An image showing a photographer standing on the sea floor, dwarfed by anenormous and towering "tornado" of fish has been an extremely popularshare item on Facebook for weeks. Now the details behind the image arebeing shared by Mission Blue. The photographer is a scientist named Octavio Aburto, and the location was Cabo Pulmo National Park, a vast marine reserve in Mexico's Sea of Cortez, north of Cabo San Lucas on Baja California's tip.The diver in the photo is David Castro, whose family helps enforce ruleswithin the park. The fish are jacks, voracious predators that school inlarge groups and can sweep across a region in such large numbers thatthey blot out the sun's rays.Aburto told Mission Blue: "I thinkmy background [as a scientist] affects what I seek to capture throughmy camera lens. For example, this 'David and Goliath' image is speakingto the courtship behavior of one particular species of Jack fish. Iwanted to share this behavior with others and photography is one way todo that."The scientist explained that the image, captured last month and among entries in a National Geographic photo contest, had been in his mind for three years. But conditions and timing finally afforded the opportunity."Ihave been trying to capture this image ever since I saw the behavior ofthese fish and witnessed this incredible tornado that they form duringcourtship," Aburto said.He added that many have asked whetherthe image is real or altered, and how he managed to gather all thosefish together before taking the photograph."My response tothese questions has been this--of course it is real. Fish, as is thecase with many other animals, have certain behaviors that they performwhen they reproduce," Aburto said."... One reason that theaverage person may not know about these fish spawning aggregations issimply that these creatures live under water. People can't see the fishparticipating in these behaviors, and those who do witness thesebehaviors via scuba or snorkel are rarely able to capture it in animage."Aburto hopes the image will foster appreciation for themarine universe, for Cabo Pulmo National Park in particular, and will"bring attention to other successful marine reserves, especially inLatin America.""With the help of key people, such as renownedMission Blue founder Sylvia Earle, we can show that marine reserves arebetter options for coastal development. Basically, we need more CaboPulmos along the Mexican coasts and around the world!"NOTE: As RealityChecker has pointedly pointed out, correctly, these fish are not actually tuna. Jacks are members of the Carangidae family, and as some species appear somewhat superficially similar to members of the tuna family Scombridae, I added the TUNA to the descriptor simply to elicit a sense of familiarity. Not too many people know that several fish carry the word "jack" in their common name, so "A Tornado of Jack" just didn't seem to work. (Though I guess it could be changed to Horse-eye Jack........naaaah.)