In this page you can also read some interesting facts about the sea animals and plants.
Habitat and Distribution
Dolphin
They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, eating mostly fish and squid. The family dolphinidae is the largest in the Cetaceanorder, and evolved relatively recently, about ten million years ago, during the Miocene. Dolphins are among the most intelligent animals, and their often friendly appearance, an artifact of the "smile" of their mouthline, and seemingly playful attitude have made them very popular in human culture.
Giant clam
Like corals, giant clams live in partnership with tiny plantlike algae (called zooxanthellae) that live inside the clams' tissues. And as with corals, the arrangement helps both creatures. The algae gain protection from grazing animals; the clams grow large with the benefit of food produced by the algae.At home on reefs throughout the Indian Ocean, the South Pacific and parts of South Africa, giant clams live on shallow reef flats down to depths of around 66 feet (20 m). Below that, the algae they depend on to survive wouldn't have enough sunlight to grow.
Spotted Jelly
His species is also known as a "lagoon jelly" because it lives in bays, harbors and lagoons in the South Pacific. The spotted jelly has a rounded bell and four clumps of oral arms with clublike appendages that hang down below. Instead of a single mouth, it has many small mouth openings on its oral arms that capture small animal plankton. In addition, the jelly grows a crop of symbiotic algae in its tissues, which gives it a greenish-brown color and produces food for the jelly to harvest.
Red sea fan
Sea fans look a lot like plants with colorful, forked "branches." But they’re actually animals, just like their relatives, the corals and jellies. Sea fans are colonial animals—they’re made up of many tiny, individual animals that work together as one.The individual animals live along the sea fan’s "branches," and look like little anemones. Using small, feathery tentacles, a sea fan feeds by capturing tiny animal plankton that drift by in the currents.
Giant green anemone
This green plantlike creature is actually an animal with algae plants living inside it. In this symbiotic relationship, the algae gain protection from snails and other grazers and don't have to compete for living space, while the anemones gain extra nourishment from the algae in their guts. Contrary to popular opinion, this anemone’s green color is produced by the animal itself, not the algae that it eats.Giant green anemones are often solitary and exhibit aggressive territorial defense against rival anemones; in some locations, however, there can be up to 14 green anemones per three square feet.
Some fishes develop resistance to the giant green anemone’s sting by covering themselves with mucus.
Some fishes develop resistance to the giant green anemone’s sting by covering themselves with mucus.
Rosy rockfish
hink a purple-spotted red fish would attract some attention? Not on the deep reef. Since they live too deep for red light to reach, a red fish looks gray, blending with the shadows.Rockfishes cluster just above the reef. If a hungry fish or seal comes by, the rockfishes duck between the boulders. But mostly they just hang there, snacking on the smaller fishes, octopuses and shrimp living among the rocks.
Carpet anemone
Most of the many kinds of anemones living on coral reefs stay hidden in crevices or under rocks. But large Heteractis anemones are prominent and visible residents on Indo-Pacific reefs. With their bases anchored to rocks or rubble, these anemones spread their crowns of stinging tentacles wide, up to three feet (1 m) across. Like their cousins the reef-building corals, these anemones have algae living inside their tissues. The algae produce sugars and proteins that help nourish the anemones.The large anemones often host communities of other animals as well. Certain shrimp and crabs live on anemones, and a single anemone may be home to several kinds of anemonefishes.
Chambered nautilus
A native of the tropical Pacific, this cousin of the octopus is a living link with the past—little changed for more than 150 million years. Its simple eyes may see no more than the difference between dark and light, but the nautilus uses its more than 90 tentacles to touch and taste the world. A nautilus’s tentacles—unlike those of other cephalopods—have grooves and ridges that grip food and pass it into the nautilus’s mouth. A parrotlike beak rips the food apart, and a radula (found in most molluscs) further shreds the food.To avoid predators by day, a nautilus lingers along deep reef slopes, some as deep as 2,000 feet (610 m). At night, a nautilus migrates to shallower waters and cruises the reefs, trailing its tentacles in search of food.
Pom-Pom anemone
A pom-pom anemone takes on a variety of shapes—from low and flat to round and puffy. In fact, scientists have seen puffed up anemones rolling across the seafloor like living tumbleweeds, “blown” by deep sea currents.Scientists aren’t sure why pom-pom anemones change shape and roll around––they might be looking for “greener pastures,” where there’s more food to eat
Big skate
Big skates have two large, black spots on their fins, which resemble large eyes. Scientists think these “eyes” might confuse predators or make a small skate look larger and less vulnerable to a hungry shark.Big skates hide in the sand and mud along the seafloor, with only their eyes protruding. Their gray, mottled bodies blend into the background of the seafloor; this camouflage protects them from predators like sharks.
Bristlemouth
Bristlemouths are well camouflaged. When deep sea animals look up toward the ocean's surface, they see other animals overhead as dark shapes against a lighter background. But by lighting two rows of photophores on its underside, this deep sea fish avoids casting its shadow on predators below––and can virtually disappear.