Page 192 - (DK) Super Shark Encyclopedia: And Other Creatures of the Deep

VERTICAL MIGRATION Tiny floating animals that live as part of the plankton gather at different depths in the water. Many of them avoid bright light, coming to the surface at night then sinking deeper during the day. Predators who feed on these animals, such as the giant filter-feeding basking shark, have to move up and down in the water as they follow their food. In the zone The ocean’s sunlit surface is packed with rich and colorful life, but fewer and stranger animals live at greater depths. Deep-sea animals need special f

darker and the pressure increases. At the surface, it is icy near the poles and
warmer near the equator, but deeper down it is always cold. Many ocean
plunge straight down into the deep sea. As the water gets deeper, it gets
The Earth’s continents are rimmed by stretches of rocky shelf but then

animals live at certain depths, but some swim from zone to zone.
THE SUNLIGHT ZONE Speedy predators with good vision hunt near the brightly lit ocean surface. Some live near coasts on reefs or among eelgrass, but others prefer to wander the open seas. SUNLIGHT ZONE 0–655 ft (0–200 m) TWILIGHT ZONE 655–3,300 ft (200–1,000 m) MIDNIGHT ZONE 3,300–13,100 ft (1,000–4,000 m)

OCEAN DEPTHS

Frilled sharks prey on squid in the gloom of the twilight zone

Caribbean reef sharks cruise over eelgrass THE TWILIGHT ZONE The light here is too dim for algae to grow, but is just good enough for animals to see. The rarely seen frilled shark prowls these depths, alongside fish who can make their own light.