Marine Life Scientists divide marine life into three very broad groups: the plankton, the nekton, and the benthos. Plankton includes all plants and animals that drift about in the tides and currents; they are subdivided into phyto-plankton (microscopic plants such as diatoms) and the larger zoo-plankton, which includes animals like the jellyfish and copepods.   The nekton comprises all animals that can swim about, including fishes, squids and whales. An estimated 13,300 species of fish live in the sea, ranging in size from 40 feet (whale shark) to less than one inch (gobies).   The benthos includes all bottom-dwelling life, both plants (kelp, sea grasses) and animals ( starfish, corals, anemones).

World Briefs

Indian Ocean Reef Damage

Mombasa, Kenya - Unusually high sea temperatures have damaged up to 70 percent of the coral reefs and other marine plants on East Africa's Indian Ocean coast, a Kenyan scientist said Friday. Kenya Wildlife Service regional biodiversity coordinator Nyawira Muhiga said the high temperatures attributed to the El Niño weather phenomenon have caused the brown and yellow coral to pale or turn white, a condition known as bleaching.

Muthiga said scientists from KWS, the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, have recorded bleaching of up to 70 percent of all corals, sea anemones and giant clams in the reef lagoons and reef edges.

"Definitely, bleaching is a very stressful condition for corals as it causes them to lose about 80% of an algae, Zooxanthelae, which they depend on to manufacture up to 80 % of their energy requirement," said Muthiga, "Often, most corals don't recover from bleaching but lose their tissue and die." She said only deep reefs at 40 metres have not been affected.

Muthiga said researchers in Tanga and Zanzibar in neighbouring Tanzania as well as in Seychelles and Madagascar are also recording bleaching, indicating that the phenomenon is widespread - perhaps the largest ever recorded in the western Indian Ocean. Muthiga said temperatures as high as 91.4F in shallow reefs and 86F in 25 metres of water were recorded in March and May. Corals thrive at temperatures between 79-81 degrees F.

World Oceans

Some interesting facts about the oceans and seas we dive and enjoy .

The World's oceans are one vast interconnected body of water, commonly referred to as the WORLD OCEAN. The world ocean covers approximately 142,000,000 sq. miles of 70.1 % of the earth's surface The total volume of the world ocean is about 330 million cubic miles but this is not evenly spread over the planet most of which is in the southern hemisphere. The world ocean has three main divisions: The Pacific Ocean covering 32 percent of the globe, with an area of 63.9 million square miles, more than all the land put together. It is also the deepest ocean, with an average depth of 13,800 feet, but plunging over 7 miles, in the Mariana Trench; The Atlantic is only half as big, with an area of 31.7 million square miles. It is also shallower; with a maximum depth of 31,357 feet in the Puerto Rico Trench; The Indian ocean lies in the southern hemisphere and covers 28.4 million square miles. Many geographers consider the Arctic and Antarctic oceans extension of the other three divisions.

Seas are smaller, shallower areas of ocean, partly surround by land and include the Mediterranean, Baltic, Bering, and Caribbean.

The deepest part of the ocean, so far measured, is a section of the Pacific's Mariana Trench, southwest of Guam: 36,198 ft. The bathyscaphe Trieste visited this trench in 1960 , reaching a depth of 35,198 ft.

Mysteries & Marvels of Marine Life Here are a few interesting facts you may know or may not know about the marine life you dive with. Ocean Giants The largest creatures in the world live in the sea. The biggest of them - the whales - must rise to the surface to breathe air since they are mammals. The Enormous Blue Whale The female Blue Whale is the largest animal alive today. She grows to over 98 feet long and weights about 160 tons. This is about 25 times heavier that the world's largest land animal, the male African Elephant. All the whales are warm-blooded mammals. They give birth to live young and rear them on milk, in the same way as land mammals. Baby blue whales are almost 26 feet long when they are born. The Blue Whale like many other large whales, eats nothing bigger than tiny shrimp-like animals called krill. Sperm whales have the largest brain of all mammals. The Largest Fish Unlike whales, all fish are cold-blooded and breathe through gills. Most lay eggs rather than give birth to live young. The Whale Shark the largest fish grows to over 59 feet long and weighs about 40 tons. It feeds on animal plankton. The baby shark hatches from a huge egg case shaped like the mermaids's purse which is laid by its mother. The Deep-Sea "monster" Giant Squids are rarely seen because they live in very deep water. But sometimes they rise to the surface and are probably behind many sea monster stories. The long tentacles can look like the writhing coils of a sea serpent. Whalers often find the scars of a squids's suckers on Sperm Whales. These- and the squid's horny beak in the whale's stomach - show that 45 foot Giant Squid have been eaten. If you are in the Washington D.C. area there is an excellent exhibit at the museum of natural history of Giant Squid. The Perfect Predator The GREAT WHITE SHARK is often called the perfect predator. This shark is the largest meat-eating fish, growing to 25 feet with a weight of 3 1/4 tons. The Great White uses it sense of smell, motion, and sight to home in on it's prey. The Great White can also detect tiny electrical fields generated by living organisms. Given it's size the Great White can eat anything it so chooses. It's favorite prey include seals and sea lions but Great Whites also feed on fish, penguins, sea birds, turtles, and occasional surfer. The Largest and Rarest Turtles The Pacific Leatherback Turtle is the Largest reptile in the sea, growing to a length of almost 7 feet and a weight of 900 pounds. The female crawls ashore at night to lay her eggs in a deep hole which she digs in the sand.

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Links

• American Oceans Campaign
• Coral Reef Project
• The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL)
• Coral Forest
• Coral Health
• Tsunami Project
• The Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Sumeria
• Environmental Links
• Environmental Web Directory
• Links to Ecology
• Sites of Ecological Interest

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