Ocean Life & Ecosystems

From the tiny to the titanic, from the familiar to the undiscovered, the ocean offers a stunning diversity of marine life and nearly every kind of habitat imaginable. Dive in and explore them here.

EDUCATOR RESOURCES

LATEST BLOG POSTS

Earth Day, Spawned from the Sea

Apr 22, 2013 - 10:29AMSometimes I think that our planet Earth, named for the Old English word for “dry land” (eorthe), should get a new name. Despite our knowledge that more than 70% of the planet’s surface is ocean—definitely not “dry land”—we still...

The Search for an Elusive Ribbon Worm
Mar 12, 2013 - 2:40PM
With 1,400 named species of ribbon worms inhabiting every ecosystem on earth...

How Coastal Seagrass Feeds the Deep
Feb 11, 2013 - 1:53PM
It is a well-known fact that for animals living in the deep sea, food can be...

SPOTLIGHT

Sea Creatures from the Deep: A Video by National Geographic and the Census of Marine Life

The Census of Marine Life - a ten-year effort by scientists from around the world to answer the age-old... 		Sea Creatures from the Deep A Video by National Geographic and the Census of Marine Life
MORE OCEAN LIFE & ECOSYSTEMS

AUDIO / VIDEO

  • <p><span style="font-family: Times; line-height: normal; font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p><div style="color: #000000; font-size: 10px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p>A glimpse of life in and around deep-sea corals near the Aleutian Islands.&nbsp;</p></div><p>&nbsp;</p>

    Aleutian Islands Deep-Sea Corals

  • Climate Change and the Chesapeake Bay
  • red paper lantern jellyfish

    Red Paper Lantern Jellyfish: One Species at a Time
  • Emergency response teams rush to the aid of North Atlantic right whales that become entangled in fish gear.

    Whale Rescue
  • school of bluefin tuna

    Atlantic Bluefin Tuna: One Species at a Time
  • <p><strong><a href="http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/five-questions-carole-baldwin">Dr. Carole Baldwin</a></strong>, a research zoologist and fish expert with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, gives viewers an inside-look at the Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP).</p>

    Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) Video
  • Arctic scientists study a range of marine animals – from large, like polar bears, to microscopic, like phytoplankton.

    Arctic Scientists at Work
  • <p>Scientists journey to the isolated island of Moorea on a quest to catalog every life form big enough to pick up with tweezers.</p>

    Welcome to the Moorea Biocode Project
  • Deep sea corals provide habitats for many marine organisms but are at risk from destructive fishing practices and changing ocean chemistry.

    Coral Forests of the Deep Ocean
  • Mangroves abut blue ocean waters.

    Mangroves: One Species at a Time
  • Discover some amazing corals in this footage from the Juan de Fuca Canyon off the Olympic coast in the Pacific Ocean and the Davidson Seamount, an underwater volcano outside the boundary of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean.

    Corals in the Juan de Fuca Canyon and the Davidson Seamount
  • A bonaire banded box jellyfish, Tamoya ohboya

    Box Jellies: One Species at a Time
  • A polar bear and her cub on the ice

    Polar Bears: One Species at a Time
  • <p>Extracting DNA from fins helps scientists identify a shark's species and where it was born--information that is critical to conservation efforts.</p>

    Shark Fin Genetics

IMAGE GALLERIES

  • Photos, such as this cockatoo squid, illustrate the diversity of deep sea creatures

    Deep Ocean Diversity

  • World Fisheries from Sea to Table

  • Shark Ancestors
  • an orange sea star clinging to rocks in the ocean, documented by Census of Marine Life scientists

    Census of Marine Life: Wild and Wonderful Creatures

  • Newly Discovered Deep-Sea Corals
  • a red octopus, Stauroteuthis syrtenis, extends its tentacles in the deep sea

    Creepy Critters: Marine Life Surfaces for Halloween

  • Studying Deep-Sea Corals
  • Check out the array of tiny shrimps, fishes and nudibranchs that call this sargassum algae home.

    A World Adrift: Life in the Sargassum
  • a photograph of a bioluminescent squid at Sunset Reef Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

    Ocean Views from Nature's Best Photos
  • An underwater photo of a school of jacks and a scuba diver

    Ocean Views Award Winners, 2011

  • Zooxanthellae
  • This swimming snail is transparent and has shiny black eyes.

    Zooplankton Biodiversity
  • A healthy coral reef in Indonesia

    Two Views of Coral Reefs: Thriving and Threatened
  • Tridacna maxima

    Marine World Heritage Photo Gallery

PHOTOS

  • Giant Squid Beak

  • Gaping Jaws of a Great White Shark

  • Deep-Sea Amphipod

  • A Pair of Sea Butterflies

  • Close-up View of Salps

  • Palauan primitive cave eel (Protanguilla palau), a 'living fossil'

  • Pelican Nest in Mangroves

  • Sharks caught in nets

  • A Gathering of Seabirds and Seals

  • Floating Sargassum Seaweed

  • A Striped Deep Sea Worm

  • Rivulus Fish

  • Lophelia pertusa Colony

  • Exploring a Reef