Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a type of small, swimming crustacean found in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. These creatures live in large groups called swarms, sometimes with as many as 10,000 to 30,000 individuals in one cubic meter of water. They eat tiny plants called phytoplankton, which use energy from the sun to grow.
Zooplankton are the part of the plankton group that must eat other living things to survive. The word “zooplankton” comes from Ancient Greek: “zōîon” means “animal,” and “planktós” means “drifter” or “wanderer,” so together it means “animal drifter.” Plankton are living things in water that cannot swim strongly against currents. Instead, they move with the water in oceans, seas, lakes, or rivers.
A whale fall happens when a whale’s body sinks to the ocean floor, usually in areas deeper than 1,000 meters (3,300 feet), which are called the bathyal or abyssal zones. These whale remains can create unique ecosystems on the seafloor that provide food for deep-sea life for many years. In some cases, especially in colder water, whale falls can occur at shallower depths.
Bioluminescence is the ability of an organism to produce light through a chemical reaction. This phenomenon occurs in many types of living things, such as marine animals (both with and without backbones), land insects like fireflies, certain fungi, and tiny organisms like some bacteria and dinoflagellates. In some animals, the light is created by bacteria that live in partnership with the organism, such as those in the Vibrio genus.
The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) east of the Mariana Islands. It is the deepest part of the ocean on Earth. The trench is shaped like a crescent and is about 2,550 kilometers (1,580 miles) long and 69 kilometers (43 miles) wide.
The International Seabed Authority (ISA; French: Autorité internationale des fonds marins) is a group of 171 countries and the European Union based in Kingston, Jamaica. It was created in 1982 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and a 1994 agreement about how to carry out its work. The ISA has two main goals: to manage and control the use of the ocean floor for mining minerals, which are considered the “common heritage of all mankind,” and to protect the environment of the deep sea, which lies beyond the borders of any country.
Deep sea mining is the process of removing minerals from the deep ocean floor. The most valuable minerals are called polymetallic nodules, which are found at depths of 4–6 kilometers (2.5–3.7 miles) mainly on the abyssal plain. The Clarion–Clipperton zone (CCZ) has more than 21 billion metric tons of these nodules.
Hydrothermal vents are cracks on the ocean floor where hot water heated by the Earth’s heat flows out. These vents are often found near areas with volcanic activity, such as mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspots. When hot water from vents mixes with the ocean, it creates clouds of particles that spread through the water, called hydrothermal plumes.
Nereus was a special type of robot submarine built by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Designed for research, it could operate at depths of up to 11,000 meters (36,000 feet). Its purpose was to explore Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the ocean.
Ocean deoxygenation is the loss of oxygen in different parts of the ocean caused by human activities. This happens in two main areas. First, it occurs in coastal zones where too many nutrients from human activities lead to rapid decreases in oxygen levels.