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Film summary
The ocean's surface is teeming with creatures that live in water but need sunlight to survive.Key facts
- The sunlight zone is the area between 0m and 200m beneath the surface of the sea and is home to endless quantities of life.
- The sunlight zone is where microscopic organisms are able to convert the Sun's energy through photosynthesis.
- Seamounts are underwater mountains that offer some shelter to small animals from predators.
- At depths greater than 200m, the Sun's light does not penetrate and few organisms can survive.
Transcript
From above, the open ocean resembles a barren, lifeless, never-ending landscape.
But within the ocean's surface layer lie endless quantities of life.
This is the epipelagic zone, or sunlight zone.
Epipelagic zone:
Depth: 0m to 200m
Temperature: -2˚C to 40˚C
High sunlight
Within the sunlight zone, microscopic organisms such as plankton and algae can convert the Sun's energy through photosynthesis.
And where there are plants, there are animals.
Krill and small fish feed on algae and phytoplankton, in turn attracting larger predators, such as striped marlin, tuna, sailfish, dolphins, whale sharks and even birds, while manta rays siphon open water for food, such as fish eggs.
The open ocean provides little shelter from predators, but floating debris and seaweed can offer some protection.
And, in places, the epipelagic zone's emptiness is broken by seamounts - underwater mountains rising thousands of meters from the ocean floor.
Seamounts
Here, young fish have a place to grow in relative safety, while others come to breed.
Though it's never entirely safe. Predators such as hammerheads and silky sharks patrol these areas.
The epipelagic or sunlight zone is teeming with life. But just a few hundred meters below lies a very different world.
