MARINE LIFE

I had a good fortune to visit some of the most important oceans of the world.

Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, Pacific Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean are the ones I have seen from their shores.

They were fascinating for me and I felt sad for those who had no chance of visiting these oceans that comprise about 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface.

These brackish water bodies are being crossed by humans in boats, ships, submarines and many other modes of transport.

The deep sea kept me wondering about the under-water world in which microscopic living organisms including zooplankton and phytoplankton to huge mammals like whales which grow up to a length of 48 meters.

Although, I have not gone deep into the ocean, I could get a chance to see the various organisms living under water in Discovery Channel.

The TV channel has videotaped the under water pictures so elegantly and broadcast to the world.

Specialists in seafaring are trained for diving from ships and observe and capture the video images of the living organisms under water.

It is unimaginable that the salty sea water to the depth of the oceanic trenches of 10,000 meters deep is the home for coral reefs, kelp forests, and tide pools, muddy, sandy and rocky bottom.

No one knows how much species of life forms live and die in such a deep sea.

Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean whereas marine ecology focuses on how these organisms interact with each other and the environment.

These scientific studies have in fact revealed lot of information hidden in the deep sea over years.

Marine life is a vast resource, providing food, medicine and raw materials in addition to helping to support recreation and tourism all over the world.

Life in the sea is less known to us like the life in the forest.

Large areas beneath the ocean surface still remain unexplored.

Adaptation to the salty environment is still a wonderful aspect of marine life.

The sea water is so rich in chemicals like sodium and calcium chloride.

Iodine is also a component of sea salt.

Sea water when evaporated in salt-pans with the help of sun’s energy, we get sea salt which is used in our daily food.

How such salt water is supporting the lives of innumerable organisms? – is still a mystery for most of us.

Microscopic life includes viruses; phytoplankton (also called as blue-green algae/bacteria) consists of cyanobacteria, various types of algae (brown and yellow green), diatoms, dinoflagellates, euglenoids, chlorophytes etc.

 Zooplankton like protozoa and some dinoflagellates are also phytoplankton.

The macroscopic algae like the sea weeds create kelp forests.

Sea weeds are being harvested and used as growth promoters for land plants.

Invertebrate sea life includes jelly fish and sea anemones.

Shell fish, squid and octopus are some of the inhabitant of sea water.

Fish is much evolved large organism live in the ocean.

Fish breathe by extracting oxygen from water through their gills and the fins of fish propel and stabilize them in water.

One of the more popular sea fish is sardine which is the cheapest sold in the local market.

Sharks are the big ones with serrated teeth predate on small fishes. 

In addition to fish, the marine life includes reptiles like sea snakes, sea turtles and salt water crocodile.

Penguins and sea gulls are sea birds adapted to living in marine environment.

There are marine mammals too in the sea.

They are whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and sea otter.

Ocean habitats are very beautiful landscape within ocean.

Coral reef especially tropical coral reefs are built up by corals and other calcium – depositing animals, usually on top of a rocky out crop on the ocean floor.

The ocean reefs support large community of life including corals.

At the deep sea trenches (Mariana Trench near about 10,924 meter deep in Philippines) water pressure is very high and there will not be sunlight, but life was found to still exist.

Most of the organisms live at these depths have the ability to create their own light known as bio-luminescence.

What a wonderful world that is hidden in the deep sea about which we know very little.

More can be learned by exploring the deep sea and I wish to appreciate Nature’s hidden mystery.

Only brave ones come forward to explore the hidden part of deep sea and tell us about the marine life it supports.

Marine life in saline water is still a wonder for people like us.

Adventurers and marine scientists are the human beings with good knowledge of the deep sea involve themselves to travel in ocean and also deep into trenches sometimes to explore the hidden part of the ocean.

Such activities cannot be performed by everyone, but only people with commitment and interest can enter these adventurous activities.

They require great deal of training in marine science and operation in deep sea.  

I consider those people are the real eye opener for us to tell about the deep sea secrets.

In fact, we need to salute such people who give us knowledge of the marine life.

16 December 2010