essay about sea creatures

All About the Ocean

The ocean covers 70 percent of Earth's surface.

Biology, Earth Science, Oceanography, Geography, Physical Geography

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The ocean covers 70 percent of Earth 's surface. It contains about 1.35 billion cubic kilometers (324 million cubic miles) of water, which is about 97 percent of all the water on Earth. The ocean makes all life on Earth possible, and makes the planet appear blue when viewed from space. Earth is the only planet in our solar system that is definitely known to contain liquid water. Although the ocean is one continuous body of water, oceanographers have divided it into five principal areas: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern Oceans. The Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans merge into icy waters around Antarctica. Climate The ocean plays a vital role in climate and weather . The sun’s heat causes water to evaporate , adding moisture to the air. The oceans provide most of this evaporated water. The water vapor condenses to form clouds, which release their moisture as rain or other kinds of precipitation . All life on Earth depends on this process, called the water cycle . The atmosphere receives much of its heat from the ocean. As the sun warms the water, the ocean transfers heat to the atmosphere. In turn, the atmosphere distributes the heat around the globe. Because water absorbs and loses heat more slowly than land masses, the ocean helps balance global temperatures by absorbing heat in the summer and releasing it in the winter. Without the ocean to help regulate global temperatures, Earth’s climate would be bitterly cold. Ocean Formation After Earth began to form about 4.6 billion years ago, it gradually separated into layers of lighter and heavier rock. The lighter rock rose and formed Earth’s crust . The heavier rock sank and formed Earth’s core and mantle . The ocean’s water came from rocks inside the newly forming Earth. As the molten rocks cooled, they released water vapor and other gases. Eventually, the water vapor condensed and covered the crust with a primitive ocean. Today, hot gases from the Earth’s interior continue to produce new water at the bottom of the ocean. Ocean Floor Scientists began mapping the ocean floor in the 1920s. They used instruments called echo sounders , which measure water depths using sound waves . Echo sounders use sonar technology. Sonar is an acronym for SOund Navigation And Ranging. The sonar showed that the ocean floor has dramatic physical features, including huge mountains, deep canyons , steep cliffs , and wide plains . The ocean’s crust is a thin layer of volcanic rock called basalt . The ocean floor is divided into several different areas. The first is the continental shelf , the nearly flat, underwater extension of a continent. Continental shelves vary in width. They are usually wide along low-lying land, and narrow along mountainous coasts. A shelf is covered in sediment from the nearby continent. Some of the sediment is deposited by rivers and trapped by features such as natural dams. Most sediment comes from the last glacial period , or Ice Age, when the oceans receded and exposed the continental shelf. This sediment is called relict sediment . At the outer edge of the continental shelf, the land drops off sharply in what is called the continental slope . The slope descends almost to the bottom of the ocean. Then it tapers off into a gentler slope known as the continental rise. The continental rise descends to the deep ocean floor, which is called the abyssal plain . Abyssal plains are broad, flat areas that lie at depths of about 4,000 to 6,000 meters (13,123 to 19,680 feet). Abyssal plains cover 30 percent of the ocean floor and are the flattest feature on Earth. They are covered by fine-grained sediment like clay and silt. Pelagic sediments, the remains of small ocean organisms, also drift down from upper layers of the ocean. Scattered across abyssal plains are abyssal hills and underwater volcanic peaks called seamounts. Rising from the abyssal plains in each major ocean is a huge chain of mostly undersea mountains. Called the mid-ocean ridge , the chain circles Earth, stretching more than 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles). Much of the mid-ocean ridge is split by a deep central rift, or crack. Mid-ocean ridges mark the boundaries between tectonic plates . Molten rock from Earth’s interior wells up from the rift, building new seafloor in a process called seafloor spreading . A major portion of the ridge runs down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and is known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It was not directly seen or explored until 1973. Some areas of the ocean floor have deep, narrow depressions called ocean trenches . They are the deepest parts of the ocean. The deepest spot of all is the Challenger Deep , which lies in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean near the island of Guam. Its true depth is not known, but the most accurate measurements put the Challenger Deep at 11,000 meters (36,198 feet) below the ocean’s surface—that’s more than 2,000 meters (6,000 feet) taller than Mount Everest, Earth’s highest point. The pressure in the Challenger Deep is about eight tons per square inch.

Ocean Life Zones From the shoreline to the deepest seafloor, the ocean teems with life. The hundreds of thousands of marine species range from microscopic algae to the largest creature to have ever lived on Earth, the blue whale. The ocean has five major life zones, each with organisms uniquely adapted to their specific marine ecosystem . The epipelagic zone (1) is the sunlit upper layer of the ocean. It reaches from the surface to about 200 meters (660 feet) deep. The epipelagic zone is also known as the photic or euphotic zone, and can exist in lakes as well as the ocean. The sunlight in the epipelagic zone allows photosynthesis to occur. Photosynthesis is the process by which some organisms convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into energy and oxygen . In the ocean, photosynthesis takes place in plants and algae. Plants such as seagrass are similar to land plants—they have roots, stems, and leaves. Algae is a type of aquatic organism that can photosynthesize sunlight. Large algae such as kelp are called seaweed . Phytoplankton also live in the epipelagic zone. Phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that include plants, algae, and bacteria. They are only visible when billions of them form algal blooms , and appear as green or blue splotches in the ocean. Phytoplankton are a basis of the ocean food web . Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton are responsible for almost half the oxygen released into Earth’s atmosphere. Animals such as krill (a type of shrimp), fish, and microscopic organisms called zooplankton all eat phytoplankton. In turn, these animals are eaten by whales, bigger fish, ocean birds, and human beings. The next zone down, stretching to about 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) deep, is the mesopelagic zone (2). This zone is also known as the twilight zone because the light there is very dim. The lack of sunlight means there are no plants in the mesopelagic zone, but large fish and whales dive there to hunt prey . Fish in this zone are small and luminous . One of the most common is the lanternfish, which has organs along its side that produce light. Sometimes, animals from the mesopelagic zone (such as sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) and squid) dive into the bathypelagic zone (3), which reaches to about 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) deep. The bathypelagic zone is also known as the midnight zone because no light reaches it. Animals that live in the bathypelagic zone are small, but they often have huge mouths, sharp teeth, and expandable stomachs that let them eat any food that comes along. Most of this food comes from the remains of plants and animals drifting down from upper pelagic zones. Many bathypelagic animals do not have eyes because they are unneeded in the dark. Because the pressure is so great and it is so difficult to find nutrients , fish in the bathypelagic zone move slowly and have strong gills to extract oxygen from the water. The water at the bottom of the ocean, the abyssopelagic zone (4), is very salty and cold (2 degrees Celsius, or 35 degrees Fahrenheit). At depths up to 6,000 meters (19,700 feet), the pressure is very strong—11,000 pounds per square inch. This makes it impossible for most animals to live. Animals in this zone have bizarre adaptations to cope with their ecosystem. Many fish have jaws that look unhinged. The jaws allow them to drag their open mouth along the seafloor to find food, such as mussels, shrimp, and microscopic organisms. Many of the animals in this zone, including squid and fish, are bioluminescent. Bioluminescent organisms produce light through chemical reactions in their bodies. A type of angler fish, for example, has a glowing growth extending in front of its huge, toothy mouth. When smaller fish are attracted to the light, the angler fish simply snaps its jaws to eat its prey. The deepest ocean zone, found in trenches and canyons, is called the hadalpelagic zone (5). Few organisms live here. They include tiny isopods , a type of crustacean related to crabs and shrimp. Invertebrates such as sponges and sea cucumbers thrive in the abyssopelagic and hadalpelagic zones. Like many sea stars and jellyfish, these animals are almost entirely dependent on falling parts of dead or decaying plants and animals, called marine detritus . Not all bottom dwellers, however, depend on marine detritus. In 1977, oceanographers discovered a community of creatures on the ocean floor that feed on bacteria around openings called hydrothermal vents. These vents discharge superheated water enriched with minerals from Earth’s interior. The minerals nourish unique bacteria, which in turn nourish creatures such as crabs, clams, and tube worms. Ocean Currents Currents are streams of water running through a larger body of water. Oceans, rivers, and streams have currents. The ocean’s salinity and temperature and the coast’s geographic features determine an ocean current’s behavior. Earth’s rotation and wind also influence ocean currents. Currents flowing near the surface transport heat from the tropics to the poles and move cooler water back toward the Equator . This keeps the ocean from becoming extremely hot or cold. Deep, cold currents transport oxygen to organisms throughout the ocean. They also carry rich supplies of nutrients that all living things need. The nutrients come from plankton and the remains of other organisms that drift down and decay on the ocean floor. Along some coasts, winds and currents produce a phenomenon called upwelling . As winds push surface water away from shore, deep currents of cold water rise to take its place. This upwelling of deep water brings up nutrients that nourish new growth of plankton, providing food for fish. Ocean food chains constantly recycle food and energy this way.

Some ocean currents are enormous and extremely powerful. One of the most powerful is the Gulf Stream , a warm surface current that originates in the tropical Caribbean Sea and flows northeast along the eastern coast of the United States. The Gulf Stream measures up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide and is more than a kilometer (3,281 feet) deep. Like other ocean currents, the Gulf Stream plays a major role in climate. As the current travels north, it transfers moisture from its warm tropical waters to the air above. Westerly, or prevailing, winds carry the warm, moist air to the British Isles and to Scandinavia , causing them to have milder winters than they otherwise would experience at their northern latitudes . Northern parts of Norway are near the Arctic Circle but remain ice-free for most of the year because of the Gulf Stream. The weather pattern known as El Niño includes a change to the Humboldt Current (also called the Peru Current) off the western coast of South America. In El Niño conditions, a current of warm surface water travels east along the Equator and prevents the normal upwelling of the cold, nutrient-rich Humboldt Current. El Niño, which can devastate the fisheries of Peru and Ecuador, occurs every two to seven years, usually in December. The paths of ocean currents are partially determined by Earth’s rotation. This is known as the Coriolis effect . It causes large systems, such as winds and ocean currents that would normally move in a straight line, to veer to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere . People and the Ocean For thousands of years, people have depended on the ocean as a source of food and as a route for trade and exploration . Today, people continue to travel on the ocean and rely on the resources it contains. Nations continue to negotiate how to determine the extent of their territory beyond the coast. The United Nations’ Law of the Sea treaty established exclusive economic zones (EEZs), extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles) beyond a nation’s coastline. Even though some countries have not signed or ratified the treaty (including the U.S.), it is regarded as standard. Russia has proposed extending its EEZ beyond 200 nautical miles because two mid-ocean ridges, the Lomonosov and Medeleev Ridges, are extensions of the continental shelf belonging to Russia. This territory includes the North Pole. Russian explorers in a submersible vehicle planted a metal Russian flag on the disputed territory in 2007. Through the centuries, people have sailed the ocean on trade routes . Today, ships still carry most of the world’s freight , particularly bulky goods such as machinery, grain, and oil . Ocean ports are areas of commerce and culture. Water and land transportation meet there, and so do people of different professions: businesspeople who import and export goods and services; dockworkers who load and unload cargo ; and ships’ crews. Ports also have a high concentration of migrants and immigrants with a wide variety of ethnicities, nationalities, languages, and religions. Important ports in the U.S. are New York/ New Jersey and New Orleans. The busiest ports around the world include the Port of Shanghai in China and the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Ocean ports are also important for a nation’s armed forces. Some ports are used exclusively for military purposes, although most share space with commercial businesses. “The sun never sets on the British Empire” is a phrase used to explain the scope of the empire of Great Britain , mostly in the 19th century. Although based on the small European island nation of Great Britain, British military sea power extended its empire from Africa to the Americas, Asia, and Australia. Scientists and other experts hope the ocean will be used more widely as a source of renewable energy . Some countries have already harnessed the energy of ocean waves, temperature, currents, or tides to power turbines and generate electricity. One source of renewable energy are generators that are powered by tidal streams or ocean currents. They convert the movement of currents into energy. Ocean current generators have not been developed on a large scale, but are working in some places in Ireland and Norway. Some conservationists criticize the impact the large constructions have on the marine environment. Another source of renewable energy is ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). It uses the difference in temperature between the warm, surface water and cold, deep water to run an engine. OTEC facilities exist in places with significant differences in ocean depth: Japan, India and the U.S. state of Hawai'i, for instance. An emerging source of renewable energy is salinity gradient power , also known as osmotic power. It is an energy source that uses the power of freshwater entering into saltwater. This technology is still being developed, but it has potential in delta areas where fresh river water is constantly interacting with the ocean. Fishing Fishers catch more than 90 million tons of seafood each year, including more than 100 species of fish and shellfish . Millions of people, from professional fishers to business owners like restaurant owners and boat builders, depend on fisheries for their livelihood . Fishing can be classified in two ways. In subsistence fishing, fishers use their catch to help meet the nutritional needs of their families or communities. In commercial fishing , fishers sell their catch for money, goods or services. Popular subsistence and commercial fish are tuna, cod, and shrimp. Ocean fishing is also a popular recreational sport. Sport fishing can be competitive or noncompetitive. In sport fishing tournaments, individuals or teams compete for prizes based on the size of a particular species caught in a specific time period. Both competitive and noncompetitive sport fishers need licenses to fish, and may or may not keep the caught fish. Increasingly, sport fishers practice catch-and-release fishing, where a fish is caught, measured, weighed, and often recorded on film before being released back to the ocean. Popular game fish (fish caught for sport) are tuna and marlin. Whaling is a type of fishing that involves the harvesting of whales and dolphins. It has declined in popularity since the 19th century but is still a way of life for many cultures, such as those in Scandinavia, Japan, Canada, and the Caribbean. The ocean offers a wealth of fishing and whaling resources, but these resources are threatened. People have harvested so much fish and marine life for food and other products that some species have disappeared. During the 1800s and early 1900s, whalers killed thousands of whales for whale oil (wax made from boiled blubber ) and ivory (whales’ teeth). Some species, including the blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus ) and the right whale, were hunted nearly to extinction . Many species are still endangered today. In the 1960s and 1970s, catches of important food fish, such as herring in the North Sea and anchovies in the Pacific, began to drop off dramatically. Governments took notice of overfishing —harvesting more fish than the ecosystem can replenish . Fishers were forced to go farther out to sea to find fish, putting them at risk. (Deep-sea fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.) Now, they use advanced equipment, such as electronic fish finders and large gill nets or trawling nets, to catch more fish. This means there are far fewer fish to reproduce and replenish the supply. In 1992, the collapse, or disappearance, of cod in Canada’s Newfoundland Grand Banks put 40,000 fishers out of work. A ban was placed on cod fishing, and to this day, neither the cod nor the fisheries have recovered. To catch the dwindling numbers of fish, most fishers use trawl nets. They drag the nets along the seabed and across acres of ocean. These nets accidentally catch many small, young fish and mammals. Animals caught in fishing nets meant for other species are called bycatch . The fishing industry and fisheries management agencies argue about how to address the problem of bycatch and overfishing. Those involved in the fishing industry do not want to lose their jobs, while conservationists want to maintain healthy levels of fish in the ocean. A number of consumers are choosing to purchase sustainable seafood . Sustainable seafood is harvested from sources (either wild or farmed) that do not deplete the natural ecosystem. Mining and Drilling Many minerals come from the ocean. Sea salt is a mineral that has been used as a flavoring and preservative since ancient times. Sea salt has many additional minerals, such as calcium, that ordinary table salt lacks. Hydrothermal vents often form seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits , which contain precious metals. These SMS deposits sit on the ocean floor, sometimes in the deep ocean and sometimes closer to the surface. New techniques are being developed to mine the seafloor for valuable minerals such as copper, lead, nickel, gold, and silver. Mining companies employ thousands of people and provide goods and services for millions more. Critics of undersea mining maintain that it disrupts the local ecology . Organisms—corals, shrimp, mussels—that live on the seabed have their habitat disturbed, upsetting the food chain. In addition, destruction of habitat threatens the viability of species that have a narrow niche . Maui’s dolphin ( Cephalorhynchus hectori maui ), for instance, is a critically endangered species native to the waters of New Zealand’s North Island. The numbers of Maui’s dolphin are already reduced because of bycatch. Seabed mining threatens its habitat, putting it at further risk of extinction. Oil is one of the most valuable resources taken from the ocean today. Offshore oil rigs pump petroleum from wells drilled into the continental shelf. About one-quarter of all oil and natural gas supplies now comes from offshore oil deposits around the world. Offshore drilling requires complex engineering . An oil platform can be constructed directly onto the ocean floor, or it can “float” above an anchor. Depending on how far out on the continental shelf an oil platform is located, workers may have to be flown in. Underwater, or subsea, facilities are complicated groups of drilling equipment connected to each other and a single oil rig. Subsea production often requires remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs). Some countries invest in offshore drilling for profit and to prevent reliance on oil from other regions. The Gulf of Mexico near the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana is heavily drilled. Several European countries, including the United Kingdom, Denmark, and the Netherlands, drill in the North Sea. Offshore drilling is a complicated and expensive program, however. There are a limited number of companies that have the knowledge and resources to work with local governments to set up offshore oil rigs. Most of these companies are based in Europe and North America, although they do business all over the world. Some governments have banned offshore oil drilling. They cite safety and environmental concerns. There have been several accidents where the platform itself has exploded, at the cost of many lives. Offshore drilling also poses threats to the ocean ecosystem. Spills and leaks from oil rigs and oil tankers that transport the material seriously harm marine mammals and birds. Oil coats feathers, impairing birds’ ability to maintain their body temperature and remain buoyant in the water. The fur of otters and seals are also coated, and oil entering the digestive tract of animals may damage their organs. Offshore oil rigs also release metal cuttings, minute amounts of oil, and drilling fluid into the ocean every day. Drilling fluid is the liquid used with machinery to drill holes deep in the planet. This liquid can contain pollutants such as toxic chemicals and heavy metals . Pollution Most oil pollution does not come from oil spills, however. It comes from the runoff of pollutants into streams and rivers that flow into the ocean. Most runoff comes from individual consumers. Cars, buses, motorcycles, and even lawn mowers spill oil and grease on roads, streets, and highways. (Runoff is what makes busy roads shiny and sometimes slippery.) Storm drains or creeks wash the runoff into local waterways, which eventually flow into the ocean. The largest U.S. oil spill in the ocean took place in Alaska in 1989, by the tanker Exxon Valdez . The Exxon Valdez spilled at least 10 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. In comparison, American and Canadian consumers spill about 16 million gallons of oil runoff into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans every year. For centuries, people have used the ocean as a dumping ground for sewage and other wastes. In the 21st century, the wastes include not only oil, but also chemical runoff from factories and agriculture . These chemicals include nitrates and phosphates , which are often used as fertilizers . These chemicals encourage algae blooms. An algae bloom is an increase in algae and bacteria that threatens plants and other marine life. Algae blooms limit the amount of oxygen in a marine environment, leading to what are known as dead zones , where little life exists beneath the ocean’s surface. Algae blooms can spread across hundreds or even thousands of miles. Another source of pollution is plastics . Most ocean debris, or garbage, is plastic thrown out by consumers. Plastics such as water bottles, bags, six-pack rings, and packing material put marine life at risk. Sea animals are harmed by the plastic either by getting tangled in it or by eating it. An example of marine pollution consisting mainly of plastics is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch . The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a floating dump in the North Pacific. It’s about twice the size of Texas and probably contains about 100 million tons of debris. Most of this debris comes from the western coast of North America (the U.S. and Canada) and the eastern coast of Asia (Japan, China, Russia, North Korea, and South Korea). Because of ocean currents and weather patterns, the patch is a relatively stable formation and contains new and disintegrating debris. The smaller pieces of plastic debris are eaten by jellyfish or other organisms, and are then consumed by larger predators in the food web. These plastic chemicals may then enter a human’s diet through fish or shellfish. Another source of pollution is carbon dioxide. The ocean absorbs most carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, which is necessary for life, is known as a greenhouse gas and traps radiation in Earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide forms many acids, called carbonic acids , in the ocean. Ocean ecosystems have adapted to the presence of certain levels of carbonic acids, but the increase in carbon dioxide has led to an increase in ocean acids. This ocean acidification erodes the shells of animals such as clams, crabs, and corals. Global Warming Global warming contributes to rising ocean temperatures and sea levels . Warmer oceans radically alter the ecosystem. Global warming causes cold-water habitats to shrink, meaning there is less room for animals such as penguins, seals, or whales. Plankton, the base of the ocean food chain, thrives in cold water. Warming water means there will be less plankton available for marine life to eat. Melting glaciers and ice sheets contribute to sea level rise . Rising sea levels threaten coastal ecosystems and property. River deltas and estuaries are put at risk for flooding. Coasts are more likely to suffer erosion . Seawater more often contaminates sources of fresh water. All these consequences—flooding, erosion, water contamination—put low-lying island nations, such as the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, at high risk for disaster. To find ways to protect the ocean from pollution and the effects of climate change, scientists from all over the world are cooperating in studies of ocean waters and marine life. They are also working together to control pollution and limit global warming. Many countries are working to reach agreements on how to manage and harvest ocean resources. Although the ocean is vast, it is more easily polluted and damaged than people once thought. It requires care and protection as well as expert management. Only then can it continue to provide the many resources that living things—including people—need.

The Most Coast . . . Canada has 202,080 kilometers (125,567 miles) of coastline. Short But Sweet . . . Monaco has four kilometers (2.5 miles) of coastline.

No, the Toilet Doesn't Flush Backward in Australia The Coriolis effect, which can be seen in large-scale phenomena like trade winds and ocean currents, cannot be duplicated in small basins like sinks.

Extraterrestrial Oceans Mars probably had oceans billions of years ago, but ice and dry seabeds are all that remain today. Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, is probably covered by an ocean of water more than 96 kilometers (60 miles) deep, but it is trapped beneath a layer of ice, which the warmer water below frequently cracks. One of Saturn's moons, Enceladus, has cryovolcanism, or ice volcanoes. Instead of erupting with lava, ice volcanoes erupt with water, ammonia, or methane. Ice volcanoes may indicate oceanic activity.

International Oil Spill The largest oil spill in history, the Gulf War oil spill, released at least 40 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf. Valves at the Sea Island oil terminal in Kuwait were opened on purpose after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991. The oil was intended to stop a landing by U.S. Marines, but the oil drifted south to the shores of Saudi Arabia. A study of the Gulf War oil spill (conducted by the United Nations, several countries in the Middle East and the United States) found that most of the spilled oil evaporated and caused little damage to the environment.

Ocean Seas The floors of the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea are more like the ocean than other seas they do not rest on a continent, but directly on the ocean's basalt crust.

Early Ocean Explorers Polynesian people navigated a region of the Pacific Ocean now known as the Polynesian Triangle by 700 C.E. The corners of the Polynesian Triangle are islands: the American state of Hawai'i, the country of New Zealand, and the Chilean territory of Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui). The distance between Easter Island and New Zealand, the longest length of the Polynesian Triangle, is one-quarter of Earth's circumference, more than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles). Polynesians successfully traveled these distances in canoes. It would be hundreds of years before another culture explored the ocean to this extent.

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Smithsonian Ocean

The Deep Sea

Introduction, open ocean zones, seafloor habitats, finding food, tools & technology, at the smithsonian.

Below the ocean’s surface is a mysterious world that accounts for over 95 percent of Earth’s living space—it could hide 20 Washington Monuments stacked on top of each other. But the deep sea remains largely unexplored. As you dive down through this vast living space you notice that light starts fading rapidly. By 650 feet (200 m) all the light is gone to our eyes and the temperature has dropped dramatically. Dive deeper and the weight of the water above continues to accumulate to a massive crushing force. Any light still filtering down has diminished to appear completely black, leaving only animals and bacteria to produce the light found here. By 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), the temperature hovers just below the temperature of your refridgerator.  At this depth, we’ve reached the average depth of the deep-sea floor, a place that may start to get a little muddy. The further we dive down from the surface, the less new food is available, making the fight to survive that much more challenging.  Despite these harsh conditions, there is life—an astounding variety of creatures that will boggle your mind. You can’t dive to the deep ocean on your own, of course, but scientists have a variety of sophisticated technologies to explore this vast frontier.

Are You An Educator?

Oceanographers divide the majority of the ocean midwater into five broad zones. The very deepest depth of the ocean is roughly 2,000 meters deeper than Mount Everest is tall—36,070 feet deep (10,994 m)! Each zone has a different mix of species adapted to its specific light level, pressure, temperature, and community. About three-fourths of the area covered by ocean is deep, permanently dark, and cold. This is the deep sea.

Most are familiar with the surface layer, which extends down 650 feet (200 m) and receives the most sunlight, allowing photosynthetic organisms like phytoplankton to convert sunlight to energy. It is the home of pods of dolphins, schools of fish, and shoals of sharks. Scientists refer to this highly productive area as the epipelagic zone. 

But the majority of the space in the ocean is a dark world. Dive below the epipelagic and you will enter the mesopelagic zone. Also known as the twilight zone, this area receives only faint, filtered sunlight, allowing no photosynthetic organisms to survive. Many animals have adapted to the near-darkness with large eyes and counterillumination . 

Beginning with the bathypelagic zone, the ocean is completely void of light from the sun, moon and stars. Animals create their own bioluminescent light and, if they haven’t lost them, have highly light-sensitive eyes to see the light produced by other animals. The water temperature is near freezing. Travel deeper and you will find the abyssopelagic zone—the abyss. And finally, the deepest reaches of the ocean are found at the bottom of precipitous trenches. These locations venture into the hadalpelagic zone, places so deep only a handful of humans have ever traveled there so far.

Mesopelagic

The area of the ocean between 650 and 3,300 feet (200-1,000 m) is called the mesopelagic. Barely any light filters down to these depths, and yet still life thrives here. Squid, krill, jellies, and fish are super abundant in this zone. About 90 percent of the world’s fish (by weight) live in the mesopelagic—about 10 billion tons of fish. The bristlemouth fish alone may number at about a quadrillion, making them the most numerous family of vertebrates (animals with a backbone) in the world. 

Bathypelagic

The bathypelagic is between 3,300 and 13,100 feet (1,000 and 4,000 m) beneath the ocean surface. It is an area void of light (called aphotic) and at 39 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius), it is very cold. Moreover, the pressure is over 110 times that at sea level. Creatures in this zone must live with minimal food, so many have slow metabolisms. Many rely on marine snow as their main food source. They are also characterized by squishy bodies and slimy skin. The black hagfish, viperfish, anglerfish, and sleeper shark are common fish that call this zone home. While something like the gulper eel, with its massive expandable gullet, is a rare and amazing sight and could almost be mistaken for an alien. Vampire squid and dumbo octopus also venture to these depths. 

Abyssopelagic

The Abyssopelagic extends from 13,100 to 19,700 feet (4,000-6,000 m) down to the seafloor or abyssal plain. Animals that can withstand the pressures in this depth, which can reach up to 600 times what is experienced at sea level are highly specialized. Tripod fish are an oddity that can be found in this zone. Often found resting on the seafloor, tripod fish can pump fluid into their elongated fins to make them like rigid stilts (or as their name implies, a tripod), sometimes a few feet high. Rattail fish, octopuses , and sea cucumbers are also well adapted to the intense pressure here.

Hadalpelagic

The hadalpelagic is the very deepest part of the ocean that includes the ocean trenches. It extends from 19,700 feet (6,000 meters) to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench at 36,070 feet (10,994 meters). Very little is known about the creatures that live at such depths. In 2018, scientists officially described a snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei) at 27,000 feet below sea level, the deepest living fish ever found. The snailfish lacks scales, has large teeth, and does not bioluminesce, a departure from what many people envision in a deep-sea fish. It is the only named fish at such depth. A second has been observed on video, however, it has yet to be captured and formally described. Despite the remoteness of the hadalpelagic, humanity still finds a way to interfere—plastic debris has been found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench .

Like the open ocean, the seafloor is similarly divided into distinct zones. Right next to the coast is the continental shelf, the submerged part of the continent. This area is characterized by shallow water and mostly exists within the sunlit epipelagic zone. Traveling away from the coast the seafloor will begin to slope down through the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones into deeper depths. This is the continental slope, the transition between Earth’s continental surface and Earth’s oceanic seafloor. As the slope levels out at the continental rise (roughly 19,700 feet or 6,000 m) it gives way to the abyssal plain, the long stretch that accounts for roughly 70 percent of the world sea floor.

But the ocean floor consists of more than just the flat and seemingly vacant abyssal plain. Pockets of life thrive when food is available, and often these distinct deep sea communities rely on alternate sources of chemical energy that do not originate from the sun—they have figured a way to make do with what they get. 

A remarkable white sponge with brown sea feathers, pink brittle stars, and a pink sea feather in the lower right.

Abyssal Plain

The abyssal plain is the relatively level deep seafloor. It is a cold and dark place that lies between 3,000 and 6,000 meters below the sea surface. It is also home to squat lobsters, red prawns, and various species of sea cucumbers. For these creatures food is scarce most of the time. Bits of decaying matter and excretions from thousands of meters above must trickle down to the seafloor, with only a small fraction escaping the hungry jaws of creatures above. Less than five percent of food produced at the surface will make its way to the abyssal plain. Most of this comes in great pulses as the result of phytoplankton blooms. When the phytoplankton are gone, the animals that grew quickly to eat them die and sink to the seafloor.

Whale Falls

For the majority of the ocean floor large animals are scarce. The little nutrition that rains down from above in the form of marine snow is not nearly consistent enough nor substantive enough to fuel a large living creature (though there are billions of tiny ones). Whale or other large animal deaths are different.

Whale falls occur when a whale dies in surface waters and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Trees, sharks, and large fish can also fall to the seafloor and provide food. The sudden arrival of food prompts creatures from afar to congregate and feast on the fleshy carcass. Once the flesh has been stripped and consumed by predators, bone eaters arrive so that not even the skeleton will remain. In the months and years after a whale fall the site will become the home and food source for millions of creatures.

The skeletal remains of a whale supply a feast for deep sea creatures.

For the first month or so that a whale carcass is on the seafloor it is a buffet for scavengers from afar. Many are attracted by the smell of rotting flesh. Within hours of falling, sleeper sharks, rattail fish, and black hagfish flock to the carcass like moths to a flame. Snow crabs, brittle stars, and squat lobsters scurry their way over, and in the ensuing month these scavengers will consume about 40 to 60 kg of flesh per day (88 – 132 pounds). The feeding frenzy also disperses bits and pieces as well as nutrients into the surrounding seafloor where anemones, sea stars, mollusks, worms, and other crustaceans take advantage of the food. Some whale falls can support a blanket of 45,000 worms per square meter—the highest animal density in the entire ocean.

Soon the skeleton is picked clean, but the fall is far from nutrient depleted. Whale bone consists of roughly 60 percent fat by weight, up to 200 times the amount of nutrients typically found at the seafloor. Specially adapted worms and snails take advantage of this feast by boring into the inner bone with acid and absorbing the fats inside with the help of bacteria. The worms, called Osedax worms , ride ocean currents as larvae and then settle on the exposed bone. The first of these larvae develop into females, with one end tunneling into the bone and forming what looks like roots growing through the bone. The other end grows into a feathered fan that lets them extract oxygen from the water. Larvae that arrive later or land on another worm, become males, but never really grow beyond the larval form. Instead they live within the females’ bodies as parasites—sometimes over a hundred live in one female host. Scientists have found about 25 species of bone eating worms since they were first discovered in 2002, and many more are thought to exist. Some are specialized burrowers that dig within the bone for the fat, while others pick apart the surface layers.

These worms house bacteria within their “roots” that take advantage of the sulfur in the bones to make energy in a process called chemosynthesis.  Other bacteria types grow directly on the bones and feed on the sulfur. Up to 190 different types of these bacteria have been found on a single whale carcass, and up to 20 percent of those are also found living around hydrothermal vents.

No two whale fall communities are the same. The size of the whale, the depth of the seafloor, and the location all contribute to the types of animals that colonize the area and determine how long it takes for the skeleton to disappear. Our knowledge of whale falls comes from few and far between ROV and AUV encounters, so though whale falls are scarce, scientists estimate they exist at every 5 to 16 km in the Pacific Ocean.

Hydrothermal Vents

Deep beneath the ocean’s surface, towers spew scalding water from within the earth’s crust. These are hydrothermal vents. 

Hydrothermal vents exist in volcanically active areas. Seawater makes its way through the cracks in the earth’s crust until it reaches hot magma. As the water heats it absorbs metals like iron, zinc, copper, lead, and cobalt from the surrounding rocks. Hot water rises, carrying these minerals to the surface of the sea floor. There, it meets cool ocean water, an event that sparks chemical reactions and forms solid deposits. Over time the deposits create towers—forming the classic image of a hydrothermal vent. Some spew water filled with black iron sulfide and are aptly named “black smokers,” while others spew white colored elements like barium, calcium, and silicon and are called “white smokers.”

At first inspection, it seems unlikely that anything could live in such an environment—spewing from cracks in the earth’s crust is scalding water that has been heated to temperatures up to 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius), a temperature hot enough to melt lead. These vents are also so deep that they never see a glimmer of light from the sun. Despite these obstacles, clams, mussels, shrimp, and gigantic worms thrive in these habitats. Their existence is thanks to bacteria. 

Animal life at a hydrothermal vent relies on the energy produced by symbiotic bacteria. The bacteria live either inside the bodies or on the surface of their hosts. But unlike most life on earth that uses light from the sun as a source of energy, these bacteria produce energy through a chemical reaction that uses minerals from the vents.

Scientists first learned of these symbiotic relationships through the study of the Riftia tubeworm. Upon first discovering hydrothermal communities in 1977, scientists were perplexed by the diversity and abundance of life. The worm’s blood red plumes filter the water and absorb both oxygen and hydrogen sulfide from the vents. Hydrogen sulfide is normally poisonous, but the Riftia worm has a special adaptation that isolates it from the rest of the body. Their blood contains hemoglobin that binds tightly to both oxygen and hydrogen sulfide. Further investigation into these unique habitats showed that many of the other creatures that live by the vents also rely on symbiotic bacteria. The yeti crab waves its arms in the water to help cultivate bacteria on tiny arm hairs which it then consumes.

Brine Lakes

It seems like an impossibility—coming across a lake at the bottom of the ocean. But due to chemical and physical properties of water, this is, in fact, a reality.

Brine lakes are super salty pools of water that sit on the ocean floor. The extreme saltiness causes significantly denser water than the average ocean water and, like water and air, the two do not mix. The salt difference is so definitive that sitting above the brine lake, you can visibly see the lake’s surface—even waves when the lake is disturbed.

These brine lakes are a remnant of ancient seas that existed when dinosaurs roamed on land. Many brine lakes have been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of years ago, during the Jurassic Period, a shallow sea existed where the Gulf of Mexico now sits. Cut off from the rest of the world’s oceans, the sea slowly evaporated, leaving behind a layer of salt up to 5 miles deep in some locations. By the time the ocean returned to that region, sediment had covered the salt, isolating it from the seawater.

But as the Rocky Mountains began to rise and subsequently erode, the extra weight of the sediment flushed into the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River was enough to break the seal. Salt is naturally lighter than soil and as it became squeezed by the soil above, it began to rise. Near the earth’s surface it began to mix with the seawater that was able to percolate into the sediment. This mixture though, was still many times the salinity of ocean water. The result is a brine lake.

Brine lakes are deadly for ocean creatures. The salt content is so high that creatures that “fall in” often die. Their carcass, pickled and preserved , serves as a warning of the toxic landscape below. But for many creatures the risk is worth it. A brine lake is also an area high in methane and certain bacteria can use the methane in a chemical reaction to produce energy. Animals like mussels and crabs come to feed on the special bacteria by the lake’s edge, and often there are whole communities that live along the shore.

Along with the Gulf of Mexico, brine lakes have been discovered in the Red Sea and off the coast of Antarctica.

A cold seep is a place on the ocean floor where fluids and gases trapped deep in the earth percolate up to the seafloor. A cold seep gets its name not because the liquid and gas that emerge are colder than the surrounding seawater, but because they are cooler than the scalding temperature of the similar hydrothermal vent. 

Mussels and shrimp at a chemosynthetic cold seep community. Gulf of Mexico.

Cold seeps form at cracks in the earth’s crust. The cracks release buried petroleum-based gas and liquid from deep underground where they formed over millions of years. These liquids and gases are made up of hydrogen and carbon molecules, like methane. It is from these chemicals that cold seep creatures get their energy. Microbes near cold seeps gain energy through chemical reactions, and then pass the energy to symbiotic partners like tubeworms, clams, or mussels. This draws larger predators like octopuses and crabs to the seeps.

Canyons and Seamounts

Like on land, deep canyons can stretch for hundreds of miles across the seafloor. These canyons serve as a habitat where sealife can thrive. The walls, ledges, and bottoms of canyons create a diverse variety of habitats—many of which are steep, and scoured by currents rich in tiny food particles—that enable an array of sea creatures to live there. The rocky ledges are a perfect place for deep sea corals to attach, and the muddy bottom is a soft home for worms and mollusks to burrow. Fish, too, find shelter within the canyon walls, and also a good place to catch a meal.

Canyons are hotspots of life because they are areas of ample nutrition. A canyon acts like a funnel in the ocean, congregating decaying matter that originates from land down to the ocean depths. The geography of a canyon also creates currents of moving water that suspend the amassed nutrition into the water column, often even reaching up into shallower, sunlit depths where photosynthetic algae grow. Krill and crustaceans called amphipods thrive off the phytoplankton, and it is the masses of these zooplankton that attract tuna, swordfish, and sharks to canyons.  

A seamount is an underwater mountain that can rise thousands of feet above the seafloor. Just as canyons funnel water, seamounts also influence the flow of water, often diverting deep currents. They are often found at the edges of tectonic plates where magma is able to rise through the surface crust. When dense, nutrient rich ocean currents hit the seamount they deflect up toward the surface, allowing marine life to thrive on the newly supplied food. Crabs, corals, anemones, sea stars, and many other creatures make the walls of seamounts their home. About 80 commercial species live on seamounts, and many are only found near this habitat.  

Deep Sea Reefs

It may be the last place you’d expect to find corals—up to 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the ocean’s surface where the water is icy cold and completely dark. Yet believe it or not, lush coral gardens thrive here. In fact, there are as many known species of deep-sea corals (also known as cold-water corals) as shallow-water species.    Like shallow-water corals, deep-sea corals may exist as individual coral polyps, as diversely-shaped colonies containing many polyps of the same individual, and as reefs with many colonies made up of one or more species. They also serve as a habitat for deep sea creatures like sea stars and sharks. Unlike shallow-water corals, however, deep-sea corals don’t need sunlight. They obtain the energy and nutrients they need to survive by trapping tiny organisms in their polyps from passing currents. 

Corals can be found in the deep sea.

Bioluminescence

In a deep, dark world anything that lights up stands out. But in fact, producing light in the deep is the norm rather than the exception. Some creatures produce their own light to snag a meal or find a mate in a process called bioluminescence .

A bright blue ctenophore uses bioluminescence to glow.

Animals can use their light to lure prey towards their mouths, or even to light up the area nearby so that they can see their next meal a bit better. Sometimes the prey being lured can be small plankton, like those attracted to the bioluminescence around the beak of the Stauroteuthis octopus . But the light can also fool larger animals. Whales and squid are attracted to the glowing underside of the cookie-cutter shark, which grabs a bite out of the animals once they are close. The deep-sea anglerfish lures prey straight to its mouth with a dangling bioluminescent barbel, lit by glowing bacteria.

In addition to feeding, creatures of the deep use light in flashy displays meant to attract mates. Or, animals use a strong flash of bioluminescence to scare off an impending predator. The bright signal can startle and distract the predator and cause confusion about the whereabouts of its target. The light can even attract a bigger predator that will eat the attacker. If an animal needs to blend in, bioluminescence can be used to help in camouflage with the use of counterillumination , a display of light that helps them blend into the background.

Flashy displays may seem easy to spot, but in the dark expanse of the deep, distance and the immense area can make even bright lights hard to see. Deep sea animals will often have enlarged eyes that can pick up even the faintest light, ensuring a rare encounter leads to a meal or a mating. The Phronima , an invertebrate resembling Ridley Scott’s Alien, uses two sets of eyes, one large set in front and one on the sides. Research that included Smithsonian scientists found that the large eyes allow it to see at longer distances and the smaller eyes provide low resolution vision of nearly the entire area surrounding them, enabling them to catch anything close by.

An unknown deep sea creature glows using bioluminescence.

Vertical Migrations

In the deep-sea food is scarce, but it is also a great place to hide in the dark away from hungry predators. Some creatures have adapted a way of life that takes advantage of both the plentiful surface waters and the safety of the deep. It’s called diel vertical migration .

As the sun sets, fish and zooplankton make massive migrations from the depths up to the ocean’s surface. Despite their small size (some no bigger than a mosquito), these creatures can travel hundreds of meters in just a few hours. Under the light of the moon they feast on the phytoplankton that grew during the day. Then, when the sun comes out and there is enough light for predators to see them again, the zooplankton return to the deep darkness. Often, this repeats every single day. Diel vertical migrations are likely the largest daily migration on the planet.

And while for many creatures partaking in the migration is a way to avoid predators, others take advantage of the reliable movement of potential prey. One tiny plankton, a foraminfera, waits in the path of the migration and ensnares passing copepods, a migrating crustacean, in a web of protruding spines. A layer of these plankton create a dense mine field for the tiny crustaceans to swim through on their path each day. In the arms race of evolution, it pays to be one step ahead.  

Diel vertical migrations aren’t the only type of movement between the shallows and deep. Tethered to a life at the surface because they require breathable oxygen, many large animals will make impressive dives to the deep sea in search of their favorite foods.  Sperm whales, southern elephant seals, leatherback sea turtles, emperor penguins, and beaked whales are especially good divers. A Cuvier’s beaked whale is known to dive 9,816 feet (2,992 m) deep, and can stay down as long and 3 hours and 42 minutes, making it the deepest diving mammal in the world.

Marine Snow

For much of the deep ocean, food rains down from above in the form of marine snow. The term ‘marine snow’ is used for all sorts of things in the ocean that start at the top or middle layers of water and slowly drift to the seafloor. This mostly includes waste, such as dead and decomposing animals, poop, silt and other organic items washed into the sea from land.

A deep sea squid known as the whiplash squid surrounded in marine snow.

As this material drops deeper and deeper , the particles can grow in size as smaller flakes clump together. The larger size causes them to fall more quickly through the water column—but, even so, the journey to the bottom can take several weeks to years . Scientists have learned more about the travels of marine snow by using sediment traps on the ocean floor. Data from these traps have shown that 815 million tons of carbon reaches the ocean floor every year. These layers of ocean ooze are important carbon sinks—drawing down the decomposing bits of carbon, laying them to rest on the seafloor, and finally burying them.

But not all particles get that far. They are often eaten by fish or marine mammals during their slow fall, just to be digested and pooped out elsewhere in the ocean to begin the cycle all over again. Once the trip is complete, this decomposing hodgepodge can be a welcome food source for animals in deep water and on the sea floor that don’t have reliable food in the sparse darkness. Some animals, such as the vampire squid and its special feeding filaments , have special adaptations to help them better catch and eat the falling particles. The snow is also important to small, growing animals, such as eel larvae , which rely on the snow for months during their development. Marine snow clumps are also swarming with microbes—tiny organisms ranging from algae to bacteria—that form communities around the sinking particles.

Technologies for Exploring the Deep

No place on Earth is as distant or as alien as the deep ocean. But we’re now able to explore more and more parts of this remote realm—thanks to a new generation of incredible underwater vehicles .

Some vehicles—known as human occupied vehicles (HOVs)—carry scientists themselves to the deep sea to see firsthand what’s there. Other kinds of unmanned craft let scientists see and study those places they can’t go. For example, scientists can steer remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) from ships at the surface. A cable links the ships to the ROVs, limiting their mobility. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have no cable, but they need to be pre-programmed. A new breed of hybrid vehicles (HROVs) combines the best features of ROVs and AUVs: They can have a surface operator, or drop the cable and go it alone.

Deep Reef Observation Project

The Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) is a Smithsonian research program launched to explore marine life and monitor changes on deep reefs in the southern Caribbean. Scientists turn to submarines to explore at depths too great for SCUBA gear. The Curasub is a 5-person manned submersible capable of descending to 1,000 feet. The state-of-the-art sub is equipped with hydraulic collecting arms that allow for the collection of marine life and the deployment of long-term monitoring devices on the deep reef. 

Biological collections from the Curasub off Curaçao have resulted in the discovery of numerous new and rare species of fishes, marine mollusks, echinoderms and crustaceans. This project utilizes the taxonomic expertise of more than a dozen Smithsonian scientists and employs modern molecular tools and digital photography and videography to fully document species and genetic diversity on deep reefs.

Deep Sea Corals

How do you study deep sea coral reefs? With a submarine. Museum curator Andrea Quattrini has spent her career using submarines and remotely operated vehicles to document coral reefs and the species that call these underwater “forests” home. While coral reefs in shallow water are well studied and loved by people, very little is known about their deep sea relatives. We do know that many commercially important species like shrimps, crabs, groupers, rockfish, and snappers rely on deep sea coral reefs for shelter, but this is only based upon a limited number of studies and dives. Scientists, including Quattrini, continue to discover additional species that call deep sea coral reefs home, showing that there is still much to learn about the deep sea. 

Living in the Deep Sea

What does it take to live in the deep sea? Curator Karen Osborn wants to know how and why animals adapt in order to survive in a cold, dark, and pressurized environment. Many animals that live in this largest of the earth's habitats are very bizarre and dramatically different from their closest relatives. For example, some make an extreme effort to see , building huge bulbous eyes that can detect even the smallest glimmer of light, while others completely forfeit any form of sight and instead rely on heightened scent and touch. Since most animal groups have representatives living in the open ocean, learning about the differences in the way these animals live compared to their relatives in shallow water tells us a lot about how this environment changes and shapes the many animals that survive there.  

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Marine life

Our ocean, coasts, and estuaries are home to diverse living things. These organisms take many forms, from the tiniest single-celled plankton to the largest animal on Earth, the blue whale. Understanding the life cycles, habits, habitats, and inter-relationships of marine life contributes to our understanding of the planet as a whole. Human influences and reliance on these species, as well as changing environmental conditions, will determine the future health of these marine inhabitants. Toxic spills , oxygen-depleted dead zones, marine debris , increasing ocean temperatures, overfishing, and shoreline development are daily threats to marine life. Part of NOAA's mission is to help protect these organisms and their habitats.

Food webs describe who eats whom in an ecological community. Made of interconnected food chains, food webs help us understand how changes to ecosystems — say, removing a top predator or adding nutrients — affect many different species, both directly and indirectly.

Phytoplankton and algae form the bases of aquatic food webs. They are eaten by primary consumers like zooplankton, small fish, and crustaceans. Primary consumers are in turn eaten by fish, small sharks, corals, and baleen whales. Top ocean predators include large sharks, billfish, dolphins, toothed whales, and large seals. Humans consume aquatic life from every section of this food web.

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. Coral polyps , the animals primarily responsible for building reefs, can take many forms: large reef building colonies, graceful flowing fans, and even small, solitary organisms. Thousands of species of corals have been discovered; some live in warm, shallow, tropical seas and others in the cold, dark depths of the ocean.

Seafood plays an essential role in feeding the world’s growing population. Healthy fish populations lead to healthy oceans and it's our responsibility to be a part of the solution. The resilience of our marine ecosystems and coastal communities depend on sustainable fisheries.

Estuaries are areas of water and shoreline where rivers meet the ocean or another large body of water, such as one of the Great Lakes. Organisms that live in estuaries must be adapted to these dynamic environments, where there are variations in water chemistry including salinity, as well as physical changes like the rise and fall of tides. Despite these challenges, estuaries are also very productive ecosystems. They receive nutrients from both bodies of water and can support a variety of life. Because of their access to food, water, and shipping routes, people often live near estuaries and can impact the health of the ecosystem.

Marine mammals are found in marine ecosystems around the globe. They are a diverse group of mammals with unique physical adaptations that allow them to thrive in the marine environment with extreme temperatures, depths, pressure, and darkness. Marine mammals are classified into four different taxonomic groups: cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses), sirenians (manatees and dugongs), and marine fissipeds (polar bears and sea otters).

Sea turtles breathe air, like all reptiles, and have streamlined bodies with large flippers. They are well adapted to life in the ocean and inhabit tropical and subtropical ocean waters around the world. Of the seven species of sea turtles, six are found in U.S. waters; these include the green, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, leatherback, loggerhead, and olive ridley.

• Ocean Exploration Facts

Why do we explore the ocean?

Exploration is key to increasing our understanding of the ocean, so we can more effectively manage, conserve, regulate, and use ocean resources that are vital to our economy and to all of our lives..

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We explore the ocean because it is important to ALL of us. Thanks to game-changing technological advancements, we can now look into the ocean like never before. But exploration can only be achieved through cooperation and collaboration, such as the partnership between the NOAA Ocean Exploration, Schmidt Ocean Institute, and Ocean Exploration Trust. Video courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Download larger version (mp4, 225 MB) .

Despite the fact that the ocean covers approximately 70% of Earth’s surface and plays a critical role in supporting life on our planet, from the air we breathe and the food we eat to weather and climate patterns , our understanding of the ocean remains limited .

Ocean exploration is about making discoveries, searching for things that are unusual and unexpected. As the first step in the scientific process, the rigorous observations and documentation of biological, chemical, physical, geological, and archaeological aspects of the ocean gained from exploration set the stage for future research and decision-making.

Through ocean exploration, we collect data and information needed to address both current and emerging science and management needs. Exploration helps to ensure that ocean resources are not just managed, but managed in a sustainable way, so those resources are around for future generations to enjoy. Exploration of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone is important for national security, allowing us to set boundaries, protect American interests, and claim ocean resources.

Unlocking the mysteries of ocean ecosystems can reveal new sources for medical therapies and vaccines, food, energy, and more as well as inspire inventions that mimic adaptations of deep-sea animals. Information from ocean exploration can help us understand how we are affecting and being affected by changes in Earth’s environment, including changes in weather and climate. Insights from ocean exploration can help us better understand and respond to earthquakes, tsunamis, and other hazards.

The challenges met while exploring the ocean can provide the impetus for new technologies and engineering innovations that can be applied in other situations, allowing us to respond more effectively in the face of an ocean crisis, such as an oil spill. And, ocean exploration can improve ocean literacy and inspire young people to seek critical careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

As a species, humans are naturally inquisitive — curiosity, desire for knowledge, and quest for adventure motivate modern explorers even today. And if all of these examples don’t provide enough reasons to explore the ocean, well, ocean exploration is also just cool (if you need it: proof ).

NOAA Ocean Exploration is a federal organization dedicated to exploring the unknown ocean, unlocking its potential through scientific discovery, technological advancements, and data delivery. By working closely with partners across public, private, and academic sectors, we are filling gaps in our basic understanding of the marine environment. This allows us, collectively, to protect ocean health, sustainably manage our marine resources, accelerate our national economy, better understand our changing environment, and enhance appreciation of the importance of the ocean in our everyday lives.

Related Education Materials

To Boldly Go

Grade Level: 6-8 Focus: Science/Technology

Students use learning shapes to explore modern reasons for ocean exploration including: climate change, energy, human health, ocean health, research and exploration, technology and innovation, underwater cultural heritage, and ocean literacy. This lesson can be used to acquaint students with the concept of ocean exploration and build a foundation for additional lessons.

Why Do We Explore the Deep Ocean? (pdf, 722 KB)

For More Information

How much of the ocean has been explored?

Why do we explore the water column?

Ocean exploration matters.

Ecology Issues: Creatures of the Deep Sea Essay

Name some organisms that inhabit hydrothermal vents.

The ocean floor is a habitat for many classes of living organisms. These organisms have different modes of feeding. Thus, each species has its distinct adaptation to its immediate environment. The perfect examples are the hydrothermal vent animals that inhabit the vents, including the vent octopus, giant tubeworm, spider crab, vent crab, gastropod, gyre snail, squat lobster, Pompeii worm, Anemone, ciliate, and more (Abellgan, 2010).

How do animals living near hydrothermal vents get their energy?

Unlike the organisms that live on the earth’s surface and that depend on sunlight as the principal source of energy through photosynthesis, plants around hydrothermal vents do not have such a privilege since the great oceanic depths prevent sunlight from reaching the oceanic floor.

According to the Marine Conservation Society (UK) South East (2008), the water that oozes from the vents has chemosynthetic bacteria, which convert sulfur compounds into organic material. This process is known as chemosynthesis. Therefore, in the vent food chains, the chemosynthetic bacteria are the chief producers making all hydrothermal vent animals depend solely on them for energy.

Should federal dollars contribute to explorations like the Galapagos Rift project where scientists discovered hydrothermal vent communities?

Deep–sea exploration is a quite complex and expensive exercise that requires adequate funding, expertise, and machinery. This can only be made possible when the federal government injects enough resources to the oceanography research bodies. This will not only reduce the difficulties of the deep-sea work but will also ensure that the information obtained is accurate and reliable.

What are some advantages and disadvantages to finding new animal/plant forms?

One advantage of finding new life forms of flora and fauna is that it enhances the efforts made to preserve the life that may be otherwise endangered due to the lack of knowledge about them (Kenn, 2013).

Furthermore, it may contribute to deep-sea diving tourism that can be a source of government revenue. However, marine exploration projects are costly and require extremely sophisticated machinery. This can be detrimental to the economy, especially for a country.

Glacial landscapes are changing

Discuss the negative changes that are occurring and the cause(s) of these changes.

In the recent past, the temperature on the earth has been rising steadily due to the effect of global warming. This has caused glacier ice to melt much faster than before making the glacial landscapes recede, thereby exposing the earth below. This has resulted in increased levels of seawater. Also, higher altitudes areas on the globe are characterized by ice glaciers (Grassle, 1985).

Due to continuous melting, the water flowing into the rivers has increased streams massively, resulting in devastating floods. The receding ice glaciers in some parts around the world have led to a reduction in the production of hydroelectric power, thus depicting an imminent crisis in the energy sectors of the affected economies.

Discuss how these changes negatively impact/affect other organisms/animals.

The glacial landscapes harbor many living organisms comprising both plants and animals. Some animals adapt to the very low temperatures for their survival. Therefore, the melting of ice glaciers due to global warming is a threat to the future survival of such animals. The glaciers melt into freshwater, but certain bird species solely depend on the freshwater fish for food. They feed on tiny plants on the sea floor and rock surfaces (Welford, 2011).

The rising temperature of the seawater impacts negatively the survival of bird species since it causes the death of the plants, thus significantly reducing the number of small fish.

The ever-rising sea levels caused by the melting ice glaciers will no longer allow the corals to thrive in their natural habitat. This is due to the deprivation of sunlight that is necessary for photosynthesis (Erik, 2008). Therefore, it follows that the living microorganisms and fish will be on the verge of extinction soon.

Abellgan, E. (2010). Creatures of the deep sea . Web.

Erik, M. (2008). Climate change and glacial melting. StudyMode.com . Web.

Grassle, J. (1985). Hydrothermal vent animals: Distribution and biology. The Journal of Science, 229 (7), 713-717. Web.

Kenn, J.(2013). Marine life. Web.

Marine Conservation Society (UK) South East. (2008). Life on hydrothermal vents . Web.

Welford, J. (2011). How glaciers change the landscape . Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, August 22). Ecology Issues: Creatures of the Deep Sea. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ecology-issues-creatures-of-the-deep-sea/

"Ecology Issues: Creatures of the Deep Sea." IvyPanda , 22 Aug. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/ecology-issues-creatures-of-the-deep-sea/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Ecology Issues: Creatures of the Deep Sea'. 22 August.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Ecology Issues: Creatures of the Deep Sea." August 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ecology-issues-creatures-of-the-deep-sea/.

1. IvyPanda . "Ecology Issues: Creatures of the Deep Sea." August 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ecology-issues-creatures-of-the-deep-sea/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Ecology Issues: Creatures of the Deep Sea." August 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ecology-issues-creatures-of-the-deep-sea/.

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Informative essay: DEEP-SEA CREATURES

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The Marine National Park in Gulf of Kachchh is India’s first Marine Protected Area declared in 1980. It is located along the southern coast of Gulf of Kachchh in Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka and Morbi districts of Gujarat State. It is a place to observe colourful life thriving in marine kingdom. It is a nature’s own laboratory to study the integrity of living and nonliving environments. Here exist coral reefs, sea grass meadows and mangrove forests, contributing to the dynamics of the area as unison. The National Park covers about 42 islands of which 33 islands harbour “Rain forests of the Seas”, the coral reefs. The sea grass meadows sustain population of sea turtles, dugongs and many other herbivorous fishes. Mangroves forests found here are some of the best mangroves of Gujarat and also enjoy a place of pride among the mangroves of India. These coral reefs and mangrove forests play very crucial role in sustainability and protection of the coast. They provide food and other natural resources to coastal population and also protect the coastal land against erosion and salinity ingress ensuring food security in coastal region. The marine environment of Gulf of Kachchh Marine National Park shelters fauna ranging from microscopic plankton to the gigantic whales. All these fauna are important in marine ecosystem irrespective of their size as they are integral part of a complex known as food web. Alteration of the cycle at any trophic level results into collapsing of the entire food chain. The marine fauna are highly adapted to dynamic nature of marine realm where environmental parameters keep changing. This has resulted into stratified distribution of the marine animals, ranging from spray zone to the bathyal depths. Those organism that are capable to withstand dryness for longer duration would aggregate near high tide line and the others would prefer sub tidal region. Marine ecosystem is also enriched with flora including phytoplankton, algae, sea grasses and mangroves and their associates which are the primary producers like vegetation on terrestrial ecosystem. They transform the solar energy into organic nutrient compounds (food). The micro vegetation, phytoplankton, constitute food for many herbivore animals living in open waters, whereas, marine algae dominate the intertidal area. The areas near the high tide line are observed to bear the growth of mangroves and their associates. All this vegetation is crucial in many ways. This vegetation is not only the source of food but also provides shelter to many of the marine life. In this manual an attempt has been made to give identification characteristics of the common marine flora and fauna of Marine National Park along with its distribution and legal status. This will benefit the managers of Marine Protected Areas in particular and students, academicians, researchers and nature lovers in general

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Explore the Depths of the Sea and Human Experience in ‘How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures’’

Sabrina Imbler discusses their new collection of essays.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Shondaland editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Sabrina Imbler’s dazzling new collection of essays, How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures , interweaves the magic of these sea dwellers with Imbler’s musings on the human experience.

As the title suggests, in each essay Imbler takes a sea creature — an octopus that starves while guarding its eggs for four years, a giant worm called a sand striker, a rogue goldfish, a yeti crab — and writes about its life while extrapolating into themes of family, loneliness, queerness, community care, assault, and the extreme beauty and precarity of Earth and its vast oceans. One essay about whale fall, which is when the body of a dead whale lands at the bottom of the ocean, providing vital nutrients to other sea creatures, and necropsy reports might make you cry; Imbler’s prose manages to be both poignant and very funny. This book is perfect for anyone who ever feels curious about or in awe of sea creatures, humanity, and the vast emotional landscapes inside ourselves.

Imbler’s first book, Dyke (geology) , a chapbook, which is considered a small collection of ballads, poems, or stories, took scientific language and concepts and transformed them into a deeply emotional experience. Among their other writing endeavors, Imbler was a science writing fellow for The New York Times ; they now work at Defector , a sports and culture website, where they cover creatures (in the broadest sense of the word).

Shondaland spoke with Imbler about geological time scales, the many meanings of immortality, being jealous of a sea creature’s bodily autonomy, and the importance of dreaming.

SARAH NEILSON: How did this book come together in its form as a collection of essays that each extrapolate ideas, metaphors, or lessons about life from one sea creature?

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

SN: In the essay “How to Draw a Sperm Whale,” you write, “The anemones had found a home on the remains of a creature once so staggeringly alive that it inhaled metric tons of krill each day and fertilized entire food webs with its waste, hundreds of pounds of heart beating through the water with no sense of what was to come.”

How did you think about time and the scale of time while you were writing this, and how did studying the myriad of ways life changes and persists in the ocean make you think about how time and life interact with each other?

SI: Science writing operates, or it can operate, on a different scale of time than most personal writing. Personal writing or memoir writing is really confined to human generations, how far written history or oral history is passed down, but science writing allows you to really broaden your reach into eons, into millennia, into the formation of the planet. I first experimented [with] that when I was working on my chapbook, Dyke (geology) , which was also a gay book but sort of told through the length of a volcano. What appealed to me about using something geological ... The lifespan of a volcano was so unknowable to us as humans, it felt like a really good metaphor for what a breakup feels like. It feels like you’re pulled outside of yourself, it feels like the greatest thing that’s happened to anyone ever and how cruel and how unusual it is that it’s happening to you, and it felt like I wanted to find language to explain the beyond-the-body experiences I was having.

.css-1n3l8cl{font-family:GTWalsheim,GTWalsheim-weightbold-roboto,GTWalsheim-weightbold-local,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:1.625rem;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1n3l8cl{font-size:1.75rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1n3l8cl{font-size:1.875rem;line-height:1.2;}}.css-1n3l8cl b,.css-1n3l8cl strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-1n3l8cl em,.css-1n3l8cl i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;} I would never have imagined the essay could have so many dreams sort of packed into one shell, which is really special to me.

In this book, I really enjoyed being able to play on an evolutionary time scale. I think a lot about the ways that I would like to change my body or the ways that humans could change their bodies, and evolution is technically the answer that we have. Maybe we could just evolve into the sort of creatures that we want to be, but imagining compressing that and using that as a tool for personal transformation felt really exciting. With the sperm whale, I really fixated on this notion of whale fall , initially as something that when I first read about it made me feel very sad. Whenever a whale dies, it is so sad. And if we had so many more whales, they would be actively helping cool our planet, and it just sucks that we have killed so many of them and made the conditions of the oceans impossible for them to regain their current populations because of boat strikes or human interference. It felt very exciting to think about something that did feel so sad through the lens of how it is nourishing, how its death is sustaining [an ecosystem]. I loved the idea of living things being in community with fossil things. These organisms would never have overlapped, and yet they’re still collaborating, for lack of a better word. I like to think about crossing those boundaries; I like to try to collaborate with creatures. This book is an attempt to collaborate with them.

SN: How did you approach thinking and writing about the corporeal in the context of thinking about bodies of people and sea creatures, and also thinking and feeling your way around your body and your own corporeal experiences?

SI: It’s taken me a long time to come to certain realizations about my sexuality or my gender. Sometimes I wonder why. But I think for some reason it is hard for me to look at my body and think, what more do I want from it or what could be different about it? It almost felt easier to look into the ocean and look at these incredibly different bodies and allow myself to feel envy, for lack of a better term, for these animals that do have wildly different senses of themselves and ways of living. There are so many different ways of being out in the ocean; I was just looking at them and seeing what sparked something in me. I’ve known about the cuttlefish since I was a kid, and it was always framed to me as this creature that can look like anything. It can look like a kelp, it can look like a rock, it can camouflage to escape anything. When I started reading about it and learning about the kinds of bodily changes that cuttlefish are capable of for the purposes of communicating with other cuttlefish, I found that so liberating, and I was also just jealous. I was like, “I wish I could make my skin bumpy. I wish I could change my body the way that a cuttlefish would.”

Because I was concretely thinking a lot about my gender in the pandemic, I thought a lot about surgery, and I’m really scared of surgery. I love the idea that a cuttlefish can just change the topology of its body so easily and also revert. There’s this mutability that I wish we could all have. I wish anyone who wants that could have that ability. I think it was helpful to look at these creatures’ ways of embodying themselves that are very natural to them but felt surprising to me. In the example of the octopus, the frailty of her experience really struck me. It is just unimaginable to me to try to comprehend what it’s like to live for four and a half years without eating, and I was trying to think about moments in my life when I have felt like I’ve come close to that. Of course, I have never really come close to that. I have gone on these weird diets or binged or fasted for various periods, but I think it was helpful to look into the moments of tenderness that I felt for this creature and try to apply that tenderness back toward my former self and also my mother. I don’t know why sometimes it’s easier to feel empathy, for me at least, for a creature than it is to have tenderness toward my past self. But I think a lot of this book was really trying to hold past selves that messed up or were confused in some way and really greet them with empathy.

SN: That kind of goes along with this way that the book centers ideas of freedom and autonomy. How did you think about ideas of freedom and possibility while you were writing these essays? What do those words mean to you in the context of this book?

SI: The essay that most encapsulates the idea of possibility for me is the last essay, about the immortal jellyfish, which is a collaborative essay where I wrote [about] the structure of this immortal jellyfish that can age backwards into adolescence and then age forward into many different adult clones of itself as a metaphor for going back and doing your adolescence over again. I put out a call on Twitter for anyone who thought about redoing their adolescence, anyone who was queer, trans who had a less than ideal experience of adolescence or childhood, and I was so astounded by the responses that I received. It reminded me it’s so silly to think that when I pitched this essay, I would’ve just been writing about my own reimaginings. Of course, it’s more exciting to think about everyone’s possible reimaginings that literally could have never come out of my brain.

That was really one of the most inspiring moments of the book to work on and also infused me with a sense of like, “Wow, anything is possible.” I would never have imagined the essay could have so many dreams sort of packed into one shell, which is really special to me. Writing that essay coincided with this line of coverage that I was doing in my day job, which at the time was, as a reporting fellow at The New York Times , about trans kids trying to access health care and how enormously difficult that is and how restrictive that’s becoming in various states. That was something that hung over the piece — the community is both fighting for the rights of trans kids now but also the trans childhoods that could have been and maybe only exist in your mind, but maybe still feel liberating to say out loud and to imagine. I really do believe in the power of speculation and wishes and dreams put down on paper; I feel like it helps other people unlock their own. To go back to the creatures, it just made me so jealous of these creatures that do have this power within their body, and they alone make the decision or are capable of bodily transformation versus needing to go to a doctor or a therapist or needing to go to the state. That’s the mindset that I had in writing that final piece, which just came to mind as you were talking specifically about the word autonomy .

SN: In that essay, you write about the difference between living and reliving and how both can be, for a jellyfish, a physiological experience, but it can also be a psychological or emotional process for people. Can you elaborate on the difference between living and reliving, and nonlinear trajectories of life?

SI: The distinction between living and reliving really first came to me when I encountered this jellyfish; everyone called it immortal. I assumed at that label that it just lived forever as an adult. When I read more about its specific lifestyle where it can age backwards and then age back up again, I realized there are so many different versions of immortality. The ones that I am most familiar with are, as I say in the essay, like Edward Cullen, just being young forever, young and hot. It is just so boring to imagine freezing yourself in time at one particular point. It was really helpful to think about the possibility of what the immortal jellyfish’s specific function of immortality was, and what I would want to use from that, and what that could change about my life. Obviously, we don’t have the technology or the magic to age backwards and do it over again, but I do spend a lot of my time thinking about moments in my past. I feel like everyone gay does this, where you have this glimmer of like, “Oh, that’s why I did that.” And this moment where I wish that I had this self-awareness. I wish that I had given myself this permission. I wish that I had been surrounded by enough support and care to have enabled that freedom at that time. I wanted the people who were involved in this essay to think about, what would you go back and give yourself? Whether that’s a special power or a safety net or a vision into another future. That’s the power of just allowing yourself to imagine and thinking about all the different versions of yourself that you wish you could have met, could have encountered, you wish you could have held.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sarah Neilson is a freelance culture writer and interviewer whose work regularly appears in The Seattle Times , Them , and Shondaland , among other outlets. They are an alum of the Tin House craft intensive, and their memoir writing has been published in Catapult and Ligeia .

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Damselfish—seen on a coral reef in Baja California Sur, Mexico—are getting hit particularly hard by warming temperatures.

• ENVIRONMENT

Ocean species are disappearing faster than those on land

Climate change is being more keenly felt by the sea's cold-blooded creatures.

As the world's average temperatures creep higher, marine animals are far more vulnerable to extinctions than their earthbound counterparts, according to a new analysis of more than 400 cold-blooded species.

With fewer ways to seek refuge from warming, ocean-dwelling species are disappearing from their habitats at twice the rate of those on land, notes the research published Wednesday in the journal Nature .

The study, led by researchers from New Jersey's Rutgers University, is the first to compare the impacts of higher temperatures in the ocean and on land for a range of cold-blooded wildlife, from fish and mollusks to lizards and dragonflies.

While previous research has suggested warm-blooded animals are better at adapting to climate change than cold-blooded ones, this study punctuates the special risk for sea creatures. As the oceans continue to absorb heat trapped in the atmosphere from carbon dioxide pollution , bringing waters to their warmest point in decades , undersea denizens don't have the luxury of ducking into a shady spot or a burrow.

"Marine animals live in an environment that, historically, hasn't changed temperature all that much," says Malin Pinsky , an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Rutgers who led the research. "It's a bit like ocean animals are driving a narrow mountain road with temperature cliffs on either side."

Narrow safety margins

The scientists calculated "thermal safety margins" for 88 marine and 318 terrestrial species, determining how much warming they can tolerate and how much exposure they have to those heat thresholds. The safety margins were slimmest near the equator for ocean dwellers and near the midlatitudes on land.

For many, the heat is already too much. At the warm edges of the marine species' ranges, the study found, more than half had disappeared from historical territory as a result of warming. The rate for these local extinctions is twice that seen on land.

"These impacts are already happening. It's not some abstract future problem," Pinsky says.

The narrow safety margins for tropical marine animals, such as colorful damselfish and cardinalfish, average about 10 degrees Celsius. "That sounds like a lot," Pinsky says, "but the key is that populations actually go extinct long before they experience 10 degrees of warming."

Photos of the Pacific Ocean

Even just a degree or half-degree boost, he adds, can lead to trouble finding food, reproducing, and other devastating effects. While some species will be able to migrate to new territory, others—coral and sea anemones, for example—can't move and will simply go extinct.

Wider impact

"This is a really heavy hitting paper because it contributes hard data to support the long-standing assumption that marine systems have some of the highest vulnerabilities to climatic warming," says Sarah Diamond , an ecologist and assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio who did not work on the paper. "This is important because marine systems can get overlooked."

Most humans are landlubbers, after all—though many of our foods and jobs are tied to seaborne economies. Pinsky points to species such as Atlantic halibut, winter flounder, and ocean quahog that have disappeared from historical habitats and are important to fisheries.

In addition to cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change, he says that stopping overfishing , rebuilding overfished populations, and limiting ocean habitat destruction could help address species loss.

"Setting up networks of marine protected areas that act as stepping stones as species move to higher latitudes," he adds, "could help them cope with climate change going forward."

Beyond the sea

The Rutgers study reflects how important it is to measure not just temperature changes but how they affect animals, says Alex Gunderson , an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane University in New Orleans who did not work on the study.

And that includes those who live on the land.

"Land animals are at lower risk than marine animals only if they can find cool shaded spots to avoid direct sunlight and wait out extreme heat," Gunderson points out.

"The results of this study are a further wake-up call that we need to protect forests and other natural environments because of the temperature buffer that they provide wildlife in a warming world."

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• CLIMATE CHANGE
• MARINE BIODIVERSITY
• EXTINCT SPECIES

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Science Friday

Consider empathy for the yeti crab (and other sea creatures, too).

11:48 minutes

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It’s easy to empathize with certain animals: soft fur, big eyes, and family units make it simple to relate to creatures like panda bears, cats, and dogs. Even some undersea critters like dolphins and whales have large fan bases among land-dwelling humans. 

But the ocean is filled with many more creatures than just mammals, and many of them fall in the category of “weird.” Defector staff writer Sabrina Imbler thinks a lot about these critters that evade our categorization of “cute.” Things like deep sea worms, jelly-like invertebrates called salps, and the ghostly, hairy yeti crab are Imbler’s bread and butter. 

Imbler’s new book, How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures , is filled with essays comparing aspects of their life to bizarre creatures of the deep sea. From exploring their queer identity through the underwater dance parties of the yeti crab, to grappling with living as a mixed-race person through hybridized fish, each essay is poetic and intimate. SciFri producer Kathleen Davis chats with Imbler from their home in Brooklyn, New York, about the importance of finding empathy with the strangest creatures on our planet.

Read an excerpt from How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures here.

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Segment Guests

Sabrina Imbler is the author of How Far the Light Reaches , and a science journalist at Defector in Brooklyn, New York.

Segment Transcript

IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow. Sci-fi producer Kathleen Davis has joined me. Hi, Kathleen. What’s up?

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Hey, Ira. I want you to play along with me for just a moment, and think of the ocean. Picture some of the critters that live there.

IRA FLATOW: Ocean. I love the ocean. OK. First things to come to mind are your dolphins, your whales, and of course, octopuses.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Those can all be very charismatic creatures. They’re pretty easy for us humans to relate to them. I mean, we can connect to the playfulness of dolphins, the family ties of whales, the intelligence of octopuses, so on and so forth.

IRA FLATOW: Absolutely.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: But I’m wondering, Ira, have you ever had a connection with a creature that is a little less flashy, maybe a little more unpopular? Something like a cuttlefish, or bubble-like invertebrates called salps.

IRA FLATOW: Salps. I don’t think I’m familiar with salps.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Well you will be, once you get your hands on a new book by friend of the show, Sabrina Imbler. It’s called How Far the Light Reaches, a Life in Ten Sea Creatures. Sabrina is a staff writer at Defector, and in this book they explore parts of their identity through a collection of essays, each one floating between details of Sabrina’s life and those of a sea creature. Sabrina, thank you so much for joining us.

SABRINA IMBLER: Thank you so much for having me, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: So a lot of the creatures that you write about in your book are not, I would say, very popular, or maybe generally appreciated. What is it about these more obscure, sometimes strange creatures, that really intrigues you?

SABRINA IMBLER: I love strange creatures, I think, because it is a bit more of a challenge to find connection with them. Like, in trying to learn more about creatures that have very, very different ways of living, or ways of socializing, or ways of eating in the world than we do. I think it has set up a challenge to me, really, to look into that creature and to find resonances that might be unexpected, or might be not the obvious kind of relation that we have when we think about a grieving whale, or an elephant that has a society and, you know, mourns her dead.

For example, when I was thinking about the deep sea yeti crab– which is a really, really strange creature that lives at the bottom of the ocean on hydrothermal vents– and I just kept looking at it and I was like, this– there’s no better way to say this. This crab kind of looks queer. It looks a little bit flamboyant. And I think, yeah. Being able to really sit with creatures and find these unexpected connections, I think I find more exciting.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: I’m going to go back to the yeti crab in a minute here, because I love that essay. But I want to kind of hammer home this point that it is harder, I would say, for people to relate to creatures that aren’t maybe traditionally cute or cool. I mean, we’re so much more likely to project human emotions and personalities onto a creature that’s fluffy and has big eyes, and is really adorable looking, like a cat or a dog or anything like that.

It’s harder to do that with a creature that is maybe scaly, or a little slimy or blob-ish. In some ways, this book feels like a mission to get people to know these creatures and appreciate them. I mean, is there something you think that there is to gain about connecting with these creatures that are a little bit more off the beaten path?

SABRINA IMBLER: Absolutely. I mean, it’s a really good point. We are so quick to find connection with something fluffy. Like, that’s why pandas, like, are doing so well and have so many conservation dollars funneled toward them. But we can’t only care about the pandas and the dolphins, and a lot of the stranger and less savory creatures have crucial roles in their ecosystems, and also need help surviving in this world that we have irrevocably altered in some ways.

I think it’s a really good practice of empathy to really find intimacy with strange or bizarre or unsavory creatures. It is my mission in the way that I write about these creatures to really understand them on their own terms. Like, to understand what they need to live and what they need to eat and how they reproduce and how long they live. And do they sleep, do they hibernate?

And I think maybe just trying to describe the everyday life of this different creature, maybe that makes this animal feel more like a neighbor, more like a friend, than something that we fixate on. Like why is its snout so long? Or, like, its legs look really creepy to me. But really trying to understand the creature on its own terms, I feel like, is something that I try to do, and maybe helps us build that connection with our friends on the Earth.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: I want to go back to the yeti crabs, which you had very pleasantly described to us earlier. One thing that you talk about in your essay about the yeti crabs is that they will gather at the bottom of the sea floor and have what kind of looks like a dance party. How did you find yourself relating to these crabs?

SABRINA IMBLER: It’s a funny story. I first learned about the yeti crab, I think, on Tumblr. There is this image of the yeti crab, I think taken from a nature documentary. It was just sort of perched on this rock amid, like, the dark waters of the deep sea. And there was this quote at the bottom that said, this creature is adapted to the crushing pressure and oppressive darkness.

And when I first saw this image I was living in a new city for the first time and Trump had just been elected, and I was like, I can relate. Like, me too. And so that was my first moment, just this meme of connecting with the yeti crab. But the more I learned about it, the more I really felt like this crab– its everyday way of living– reminded me a lot of the ways that I found community in queer nightlife.

And I would watch footage of these crabs just crawling all over each other in these dense crowds at the bottom of the sea, around these heat sources. And I was thinking about the times when I would dance with my queer friends in a club and we would all be packed so closely next to each other. Then I actually learned about this one species of yeti crab, kiwa puravida, that actually dances to farm its own food.

So it waves its claws in the heat of these hydrothermal vents, and they have bacterial mats on their claws. And waving the claw sort of helps the bacteria grow, and then they can eat the bacteria on their own claws, which I was like, this crab is literally dancing to live, just like me.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: So aside from exploring your queer identity in the book by maybe evoking certain sea creatures, you also talk about your experience as a mixed race person. And the way that you illustrate this with sea creatures is really poetic. Can you walk me through what creatures you chose to express this part of your identity with?

SABRINA IMBLER: Yeah. So the essay in the book where I talked about being mixed– you know, I’m Chinese and white– is an essay about hybrid sea creatures, specifically hybrid butterfly fish. And I have always been interested, I think, in taxonomy in the ocean, just because it’s interesting. I feel like things that would appear very closely related are not always very closely related.

And the idea of a hybrid fish, it’s an easy parallel to being mixed race, right? This fish is the product of two different species reproducing. It doesn’t have a species name of its own. But I think I didn’t realize until I started writing this essay that I was thinking about all the moments in my life where I have tried to find, like, taxonomy for my own existence and my own experience of race.

Like, growing up as someone who was half Asian, I often was trying to find– me and my half Asian friends, we would try to find the right word to describe us, because half Chinese, half white is so long. A lot of these similar instincts to categorize and to give things specific names, they also exist in taxonomy in the ways that we try to categorize creatures and name different species.

So I found it was really generative to look at this hybrid butterfly fish that really is, like– it’s a product of serendipity, right? Like butterfly fish release their eggs and their sperm in clouds in the ocean, and sometimes an egg of one species and a sperm of another species are– they’ll collide and they’ll produce this rare and serendipitous hybrid butterfly fish. And I felt like it was an organism that wasn’t expected, and no one really knew what to do with it. And I found myself relating a lot to that.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: This is a really deeply personal book. I’m curious if you learned anything about yourself while you were writing it.

SABRINA IMBLER: This book is– it’s a memoir, and I talk about a lot of experiences that I had growing up. And I think when I started writing this book, a lot of my feelings about those periods of my life were shame or regret or guilt. You know, I came out later in life and I think a lot of my life has been like, why didn’t I know I was gay? Like, what does that mean?

But I think being able to delve back into these stories of my youth and also, like, tell them alongside the narratives of these creatures, I felt like I was– I felt very united by our shared struggle and our shared interest in staying alive and thriving. And I think I was able to find a lot of tenderness for my past self in understanding, I– I’m just another organism, on the sidewalk.

I’m also trying to find nutrients and find a mate and find community and the things that I need to survive. And I acted imperfectly in some instances, but you know, I was really trying my best. So I think, yeah. The biggest thing that I discovered about myself was, I think, tenderness and care for my younger self that I didn’t have going into the book.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: So we’re just about out of time here. What do you hope that people take away from your book?

SABRINA IMBLER: I hope that this book helps people appreciate the ocean in general, and that the creatures that live in it, we don’t often get a chance to see sea creatures in the same way that we see birds or bugs or things that sort of exist more easily on terrestrial ground. And I hope that people learn about new creatures and appreciate things that maybe were strange to them before.

But I also hope that this book gives people permission to see themselves in the natural world in ways that maybe– yeah, didn’t seem obvious before. Like I really think that it’s a powerful tool to look at different organisms on Earth and to see, what connection can I build with this creature? How can I– how are we similar? Like what is our point of sameness?

And I think that it’s been so powerful for me to learn about myself through these sea creatures, and I imagine that– yeah, it could be powerful for lots of other people. So look into the ocean and see what sparks joy or wonder or– yeah, similarity.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Thank you so much, Sabrina, for joining us.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Sabrina Imbler is a staff writer at Defector, based in Brooklyn, New York. Their new book How Far the Light Reaches, a Life in Ten Sea Creatures goes on sale December 6. You can read an excerpt from the book at sciencefriday.com/seacreatures. I’m Kathleen Davis.

Copyright © 2022 Science Friday Initiative. All rights reserved. Science Friday transcripts are produced on a tight deadline by 3Play Media. Fidelity to the original aired/published audio or video file might vary, and text might be updated or amended in the future. For the authoritative record of Science Friday’s programming, please visit the original aired/published recording. For terms of use and more information, visit our policies pages at http://www.sciencefriday.com/about/policies/.

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Rasha Aridi is a producer for Science Friday. She loves stories about weird critters, science adventures, and the intersection of science and history.

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Kathleen Davis is a producer at Science Friday, which means she spends the week brainstorming, researching, and writing, typically in that order. She’s a big fan of stories related to strange animal facts and dystopian technology.

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Essay-writing tips for students are all at sea

Staffordshire lecturer’s illustrated activity book introduces students to research techniques.

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By the time students get to university, it will probably have been a few years since they came across an illustrated activity book.

But Writing Essays by Pictures is no ordinary activity book. With a nautical theme, it casts essays as icebergs and sources as sea creatures in an innovative attempt to introduce first-year students to the practice of academic research and writing.

Author Alke Gröppel-Wegener, senior lecturer in contextual studies at Staffordshire University , based the handsomely presented book on her essay-writing sessions with art and design students.

After raising nearly £2,000 from supporters on the Kickstarter crowdfunding website to fund an initial print run, the book was launched this week and it is hoped that wider distribution will follow.

It opens with the call for students to think of their essays as icebergs, with a focused argument “above the water” backed up by research and thinking below.

It then introduces students to reading, note-taking and critical thinking strategies, inviting them to carry out practical, creative activities along the way.

It suggests that readers try drawing pictures while they examine sources, rather than taking notes, and encourages students to walk a familiar route at a quarter of their usual speed while taking notes on what they see around them, in an attempt to demonstrate the level of engagement that texts require.

The book advises students to categorise sources by thinking of them as different sea creatures, and to judge their academic rigour in terms of the depth at which they live in the ocean.

Other suggested learning techniques include writing poems that condense source material and creating greeting cards as reminders of texts.

Dr Gröppel-Wegener said that she had developed her use of analogies and activities as a way to address, in an engaging and non-threatening way, the lack of confidence around academic writing that she found in first years.

“Giving students images that they might remember better, like the fish and the iceberg, will hopefully help them to remember what they meant and to understand the explanation better,” said Dr Gröppel-Wegener, a bookmaker and printmaker by training. “I thought that, if it was something students could add things to, it would not just be something that is a reference, it would be their own and they would want to keep it.”

Dr Gröppel-Wegener argued that the book could prove useful across a wide range of subjects.

“People who like to think visually are not only found in arts and design,” she said. “There might be more in art and design, but I try to explain things for everybody and hopefully there are a lot of people who can respond to it.”

Dr Gröppel-Wegener rejected the idea that creating an activity book represented “dumbing down” of academic practice, arguing that she was simply “framing it in a different way”, and that better critical thinking ability would flow from stronger research skills.

But she acknowledged that her approach would not suit every learner.

“When I am teaching, I am aware that this approach doesn’t work for everybody; some people don’t work with metaphors at all,” she said. “I always use this as one option.”

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Appointments

Nazrul Islam , senior lecturer in management at Abertay University ’s Dundee Business School, has been appointed to two major international academic positions. He is to take over as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning , and also as UK country coordinator of the interdisciplinary, not-for-profit organisation Business and Applied Sciences Academy of North America.

The Association of MBAs has made three new appointments to its board of trustees. María de Lourdes Dieck-Assad , dean of EGADE Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey ; Angus Blackwood , managing director of HawkCX – a company that aims to help organisations improve customer experience; and Tim Randall , senior business improvement consultant at Lloyd’s Register, will serve on the board for three years. Mark Wehrly has also joined as company secretary.

Nuala Boyle , currently director of development at the University of the Highlands and Islands , has been appointed assistant principal (development) at Heriot-Watt University . Ms Boyle, who holds an MBA from the University of Strathclyde , has more than 20 years of experience working in development-related areas for public-sector-funded and academic establishments. She joins in September.

Adrian Hopgood , pro vice-chancellor and dean of Sheffield Hallam University ’s business school, is to join the University of Liège as director general and dean of the management school. He leaves SHU in September.

POSTSCRIPT:

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Finding Glimmers of Queerness Under the Sea: A Reading List

Sabrina imbler recommends books by rachel carson, alexis pauline gumbs, and more.

In some ways, it’s easy to call the ocean queer—in the most expansive definition of the term. Non-human animals have a much more diverse and expansive understanding of sex than we do. Seabirds like albatrosses and penguins forge homosexual bonds as strong as heterosexual ones. Many fish are hermaphroditic or capable of changing their sex to fill a needed role in their community. Male seahorses give birth and puny male anglerfish attach themselves to their larger female mates like a man in a Namio Harukawa illustration .

These parallels are certainly fun. But as I was writing my essay collection, H ow Far the Light Reaches , which is not inaccurately described as a gay book about sea creatures, I avoided writing too much into these more literal connections. I am wary of reading too much into direct parallels between human and animal biology—I am still haunted by the dozens of headlines of the “ transgender fish ” depicted in Blue Planet II —but also it felt much more generative to look for queerness in the ocean through more slanted, metaphorical ways.

The more I read about different sea creatures, the more I recognized glimmers of queerness in the ways they eked out a living undersea, from the hairy-chested yeti crabs that rave atop each other by hydrothermal vents or the shimmering coil of a gelatinous salp, which is both an individual and a colony. I learned about worms living on the scraps of sun-touched society and jellyfish that can have second adolescents, like many of us queers. The ocean brims with metaphor, and it doesn’t hurt that so many things living here are the color of a rainbow.

As I wrote, I took comfort in reading the work of other writers who write to excavate or imagine queerness in the ocean, drawing lessons from marine mammals or the people who hoped to chronicle the eels, rays, and lumpfish lurking in its depths. In this research process, I was reminded by how the ocean is a space of radical possibility.

When I asked my partner, T, for their thoughts on one of my essays, they shared a passage from the queer theorist Jose Estebon Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia . In the passage, Muñoz describes queerness as a horizon; not yet here but warmly illuminated with potentiality. And what is the ocean but an endless horizon?

Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals

In this miracle of a book, Alexis Pauline Gumbs turns to our closest cousins in the sea in search of the wisdom they can offer in our human fights for justice, inspired by Gumbs’ ancestors’ own relationships with the sea and marine mammals. Undrowned is a practical handbook with concrete lessons: listen, breathe, go deep, be fierce, be vulnerable. But it is also a book about freedom and pushing toward what we think of as the impossible, just as early ancestors of whales stepped into the water that would eventually become their home. Gumbs reads marine mammals as queer, protective, and united against the extractive and militarized forces of capitalism. This book is a radical act of love, and one I simply cannot recommend enough.

Lulu Miller, Why Fish Don’t Exist

Lulu Miller’s book opens as a portrait of an obsessive man, the taxonomist David Starr Jordan, desperate to save his preciously labeled species of fish from an earthquake. But the narrative soon unspools into an interrogation of the dangers of sorting the chaos of the natural world into artificial boxes, as Miller explains Starr Jordan’s related belief in eugenics. The book teems with historical anecdotes and revelations about taxonomy, but I found myself most drawn to the scenes where Miller herself tries to understand her own place in the natural world, leaving a straight marriage and falling in love with a woman, swimming naked among sea creatures in the Caribbean and reveling in the chaos of it all.

Lars Horn, Voice of the Fish

Reading this book felt like a mystical experience—walking through one of those aquarium tunnels that also transports you into antiquity, or perhaps gazing at a fish tank with walls of stained glass. The Voice of the Fish is a memoir infused with myth, literature, history, and science, lenses that help reflect and refract Horn’s relationship with their body through transition and injury. There are scenes of horror, fear, dissociation, and melancholy. Yet the narrative is buoyed by Horn’s faith in and tenderness toward their body, in all its changing forms. I read Voice of the Fish slowly, carefully, and with great envy.

Joan Roughgarden, Evolution’s Rainbow

Evolutionary biologist and ecologist Joan Roughgarden takes the reader through a wild romp of the diversity of sexuality in the animal kingdom and a condemnation of academic fields that suppress such diversity in humans. It’s a wonderful index of the many ways animals are queer, in the ocean, on land, in caves, in the sky, in the desert, etc. Evolution’s Rainbow was published in 2013, so some of the science has progressed in the years since, but it remains a really eye-opening and enjoyable read.

Rachel Carson, The Edge of the Sea

Rachel Carson wrote The Edge of the Sea in 1955, two years after meeting Dorothy Freeman of Southport Island, Maine. Carson and Freeman would exchange passionate love letters that they destroyed soon after reading (as Freeman wrote to Carson, “My love is boundless as the Sea.”) Freeman and Carson would spend their days exploring tide pools together, and after Carson died of cancer, Freeman would be the one to pour Carson’s ashes into the sea. So, no, The Edge of the Book is not a queer book, but it is a luminous guide to the same Atlantic seashore Carson and Freeman stared into together, searching for what life managed to survive between these worlds, the land and the sea.

Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

When I first learned about this book, I gawked at the description: a lesbian romance slash deep-sea mystery? I ordered it immediately and raced through the book. I was entranced by the ghost of the love story between Leah and Miri before Leah vanishes on a deep-sea mission gone awry. I was transfixed by Miri’s tenderness and fear of her gradually morphing, water-bound wife, and Armfield is a master of suspense as she drops clues of what went wrong on the mission. And I have to say it was refreshing to read a queer love story where the monster is not bigots, but a truly otherworldly force blessedly unaware of the heteropatriarchy.

________________________________

How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler is available now via Little, Brown. 

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Science | April 18, 2024

Journey Under the Sea With 15 Amazing Photos of Marine Life

These Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest images feature the captivating creatures that live beneath the waves

A hawksbill sea turtle munches away on a sponge near Juno Beach.

Text by Tracy Scott Forson

Photographs selected Donny Bajohr

Scientists estimate that sharks were swimming the seas some 190 million years before dinosaurs roamed the earth, and they’re still here. That’s only one reason why we’re fascinated by the creatures that live in the oceans—one of the few areas of the earth where humans do not roam.

Whether they’re in cold Arctic environments or the warm tropics of the Caribbean, sea creatures surprise and amaze us. See the seas’ fish, underwater mammals and birds, reptiles, coral and more!

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Tracy Scott Forson | READ MORE

Tracy Scott Forson is a senior editor at Smithsonian magazine.

Donny Bajohr | READ MORE

Donny Bajohr is the associate photography editor at Smithsonian . You can follow him on Instagram @donny_bajohr .

These 34 Rare Sea Animals Seem To Come From Another World

We have only explored about 5% of our planet's oceans , meaning there are still millions of rare sea animals left for us to discover. It's hard to believe there are so many creatures out there that scientists have never ever seen or heard of. Either way, there are tons of incredible animals out there for us to explore and learn more about each and every day.

Some creatures are cute and cuddly. Others are the stuff of nightmares! But no matter how comprehensive a collection we back up with, we'd only be scratching the surface (of the ocean). It would be impossible to know about every creature, but believe us, scientists never stop exploring. A massive 95% of the world's oceans have yet to be explored. There's no telling what's lurking in the rest of the waters that humankind has left to discover.

More from LittleThings: 88-Year-Old 'Hero' Crossing Guard Dies While Protecting Elementary Schoolers From Speeding Car

Here are some of the strangest, and the most beautiful alien-like creatures that seem to come from another world.

Tardigrades

Also known as "water bears," these incredible, microscopic animals can survive in all of the Earth's extreme conditions, and even in outer space! They're so indestructible they can even live in a pot of boiling water. These guys are so tiny, you'll probably never see them.

Siphonophore

Siphonophores are composed of medusoid and polypoid zooids. There are about 175 different species of these creatures. Some of them can grow up to 40 meters (130 feet) long. Incredible!

Frilled Shark

With its many primitive features, this rare shark is often called a "living fossil." He certainly looks prehistoric! This creature gets his name for his puffed-up appearance and has most of his fins toward the back of his body.

Goose Barnacle

No one seems to know what this is or where it came from, and it shocked vacationers when it washed up on the Gower Peninsula in Wales back in 2010. Six feet long and covered in shells, this goose barnacle is certainly a strange sight to behold. He's a filter feeder, which makes him important for the environment.

Pink Sea-Through Fantasia

Only recently discovered, this incredible creature is a free-swimming sea cucumber found in the Celebes Sea, a remote area of the western Pacific Ocean. It's completely transparent so you can see everything this guy has to offer. He has a gorgeous bright pink color, making him quite the deep sea sight. Float on, little guy. Float on.

Christmas Tree Worm

These tube-building polychaete worms have multicolored spirals that serve as feeding and respiration structures. Definitely not as pretty as a Christmas tree, but still an amazing ocean find!

Marrus Orthocanna

This colonial animal is composed of a complex arrangement of zooids, some of which are polyps and some medusae. At its front is an orange-colored, gas-filled float that looks like fire. As a whole, this creature almost resembles a bunch of grapes or blueberries.

Dumbo Octopus

An umbrella octopus that lives in the deep sea, the Dumbo octopus has ear-like fins and can live up to 23,000 feet below sea level. He uses his huge ears to propel him through the water. It's pretty clear where his clever name comes from!

You wouldn't want to run into this guy on a scuba diving trip! He's a creepy deep sea creatures and one of the ocean's fiercest predators. He uses fang-like teeth to immobilize prey. Yikes!

Australian Ghost Shark

Also known as an elephant fish, whitefish, or plownose chimaera, this shark is found off southern Australia, including Tasmania, and south of East Cape and Kaipara Harbour in New Zealand. He uses his snout to probe for food. He's definitely one of the cuter guys on this list with his happy elephant smile.

Basket Star

These brittle stars generally are found in deep-sea habitats and can live up to 35 years in the wild. They are quite durable and an incredible sight to see. But like many of the other creatures on this list, they lurk well below the ocean's surface, so you're chances of an encounter are rare.

Vampire Squid

This small, deep-sea cephalopod lives in lightless depths up to 3,000 feet below sea level. He has a very soft body. This creature is able to live and breathe normally in a remote habitat known as the as the oxygen minimum zone.

Whale Shark

This slow-moving filter feeder shark resembles a whale because he's so round and huge. But he's actually a fish, and can live up to 70 years in the wild. He's pretty huge and noted as the largest living nonmammilian invertebrate.

Goblin Shark

These sharks are rare and poorly understood, with a fascinating lineage of around 125 million years. They only grow up to about 12 feet but their weight can be massive. They can weigh up to 460 pounds.

Torquaratoridae Hemichordata

This deep-sea creature is part of the Ptychopteridae family. It often appears in gorgeous bright colors. It has a soft body and moves like a jellyfish.

Mystery Creature

This creature looks incredible, but it hasn't yet been identified or classified. It's amazing how many unknown creatures are lurking in the deep blue sea. 😂

Deep Sea Jellyfish

Deep sea jellyfish come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, and are found in every ocean in the world. Still, this deep sea version is pretty hard to come by because they live way down deep. Scientists love to catch a glimpse of them because the colors are so bright and gorgeous.

Phronima Sedentaria

Known as as a pram bug, this species of amphipod crustacean lives in depths of up to 3,000 feet. He's see-though and totally weird. And gross. He carves him home from the guts of another animal.

The narwhal is a really interesting creature. And no, they're not swimming unicorns, but they certainly look like they could be! Those long, nerve-filled tusks help the narwhal better sense its environment. They look a bit odd, but they're super important to helping him get around.

Mantis Shrimp

These bizarre and colorful-looking shrimp have 12 color receptors in their eyes, as compared to the three we humans possess. It's a gorgeous and creepy-looking animal. But you'll probably never see one because he resides too deep in the ocean.

Promachoteuthis Sulcus

Yes, those are chompers you're seeing on this deep sea squid, which was found 6,000 feet below sea level. It was discovered by a German research vessel in the southern Atlantic Ocean. He's a pretty frightening guy -- he looks hungry, too ... pretty much all the time.

Roughback Batfish

My, what lovely lips you have! The roughback batfish lives in the western Atlantic Ocean, including off the Eastern Coast of the US, and grows up to 3.9 inches in length. He looks a bit like a bat but he doesn't fly. He creeps across the ocean floor.

Pigbutt Worm

This charming fellow that grows to about the size of a marble lives 3,000 feet below sea level. His name is kind of obvious but it comes from the fact that he resembles, well, a butt. He's also sometimes called a "flying buttocks."

With a face only a mother could love, the blobfish is a lazy blob of a fish that eats whatever swims by. It makes sense that it was dubbed the "World's Ugliest Animal" in 2013. No, he's really not cute -- he almost appears to be melting.

Also known as the ocean sunfish, this terrifying animal weighs an average of a whopping 2,200 pounds. Holy Mola! You probably won't lay an eye on one, though even though they are huge. They live way deep down in the depths of the ocean.

Barreleye Fish

This spooky fish can completely rotate its eyes within its head. It's head, by the way, is totally transparent. Yes, you can see its brain. Kind of cool. Kind of creepy.

Sarcastic Fringehead

It's name comes from the fact that is has such a big mouth. Ha! Despite its goofy name, there's nothing funny about this fish. He uses his massive, gaping mouth to wrestle with other fish over territory.

This scary guy is not fun to look at. He's the same guy who terrorized youngsters in a memorable scene from Finding Nemo.  He uses his light-producing organ to lure in prey. The males lose their digestive systems and attach to the females, which they feed off of, like parasites.

Northern Stargazer

This living nightmare burrows in the sand and hides awaiting his prey. He will electrocute fish and crustaceans that happen to pass by, and then swallow them whole. Imagine coming across that thing! Hopefully you won't, but they reside around the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to New York.

Giant Isopod

This "cockroach of the ocean" is not actually a bug. They aren't not related to cockroaches, either. The Giant Isopod can grow up to 16 inches long in deep waters due to a phenomenon known as "deep sea gigantism."

Tongue-Eating Louse

This horrifying monstrosity that enters fish is the stuff of nightmares. They enter through the gills of fish and sucks all of the blood from their tongues until the tongue falls out. Then, they actually replace the tongue with their own body. Gross!

Terrible Claw Lobster

These technicolor lobsters were only discovered in 2007. They creep around the deepest depths of the ocean, crawling across the ocean floor. They aren't harmful to people, but still are pretty terrible, using their claws to capture prey.

Pacific Blackdragon

This monster lives deep in the depths of the ocean. The underworld creature can grow up to 2 feet long, but only the females. The males only grow only 3 inches long and die immediately after mating.

Also aptly known as the ghost shark or spookfish, these guys are believed to be the oldest known fish in existence. They split from sharks nearly 400 million years ago. They're definitely spooky with their slimy bodies and their captivating slink!

Short Essay & Paragraph On Sea For Kids Students

The sea has always provided an endless supply of food and wealth. It covers roughly three-quarters of the earth’s surface and has largely untapped resources.

Table of Contents

Short Paragraph about Sea For Kids Students

At least 100 million metric tones of fish are thought to be in the sea, worth trillions of dollars each year. Many countries rely heavily on fishing as a source of revenue.

Other valuable minerals, as well as energy like oil and natural gas, can be found in the seas. They also provide us with medicines, salt, drinking and irrigation water, beautiful pearls, and much else to enjoy, exploit, or account for. Man may one day derive power from the waves that lash our shores.

The sea, in addition to its material benefits, provides spiritual lift to men through its beauty. In comparison to its vastness, it reminds us of our insignificance. At the same time, it prepares us to face life’s challenges with courage by constantly calling forth men willing to risk their lives at sea for food, wealth, or adventure in each generation.

500 Essay on Sea

The sea is a vast and mysterious body of water that covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface. It is a vital part of our planet’s ecosystem, providing food, recreation, and transportation for people all over the world.

One of the most striking features of the sea is its size. The ocean is so vast that it can be difficult to grasp just how big it is. The average depth of the ocean is around 12,000 feet, and it covers an area of over 140 million square miles. This means that the sea is larger than all of the land on Earth combined.

Another important aspect of the sea is its role in the Earth’s climate. The ocean plays a crucial role in regulating the planet’s temperature by absorbing and releasing heat. It also acts as a massive carbon sink, absorbing a significant amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This helps to slow down the process of global warming, which is a major concern for scientists and policymakers around the world.

The sea is also home to an incredible diversity of life. There are an estimated 230,000 known species of marine animals, with many more yet to be discovered. These creatures range from tiny plankton to massive whales, and they play important roles in the ocean’s ecosystem. For example, small creatures like plankton form the base of the ocean’s food chain, while larger animals like sharks and tuna help to keep populations of smaller fish in check.

The sea also has a long and rich history of human interaction. People have been using the ocean for transportation, food, and trade for thousands of years. The sea has played a vital role in the development of human civilization, and today it continues to be a major source of economic activity. For example, fishing and tourism are both major industries that rely heavily on the sea.

Despite its many benefits, the sea is also facing a number of serious threats . Pollution, over fishing, and climate change are all taking a toll on the health of the ocean. In order to protect this vital resource for future generations, it is important that we take steps to reduce our impact on the sea. This includes reducing our carbon emissions, protecting marine habitats, and limiting the amount of pollution that we release into the ocean.

In conclusion, the sea is an awe-inspiring and important part of our planet, with a unique physical characteristics, plays a vital role in regulating the Earth’s climate, home to an incredible diversity of life and a long and rich history of human interaction. It is essential for us to take steps to protect this vital resource for future generations and to reduce the negative impact we have on it.

200 Words Essay on Sea Turtle

Sea turtles are one of the most ancient creatures on Earth, with a history that dates back to the time of the dinosaurs. They are also one of the most endangered animals in the world, with all seven species facing varying degrees of threat.

One of the most distinctive features of sea turtles is their hard shells, which protect them from predators and provide buoyancy while swimming. They have flippers instead of legs, which allow them to move quickly and gracefully through the water. Sea turtles are also known for their long lifespans, with some species living over 100 years.

Sea turtles play an important role in maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems. They help to control the population of jellyfish and other small sea creatures by eating them. They also play a role in the food chain, serving as prey for larger animals like sharks and crocodiles.

Despite their ecological importance, sea turtles are facing numerous threats. The biggest threat to sea turtles is habitat loss and degradation. Many beaches where sea turtles lay their eggs have been developed for human use, making it difficult for the turtles to find suitable nesting sites. Pollution is also a major problem for sea turtles, as they often mistake plastic debris for food and ingest it, which can lead to injury or death.

Another significant threat is the illegal harvesting of sea turtle eggs, which has led to a decline in sea turtle populations in many areas. Illegal hunting of sea turtles for their meat and shells is also a problem in some countries.

Conservation efforts have been put in place to help protect sea turtles. These include protecting nesting beaches, reducing pollution, and enforcing laws against hunting and egg harvesting. Programs have been implemented to protect and conserve sea turtle populations.

In conclusion, sea turtles are ancient and endangered creatures that play an important role in maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems. They are facing numerous threats, including habitat loss, pollution, and hunting. Conservation efforts such as protecting nesting beaches, reducing pollution, and enforcing laws against hunting and egg harvesting are in place to help protect sea turtle populations. It’s important for all of us to do our part in protecting these amazing animals and their habitat for future generations.

5 Sentences about Sea

1. The sea is a vast body of salty water that covers the majority of the Earth’s surface. 2. The sea is home to millions of species of plants and animals, many of which are still undiscovered. 3. The sea has been an important source of food and resources for humans for thousands of years. 4. The sea is also a major source of transportation for goods and people, with ships and submarines being used to cross the vast distances between land masses. 5. The sea can be dangerous, with storms, currents, and tides that can endanger those who venture too far from the safety of land. 6. The sea is also a beautiful and mysterious place, with its never-ending depths and its many wonders waiting to be discovered.

Hello! Welcome to my Blog StudyParagraphs.co. My name is Angelina. I am a college professor. I love reading writing for kids students. This blog is full with valuable knowledge for all class students. Thank you for reading my articles.

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Deep-sea creature — with ‘rectangular’ shape — discovered as new species. Take a look

As you get closer to the bottom of the ocean, it gets darker, denser and stranger.

All light from the surface has been absorbed, and only the most adapted species can navigate the lack of oxygen in the water.

One of these creatures spends its life in a shell — and was discovered as a new species.

Research team members from China were scouring the Haima Cold Seep, a deep-sea environment off the coast of Hainan Island on the southern tip of China, when their underwater robot picked up a “robust” shell on the seafloor, according to an April 24 study published in the journal ZooKeys.

The researchers recognized the shelled-animal as a Solemyidae, an “ancient group of protobranch bivalves that typically inhabit unusual environments,” according to the study.

This includes cold seeps, locations on the seafloor where methane and hydrogen sulfide seep up from the Earth’s crust and into the ocean, creating chemically rich water, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The deep-sea robot brought the shell up from the depths of 4,500 feet and to the surface where it could be examined further, according to the study.

Discover more new species

Thousands of new species are found each year. Here are three of our most eye-catching stories from the past week.

→ Volcanic ocean creature — with 'long' legs — discovered in Japan. It's a new species

→ 'Flat'-headed creature — with multicolored eyes — discovered as new species in China

→ Nocturnal creature — a 'rapidly-running' predator — discovered as new species in India

Just over 4 inches long, the bivalve’s shell is “elongate, rectangular” and “robust,” the researchers said. Both sides of the shell are also the same size.

The shell is covered with “radial ridges with strong, flattened summits,” according to the study, and the ridges get closer near the smaller end of the shell compared with the wider side.

The bivalve’s “foot,” the fleshy part of the internal body that sticks out from the shell to help the creature move, is “large” with an “oval sole,” according to the study.

It’s the shape of the shell that makes this bivalve unique from other Solemyidae species, according to the study.

Named Acharax haimaensis, after the cold seep where it was found, the new species’ shell is “nearly rectangular” compared with other known species whose shell is concave on both ends.

Bivalves, like fish, breathe through gills in the flesh of their bodies, according to the NOAA, but they are also filter feeders and use their gills to filter food out of the water.

The creatures are also homebuilders, and their internal organs secrete calcium carbonate to create their shells, which allows the shells to grow as the animals inside grow, NOAA says.

So far, the researchers said the new species has only been found in the Haima cold seep, on the northwestern slope of the South China Sea. The South China Sea is a contested body of water in southeastern Asia that borders Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

‘Slender’ sea creature — with ‘razor’-like edge — found in mud. It’s a new species

‘Transparent’ muscular creature found in seaweed beds off Japan. It’s a new species

Clawed forest creature found lurking near temple in India. It’s a ‘holy’ new species

‘Graceful’ creatures — named after stilettos — discovered as new species in Madagascar

©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Paragraph on Sea Animals

Students are often asked to write a paragraph on Sea Animals in their schools. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 200-word, and 250-word paragraphs on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

Paragraph on Sea Animals in 100 Words

Sea animals live in the ocean. They include fish, dolphins, and turtles. Fish have scales and fins to swim. Dolphins are smart and playful, jumping out of the water. Turtles have shells to protect themselves. Some sea animals have tentacles like octopuses. They can swim fast and hide. Sharks have sharp teeth and are good hunters. Whales are huge mammals that sing songs in the ocean. Sea animals come in many shapes and sizes. It’s fun to learn about them and how they live underwater. The ocean is their home, and they are important for the sea ecosystem.

Paragraph on Sea Animals in 200 Words

Sea animals are creatures that live in the ocean. They come in many shapes and sizes, from tiny fish to big whales. Some sea animals have shells like snails, crabs, and turtles. Others, like dolphins and sharks, swim freely without shells. Many sea animals breathe through gills, which help them get oxygen from the water. Fish use fins to move through the water, while animals like octopuses have tentacles for swimming. Sea animals such as seahorses and jellyfish are fascinating to watch as they glide through the ocean. Coral reefs are homes to various sea creatures and provide shelter for them. Sea turtles are known for their long journeys across the ocean, and they lay eggs on sandy beaches. It’s essential to protect sea animals and their habitats, as they play a crucial role in the ocean ecosystem. Watching sea animals can be an exciting and educational experience, teaching us about the diversity and beauty of marine life.

Also check:

• Essay on Sea Animals

Paragraph on Sea Animals in 250 Words

Sea animals are amazing creatures that live in the oceans around the world. From colorful fish to giant whales, the sea is full of life. Fish come in all shapes and sizes, like the clownfish and the majestic blue tang. Dolphins are friendly mammals that swim in groups called pods and are known for their playful behavior. Sea turtles are ancient reptiles that glide through the water with their strong flippers. Sharks may seem scary, but they play an important role in keeping the ocean ecosystem balanced. Jellyfish drift gracefully in the water, with their tentacles trailing behind them. The graceful seahorse is a small fish that holds onto underwater plants with its tail. Octopuses are clever creatures with eight arms, which they use to catch their prey. Whales, the largest animals on Earth, are gentle giants that travel thousands of miles each year. The ocean is also home to colorful coral reefs, which provide shelter for many sea animals. Exploring the world of sea animals can be a fascinating journey into the depths of the ocean, where each creature plays a unique role in the underwater world.

That’s it! I hope the paragraphs have helped you.

Explore other popular paragraph topics:

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Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by  clicking here .

Happy studying!

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