Deep in the Ocean

Deep in the Ocean

Deep Underwater Imagine taking a voyage to the deepest part of the ocean. What types of things would you expect to see? Would it be dark or light? Would you see clearly or would the water be cloudy? Would it be warm or cold? Would you see familiar animals and plants or find strange and new ones?

Sunlight warms the shallow parts of the ocean down to 200 meters (656 ft) below the surface. Plants and animals that need sunlight and warm water live there, such as tiger sharks and many species of common dolphins. Deep in the ocean, other animals, including vampire squid, fangtooth fish, and viperfish, live in water that is cold and dark.

Diving Deep in the Ocean The deep ocean, below 1, 000 meters (3, 281 ft), is freezing cold. The water pressure below 39. 6 meters (130ft) can harm you if you don't have the right protective gear. Sport divers wear air tanks filled with a mixture of gases for safety. They also wear special dive computers that help them know how far down they are and how much air they have. Deep divers wear special hard diving suits to protect them from the water pressure. For really deep dives, groups of two or three scientists ride in a small submarine called a submersible. Some of these submersibles have robot arms that can collect samples of water, soil, and small animals underwater.

Oceanographers Scientists who study the ocean are called oceanographers (oh-shuh-NOG-ruh-furs). They often live for months on a ship, working seven days a week, and also teach at colleges and universities. Some of them study what sea animals eat and where they live. Others study the ocean water itself. All of them have to understand biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. Biology is the study of living things. Chemistry is the study of what things are made of and how they react and change when they come into contact with other things. Geology is the study of rocks and soil and the processes that shape and change the Earth. Physics is the study of the natural laws, such as energy, force, and motion, that govern how things work.

Using Satellites for Tracking Satellites up in space can help to track sea animals' travels in Earth's oceans. Scientists tag some animals with electronic sensors to study them. A satellite can track the signal from the tag attached to the animal's fin or back. The signal shows when, where, and how the animal travels. These tags have been used to track some fish that have traveled up to 75, 000 kilometers (46, 602 mi). Scientists can use this information to predict the animal's future movements.