Home is Where the Sea Is
99% of the living space on the planet is in the oceans and seas. Only 3% of our water is fresh water.
Largest Animal
The Blue Whale (Balaenoptear musculus) is the largest known animal ever to have lived, in sea or on land. This species of whale can reach 33.5m (110ft) in length and weigh 200 tons, equivalent to 50 fully grown elephants. The blue whale's blood vessels are so broad that a full-grown trout could swim through them, and are supplied by a heart the size of a small car.
Largest & Fastest Fish
Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus), are among the largest and fastest marine fish. An adult can weigh as much as 680kg (1,500lbs) and swim up to 55 miles per hour. Prized as sushi in Japan, Bluefins are also among the most valuable fish with individual fish having carried a price tag of as much as $20,000 at U.S. docks.
Oldest Life
It has been estimated that life began in the oceans 3.4 billion years ago, far longer than the mere 400 million years the first land dwellers evolved.
Deepest Concentration of Life
A recent study of a deep sea community found 898 species across more than 100 different specie families in an area half the size of a tennis court. Incredibly over half of these were new to science. At great depths from 3,700m (12,139 ft) the abyss begins, a point where sunlight can no longer penetrate and only sea creatures that have evolved to handle total darkness, extreme pressure and often levels of minerals that would be totally lethal to animals on land. They are kept alive by a process called chemosynthesis which enables them to convert energy from chemical reaction.
Deepest Dive By A Mammal
The deepest dive by a mammal was made by a Bull Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) off the coast of Dominica, in the Caribbean, in 1991. Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute recorded the dive to a depth of 2,000m (6,500 ft). The dive lasted one hour 13 minutes. The greatest depth reached by a penguin was recorded in 1993 in the Ross Sea where an Emperor penguin had dived to 534m (1,751 ft)
Largest Creature Never Observed In Own Habitat
The Architeuthis dux is often known as the Giant Squid. Because scientists do not know exactly where in the sea it lives, they have never been able to study it. Specimens have measured up to 18m (59 ft) in length and 900 kg (1,980 lb) in weight.
Short Facts
- Sharks have to keep swimming to stay alive, even when they’re asleep.
- Killer Whales are in actual fact not biologically classified as whales. They fall within the dolphin family.
- Dolphins need to come up for air about every two minutes.
- Whales and Dolphins are classified as mammals, but sharks are fish.