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Just for Kidz - Ocean Animals |
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Nearly 75% of God's green earth is blue. More of the world is water than land. And you know what that means...there are more animals that live underwater than you can count. Because they have been created to live in the ocean, some of these creatures are pretty unique and look a little strange. God made some pretty cool animals for the ocean. Don't forget to hold your mouse over the pictures to learn extra facts.
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You can find fish in every zone of the ocean. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are brightly coloured to attract other fish while others are dull and drab to camouflage and hide from predators.
 Fish are cold-blooded animals. That doesn't mean they are mean. Their body temperature drops when it's cold and rises when it is warm outside.
Fish breathe oxygen like we do. They use gills on the side of their head to help them absorb oxygen from the water into their blood.
There are a few fish like the Mudskipper that can breathe in the water and in the air. They like to lie in shallow water.
Cichlids are mouth brooders. That means that the mother cichlid keeps her new babies in her mouth and only lets them out to eat.
Fish protect themselves in a variety of ways. Some have poisonous spikes or bites, others have tough protective skins. Some fish are fast others blend into their surroundings to hide from enemies.
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Sharks have a bad reputation for being the meanest fish in the sea, but only a few of them ever attack people. Of the 340 kinds of sharks only 20 are dangerous to us. They live in the open water and are created to swim all the time, with long smooth bodies and fins. They have excellent senses of smell, taste and sight.
The Spotted Wobbegone is hard to spot because of it's patterned skin that blends in with the ocean floor. It also has small finger-like tentacles that look like sea plants.
The Great White Shark is the biggest and most dangerous shark. They are becoming less common because the sharks and their teeth are prized as trophies.
The Megamouth Shark really does have a mega mouth. They are rarely seen so that we don't know how many there are.
The Blue Shark is the most common shark in the world's oceans and has a steel blue colour.
If you see the Hammer Head Shark you'll know what it is because of its flat head that is shaped just like a hammer.
The Angel Shark is a flat shark and lives deep on the bottom of the sea up to 300 ft or 100m deep.
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Under Water Trivia
There are three zones in the ocean. The top zone is called the Sunlight Zone because it gets lots of light.
Animals that live in this zone need good camouflage because there aren't many places to hide.
The middle zone of the ocean is the Twilight Zone. There is some light but it is quite dim like in the evening.
Many of the creatures that live in this zone have big eyes so they can see better in the dim light.
The deepest zone, the Midnight Zone, gets no light at all.
Some of the most strange and interesting looking creatures live in the deepest parts of the ocean. A few even glow in the dark!
The deepest ocean in the Pacific Ocean. The Artic Ocean is the shallowest ocean.
All along the edge of the continents, is a section of shallow ocean called the Continental Shelf. This area is full of sea life and is the best place to fish.
Eels look like underwater snakes with their long skinny bodies, but really they are another kind of fish.
When Coral dies its hard cover remains and builds up with other coral to form reefs. The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is the longest thing built by living creatures. It is 1,250 miles or 2000 km long.
 It's the Seahorse father that carries the babies in a pouch on his stomach and not the mom. Seahorses are good parents and take excellent care of their babies.
The Leafy Sea Dragon is called leafy for good reason. It has leafy skin flaps that look just like seaweed so they are almost impossible to find. It's some of the best camouflage in the ocean.
All the water in the world's ocean is salty. That's why sailors have to bring water with them to drink, because we can't drink salt water. The Red Sea is the saltiest body of water.
The deepest point in the ocean is deeper than Mt. Everest is high. The Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean is 35,798 ft or 10,911m deep. That's still pretty shallow when you consider that the radius or depth of the whole earth is 3963miles or 6378km.
The water in the oceans never stops moving. It moves around the world in streams of water called currents.
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Dolphins and porpoises are actually part of the whale family. They are social animals and live in family groups also called pods. They live in the more shallow ocean waters just off the coasts and they are the most common kind of whale.
If you picture a dolphin you probably think of the Bottlenose Dolphin, but there are many other kinds of dolphins in the ocean.
Porpoises are similar to dolphins but they have a shorter nose and a rounder body.
There are more Common Dolphins in the ocean than any other of dolphin. You can see them in any of the world's oceans.
Dolphins and porpoises are mammals, like us. They need to breath air so they have to come up to the surface to take a breath, but they can hold their breath underwater much longer than you could.
Whales are the largest animals in the sea and some are the largest mammals on earth. They breath air and have to come to the ocean's surface to take a deep breath. There are two kinds of whales. Toothed whales include the dolphins, porpoises and killer whales. Baleen whales don't have teeth but have plates that filter fish and other food into the whale's mouth.
The Blue Whale is the largest animal in history. This huge whale is about twice as big as any known dinosaur.
Whales breach or jump out of the water. They land on their side or back and make an enormous spray of water.
The Humpback Whale has two big flippers on its sides to help it swim.
The Beluga Whale likes to live in the cold water of the Northern Pacific and Artic Oceans. It is the only pure white whale.
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More Creatures Under the Sea |
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The ocean contains some of the most interesting animals on earth. They have weird shapes and funny habits that are unlike anything else you might have seen. Let's look at just a few more of these fascinating creatures.
Skates and Rays are flat fish that flap their wing-like fins and when they swim its like flying through the water.
Squid are the fastest creatures in the ocean but they are related to the slow moving slugs and snails. Squid swim up to 22 mph or 35 kph and they can actually leap up to 13 ft or 4 m out of the water to escape predators. 
Octopus have eight arms with suckers on them. They use the suckers to grip to the ocean floor and grip it's prey.
A Sea Cucumber is a cucumber shaped creature that creeps along the seabed. If an enemy gets to close to this cucumber it will squirt sticky threads at it.
Crabs like to live in or near the water. If you look long enough you can probably find one scuttling on the beach or hiding in a shell or under a rock.
Sea Squirts attach themselves to solid objects and eat by pumping water through their bodies and squirting it out again.
These animal facts were gathered from assorted Animal and Nature Encyclopedias. To find out more check out your local library or bookstores. There's plenty more ocean animals to read about!
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