Beneath the Waves: Celebrating the Ocean Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories

Beneath the Waves: Celebrating the Ocean Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories — page 7
In the Zones From the surface the ocean may seem like nothing more than a vast pool of water But sink beneath the waves and head downward and you’ll find that as you move deeper the ocean changes The temperature drops and the pressure increases making each ocean depth its own unique environment Scientists have divided the ocean into three main layers called zones The Sunlit Zone This shallow zone extends down to a maximum depth of about 650 feet 200 m Here the sun shines through the water bringing light and warmth There is enough light for plants to make energy from the sunlight just like they do on land These plants are a source of food for all kinds of animals such as jellyfish tuna sharks and dolphins The Twilight Zone This zone extends from the sunlit zone down to about 3,300 feet 1,000 m Here the light of the sun is very dim In these murky waters live creatures such as whales cuttlefish swordfish and squid Since there is much less food here than in the sunny waters above some animals that live in this zone rise toward the surface to eat The Midnight Zone This is the deepest zone of the ocean extending from the edge of the twilight zone down to the seafloor Here there is no light at all The waters are eternally pitch black and extremely cold The weight of all that water above means the pressure is also extreme Despite these harsh conditions animals live here too strange ones such as see through squid glowing lanternfish and monster size giant squid 10