians are planet-like, open-ocean protozoans armoured with a filigree spherical skeleton made of silica designed to protect their soft bodies from predators. Because they have been roaming in the ocean since the paleozoic, scientists use the deposit of their skeletons in the marine sediments to read the story of climate in our planet. — Two sphere-shaped phaeodarians, measuring about one thirtieth of an inch across, drift inside neighboring droplets. The one on the left is surrounded by a swarm of copepods (tiny crustaceans). Phaeodarians are a type of single-celled protist—not animal, plant, or fungus. Their soft cores are encased in a protective skeleton of crystal silica, which can come in a stunning variety of shapes and textures, ranging from spiky and round to smooth and conical.

As a teenager, Fitor spent much of his time peering into the fish tank at his childhood home in Alicante. “My relationship with the underwater world started actually behind the glass,” he says. Now 50 and also a self-taught naturalist, he’s turned his passion into a career. “I’m working behind the glass, only a different type of glass: a camera lens,” he says.

(See the extraordinary splendor of ordinary chemicals in these microcrystal photographs)

For the past several years, he’s been collecting water from the Mediterranean and photographing the minute critters within it—a series of images he aptly calls SeaDrops. Detecting what’s lurking in a seemingly empty bead of liquid “is always a thrill,” he says, one he likens to opening presents on Christmas morning when he was a child. “You never know what is in a sample until you place it under the lens. It feels like a genuine discovery,” he says.

To protect its eggs, a planktonic worm (left) prepares to whip its dragon-like tail at a crustacean. This kind of worm becomes bioluminescent when swarming and spawning.

ANGEL FITOR

A two-milimetre copepod surrounded by fragments of plastic. — Bits and pieces of organic matter float behind a calanoid copepod. In the open ocean, everything—be it a tiny copepod or a colossal whale—will eventually break down into fragments like these.

Driven by what he describes as an “insane passion, curiosity, and unfathomable love for the sea,” Fitor trawls the shallows and dives the depths in search of promising specimens to take back to his studio for a closer look. “Every new sample brings new opportunities to further my appreciation of the small yet determinant creatures of our planet,” he says. Though he’s amassed hundreds of images of stunning and rarely seen microflora and fauna, his work isn’t over. To truly sate his curiosity, Fitor says, “I’d need several lifetimes.”