Researchers motor through glassy Arctic waters off Norway's Svalbard Archipelago. This team is in search of elusive bearded seals, an affectionate and playful seal species that spends nearly all its life either in the water or drifting on Artic ice floes.

At the time of this photo, little was known about bearded seals, due to their forbiddingly frigid habitat and aquatic lifestyle. This and subsequent research missions shed light on this wide-ranging seal's life, include birthing sites, growth rates, diving behavior, and diet.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Bearded Seals: Going With the Floe," March 1990, National Geographic magazine)