Who lives at the bottom of the ocean is known: fish, mollusks, sea worms, crustaceans and other representatives of the fauna characteristic of shallow water. But only the conditions of existence at depth are very different from the conditions of the continental shelf and the upper layers of the ocean. Therefore, the inhabitants of the depths developed protective mechanisms, thanks to which their existence became possible.
Light radiation from the solar spectrum penetrates the ocean to different depths. Rays of red and orange light - no more than thirty meters, up to one hundred and eighty - yellow, up to three hundred and twenty - green, up to half a kilometer - blue. And although the most sensitive modern instruments have registered traces of sunlight at a depth of one and a half kilometers, we can state that below five hundred meters, pitch darkness reigns in the ocean. All those who live at the bottom of the ocean below this mark have adapted to the absence of light in different ways. Some have hypersensitive eyes of a telescopic type, capable ofcapture the few quanta of light available to devices. Or maybe their sensitivity is even higher and allows them to navigate where even human technology fails. Other animals have given up sight altogether and feel quite well at the same time. And some inhabitants of the bottom have acquired the ability to emit light on their own.
A characteristic feature of the ocean floor is food poverty. Due to the low temperature (2-4 degrees above zero), all processes are sluggish there, and therefore the inhabitants of the ocean depths do not have a high speed of movement or increased activity in obtaining food. Almost all animals there are predators. Due to the lack of food, deep-sea fish have acquired the ability to swallow creatures larger than themselves.
The bottom of the ocean is covered with a thick layer of silt. In this regard, some of the deep-sea animals (for example, sea spiders) have long limbs that allow them not to fall into the bottom sediments. Since many fish regularly migrate from bottom to top and back, it is sometimes difficult to figure out where someone lives. At the bottom of the ocean there is enormous pressure, little light, food, low temperature. Therefore, some deep-sea species are periodically found in the upper layers of the water, becoming the prey of fishermen and surprising them with their unusual appearance. So, for example, a drop fish often comes across in the net, which has a funny growth on its “face”, resembling a hanging nose.
Fish at the bottom of the ocean quite often become an object of fishing, but large specimens thereunderstandable reasons (lack of food) are rare. For example, coalfish. Although she lives at depths up to 2700 meters, she still often finds herself on store shelves. Fish have different names in different countries. We have it - coal, in Canada - black cod, in the USA - sable fish, in Australia - oil
fish. Among those who live at the bottom of the ocean, this creature is just a giant. The length of the largest specimens reaches 120 centimeters.
Life at the bottom of the ocean is very poorly studied, and it is possible that we are waiting for big discoveries. Periodically, information pops up that the fishermen met an unknown animal in the middle of the ocean, and some even became the prey of a monster. Of course, most of these reports are rumors or common sea stories, but not all. A hundred years ago, hardly any of the serious scientists could believe that the coelacanth, a fish that appeared long before the dinosaurs, is our contemporary. However, a little later, its existence was proved by African fishermen, who presented a living individual to scientists.
