Explorer of the Abyss: The famous whale photographer, who has created indelible images of ocean life at National Geographic for more than 35 years, still has many seas to discover.

On January 11th, 1963, my father rode a whale." This is how Charles "Flip" Nicklin explains the event that changed not only his father's life but his own as well. His dad, Chuck Nicklin, owned a dive shop called the Diving Locker in San Diego. His father had learned to skin dive in Hawaii during World War II and had continued it as a hobby. Scuba diving was still a new, exotic activity for most people at the time, but Chuck taught his son, Flip, to dive at an early age. Both of them also tried their hands at underwater photography.

One day, while diving with friends, Chuck Nicklin and his buddies spotted a whale tangled up in a gill net's anchor line. The Bryde's whale was floating in the water and didn't react to the divers. They all swam around it, petted it and took some photographs...