Ocean Facts for Kids
Deep-sea facts and ocean wonders
The blobfish only looks droopy and sad when it is brought to the surface. In its natural deep-sea habitat, it looks like a perfectly ordinary fish.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a floating mass of plastic debris roughly twice the size of Texas, circulating in the North Pacific Ocean.
The ocean quahog clam can live for more than 500 years. Scientists count the rings on its shell, much like counting tree rings, to work out its age.
The thermohaline circulation is a planet-wide system of ocean currents driven by differences in water temperature and salinity. A single 'loop' of this conveyor belt can take roughly 1,000 years to complete.
Each bottlenose dolphin develops its own unique 'signature whistle' that other dolphins use to call it by name.
There are an estimated 10 to the power of 30 (a nonillion) viruses in the ocean — more than the number of stars in the observable universe. Most of them infect bacteria, not animals.
A blue whale's tongue can weigh as much as a whole elephant — about 2,700 kilograms!
Giant kelp is one of the fastest-growing organisms on Earth. Under the right conditions, it can grow up to 60 centimetres in a single day.
Some whales build up layers of earwax throughout their entire lives. Scientists can study these waxy plugs to learn the whale's age, hormone levels, and even what pollutants it encountered.
Once a year, usually after a full moon, entire coral reefs release billions of eggs and sperm into the water at exactly the same time. This spectacular event is called coral spawning.