Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita)
Image courtesy of Alexander Vasenin, Wikimedia Commons
The diversity of life in the ocean is astounding. While most people are familiar with organisms that live near the coastline and can be easily seen, there are many species that live in the open ocean or ‘pelagic’ zone. The pelagic zone can be divided into five zones based on depth: epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssopelagic, and hadopelagic (SF Table 9.2).
Even though humans rarely travel to depths below the euphotic zone, we have learned a great deal about species that live in the deep ocean through fishing trawls, underwater construction, and scientific research. However the ocean depths are still an exciting new frontier where new species are continuously discovered. As technology allows humans to go deeper and deeper into the ocean depths, we learn more and more about the organisms that live there. SF Table 9.2 shows some of the species that live in each pelagic zone.
Depth Zone | Depth (m) | Species Examples |
---|---|---|
Epipelagic | 0-200 |
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Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) Image copyright and source
Image courtesy of Alexander Vasenin, Wikimedia Commons
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Flyingfish (Cheilopogon pinnatibarbatus japonicus) Image copyright and source
Image courtesy of Dieno, Wikimedia Commons
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Big Eye Tuna (Thunnus obesus) Image copyright and source
Image courtesy of Allen Shimada, NOAA NMFS OST |
Mesopelagic | 200-1000 |
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Fangtooth (Anoplogaster cornuta) Image copyright and source
Image courtesy of personnel of NOAA ship PISCES
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Velvet Whalefish (Barbourisia roufa) Image copyright and source
Image courtesy of personnel of NOAA ship PISCES |
Bathypelagic | 1000-4000 |
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Pelican Eel (Eupharynx pelecanoides) Image copyright and source
Image courtesy of Alexei Orlov, adapted from Wikimedia Commons |
Abyssopelagic | 4000-6000 |
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Deep Sea Anglerfish (Himantolophus sp.) Image copyright and source
Jon Moore, NOAA Ocean Explorer |
Hadopelagic | >6000 |
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Giant Squid (Architeuthis sp.) Image copyright and source
Image courtesy of NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology |