Which animals live in deep sea & co.

How many marine animals are there in the world?

Around 240,000 animal species are known to exist in our oceans today, with an estimated total of over 2.2 million species - from giant blue whales to tiny plankton. The most biodiverse regions around Japan and Australia are home to tens of thousands of different animal species. Approximately 91 percent of marine species are still unexplored, and more species are being discovered every day. Researchers also believe that several billion as yet undiscovered microbes live in the ocean.

With overfishing, pollution and the climate crisis severely threatening the ocean as a habitat, numerous animal species are likely to become extinct before they can even be discovered. As of 2021, 184 animal species from the deep sea are on the Red List. [4] Marine biodiversity is dwindling enormously due to human impact - for example, in the Mediterranean Sea, only three percent of animal species are fish.

What kind of animals live in the ocean?

It is assumed that all life originated in the sea and the first land vertebrates conquered the mainland about 360 million years ago. Today, animals whose ancestors were land animals also live in the sea, such as whales. They are descended from ungulates. The following animals, among others, live in our oceans:

• Crustaceans (19 percent)

• Mollusks (17 percent)

• Fish (12 percent)

• Protozoa (10 percent)

• Worms

• Sponges

• Cnidarians (e.g. jellyfish, corals)

• Stinging animals (e.g. starfish, sea cucumbers)

• Bryozoans

• Tunicates

• Mammals

• Reptiles

Marine mammals such as whales and seals and other vertebrates such as turtles make up only a small proportion of marine animals - but are equally essential to the ecosystem. For example, whales provide the ocean with nutrients through their excretions, which promote the growth of phytoplankton. Among other things, fish and krill feed on phytoplankton, which in turn serve as food for whales.

What animals live in the high seas?

The high seas are that part of the oceans that is not considered territorial, inland or archipelagic waters and does not belong to any state. What is meant, therefore, is the open sea. The high seas are divided into different layers. The near-surface layer is home to many well-known animals such as whales, sharks and rays, tunas moonfish, orcas and other species of dolphins, and jellyfish. A large part of the dark deep sea with its enormous biodiversity is also part of the high seas.

Although about two-thirds of the entire world ocean is considered high seas, only one percent of the high seas is protected. Thus, the countless animals fall victim to cruel fishing and are sometimes hunted to the brink of extinction. And even in protected areas, marine life is threatened by pollution and littering of the oceans, as well as climate catastrophe and thus rising water temperatures.

What animals live in the deep sea?

From a sea depth of about 200 meters one speaks of the deep sea. Despite the extreme conditions prevailing there, such as darkness, cold and strong water pressure, the biodiversity of the deep sea is abundant. Since there are no plants in the deep sea, the animals there feed on other sea creatures, sinking organic material or bacteria.

Since many animals of the deep sea are still unknown and humans tend to be afraid of darkness and big teeth, animals living there are often called bizarre and creepy creatures or "terrors of the oceans". They are also given names like vampire squid or ghost fish. Yet they have adapted their appearance and behavior perfectly to the extraordinary conditions of the deep sea through specialization - such as the lanternfish, which uses bacteria to produce light to attract prey, or the ghost fish, which can pick up even the faintest rays of light through its transparent head.

So far, only a tiny fraction of the deep sea has been explored, and thus relatively few animal species are known. Among them, for example:

• Deep-sea frogfish

• Blobfish

• Dragonfish

• Sea wolf

• Goblin shark

• Ghost fish

• Vampire Turtlefish

• Lanternfish

• Deep sea devil

• Deep sea crab

• Giant woodlouse

What large animals are there in the sea?

The largest animals on earth live in the sea. In 2015, researchers found out in a study that the largest animal in the world is not the blue whale, as previously assumed, but the yellow hair jellyfish. The following sizes were determined for marine animals:

• Yellow hair jellyfish: 36.6 meters

• Blue whale: 33 meters

• Sperm whale: 24 meters

• Whale shark: 20 meters

• Basking shark: 12.27 meters

• Giant squid: 12 meters

• Oarfish: 8 meters

• Great white shark: 7 meters

• Giant manta ray: 7 meters (wingspan)

• Southern elephant seal: 6.5 meters

What threatens marine animals?

As in any ecosystem, each animal in the ocean has its own important role and is indispensable to the oceans. But marine biodiversity is threatened as never before. Human interventions such as fishing and wild catches for marine zoos and aquariums, as well as the climate crisis and pollution, are ensuring that more and more marine animals are threatened and driven to the brink of extinction. For example, whales have been protected by a ban on fishing for decades, as they have been nearly wiped out - and yet thousands of whales are killed every year in Japan, Norway and the Faroe Islands. The excessive and cruel fishing ensures that sea areas are fished almost empty again and again and that, in addition to millions of bonefish, hundreds of thousands of sharks, dolphins, whales, turtles, birds and seals die as so-called "bycatch".