Beneath the Waves: Celebrating the Ocean Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories
Introduction ocean planet When we think of Earth many of us think of land After all land is where we build our homes and make friends and go to school It’s where we walk and run and live We can see and explore so much of it from tall mountains to deep valleys from deserts to lush rainforests from rocky canyons to vast plains But Earth is so much more than just land The ocean is vast and except for the slim surface layer it is cold and dark Humans can’t easily explore the undersea world To get even a glimpse we need goggles and snorkels wet suits and air tanks deep-sea submersibles and underwater robots And so much of the ocean remains a mystery to us Yet Earth is undeniably a world of water The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface We depend on it for our climate much of our food and even the oxygen we need to breathe And though humans can’t live under the sea many of our planet’s fellow creatures can The ocean makes up an amazing 99 percent of all space on Earth where it’s possible for life to exist Scientists believe that life on our planet originated in the oceans So it’s no surprise that the seas are home to most of Earth’s plants and animals The variety of living things that float swim and dive in the oceans is truly astounding There are teeny plankton most too small to see that drift with the currents There are enormous blue whales the biggest creatures that have ever lived There are rainbow colored coral reef animals schools of fish that swim together by the millions turtles that migrate from one end of Earth to another and deep-sea fish so strange they look like aliens From low tide on the beach to the open ocean from icy polar regions to underwater meadows from the sunlit surface to the endless cold darkness near the seafloor the ocean is teeming with beings unlike anything we can see on land And it’s just waiting to be explored So let’s wade in No gear required 8
Beneath the Waves The world that lies beneath the waves Abounds unfathomably deep With secrets that the reefs and caves And ocean trenches strive to keep But most amazing is the cast Of creatures who are living there So many still unknown The vast Abyss is one gigantic lair Sharks jellyfish blue whales and all The marvels of this waterpark Inhabitants both large and small Patrol the desert of the dark Submersibles have shed some light On life-forms in this biosphere They swim out of the gloom of night And just as quickly disappear And if you want to see much more Let your imagination spend An hour on the ocean floor Gazing at wonders without end J Patrick Lewis 9
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
