The issuing of the four-stamp set Wonders of the Sea coincided with celebrations marking the beginning of National Stamp Collecting Month. The set also became the first set of stamps officially issued in underwater ceremonies. The ceremonies were conducted at a shipwreck site off Hawaii's Waikiki Beach, 80 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. The ceremony began on the beach, then moved to the shipwreck site, where participants and media boarded submarines.

Fish featured in this set are the black long-nosed butterfly fish, which lives in the Red Sea and Indian and Pacific Oceans; the circumtropical porcupine fish; the banner fish and Pacific dolphin, both found from the Hawaiian Islands to the Red Sea; raccoon butterfly fish, found from the East African coast to the Hawaiian Islands; the spot-tail butterfly fish from the Caribbean; the striped scat from the East Indies and Australia; the anemone demoiselle, or clown anemone fish, from the tropical Indo-Pacific; and the convice surgeonfish, or tang, from the Pacific Ocean.