Animals living in the Pelagic habitat

Animals Living in the Pelagic

The water in the ocean that is not near the bottom or near land mass is known as the pelagic zone. The origin of the word is from the Greek language and it means 'open sea'. As you go down the depths of the ocean the property of the water starts to change. The water becomes colder and the pressure is greater. The pelagic zone is 330 million cubic miles in total mass. The vertical range can be up to 11 miles. All the fish which thrive in this area is generally called pelagic fish. As the depth increases the amount of life in this area will decrease, for the simple reason that not many marine life is designed to live in this area.

The pelagic zone houses the largest amount of wild habitat on this planet. The habitat that exists in this area is roughly divided into 2 groups. They are Coastal habitat and off shore or oceanic habitat. Coastal life exists in relatively shallow waters which are situated above the continental shelf. This area gets exposed to sunlight. Other types of marine life live away from this area and will rarely swim near the shore, although it is not uncommon to find it. Some examples of coastal pelagic fish are sardines, herrings and forage fish. Examples of oceanic or non-coastal fish include sharks and blue fin tuna. The physical characteristics of oceanic fishes will be smooth and streamlined. This allows them to swim long distances for migration purposes. Pelagic marine life is not only limited to fishes. Birds such as the sooty tern will spend much of its life out at sea.


Carnivores

African clawless otter
Galapagos islands fur seal
Juan fernández fur seal
Guadalupe fur seal
Polar bear

Dolphins, porpoises, and whales

Atlantic white-sided dolphin
Blackchin dolphin
Pacific white-sided dolphin
Dusky dolphin
Bunch
Black finless porpoise
Irrawaddy dolphin
Killer whale
Common porpoise
Cochito
Black porpoise
Franciscana
Estuarine dolphin
Chinese white dolphin
Atlantic hump-backed dolphin
Bowhead whale
Bridled dolphin
Common minke whale
Atlantic spotted dolphin
Coalfish whale
Long-beaked dolphin
Bryde's whale
Blue whale
Bottle-nosed dolphin
Commerson's dolphin
Black dolphin
North atlantic right whale
Benguela dolphin
Hector's dolphin
Atlantic dolphin
Devil fish
Southern right whale
Long-finned pilot whale

Bats

Fish-eating bat

Dugongs, manatees, and sea cows

African manatee
Dugong


Read more at the list of biomes of the world...
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