Ocean Facts for Kids
Deep-sea facts and ocean wonders
Lobsters can live to extraordinary ages — some individuals are believed to be over 100 years old. Unlike most animals, they do not appear to weaken or lose fertility with age.
A pelican's throat pouch can hold about three times more than its stomach. When fishing, it scoops up a massive gulp of water and then tilts its head to drain the water before swallowing the fish.
The ocean is full of sounds — cracking ice, earthquakes, snapping shrimp, singing whales, and crackling coral. Scientists use underwater microphones called hydrophones to listen to the ocean's constant chorus.
Horseshoe crabs have existed for about 445 million years and look almost exactly as they did in the fossil record — they're true living fossils. Their blue blood is used in medical labs to test drugs for dangerous bacteria.
The Portuguese man o' war looks like a single jellyfish, but it is actually a colony of tiny organisms called zooids that cannot survive on their own. Each zooid has a different specialised job.
Living sand dollars are covered in tiny purple or brown spines and burrow just below the surface of sandy seafloor. The familiar bleached white shell found on beaches is all that remains after the animal dies.
Hermit crabs don't grow their own shells — they move into empty shells left by other animals. As they grow, they must find a bigger shell to move into.
Near the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, sand and silt being swept off the seabed creates what looks like an underwater waterfall from above. It is an optical illusion caused by ocean currents, not a real waterfall.
The uppermost 200 metres of the ocean is called the sunlight zone. Almost all photosynthesis and most marine life exist in this thin layer, which represents just 5% of the total ocean volume.
Below 1,000 metres lies the midnight zone, where no sunlight ever penetrates. Animals here create their own light through bioluminescence, and many have transparent or dark-red bodies to avoid detection.