What kind of animals live in the continental shelf?

Lobster, Dungeness crab, tuna, cod, halibut, sole and mackerel can be found. Permanent rock fixtures are home to anemones, sponges, clams, oysters, scallops, mussels and coral. Larger animals such as whales and sea turtles can be seen in continental shelf areas as they follow migration routes.

1. What can be found on the continental shelf?
2. Does the continental shelf have life?
3. Do fish live in the continental shelf?
4. Why is most ocean life found on near the continental shelf?
5. What animals live in the abyssal plain?
6. What is an example of a continental shelf?
7. Do most marine organisms live near the continental shelf?
8. Is the Deepest Indian ocean Trench?
9. Is the ocean bigger than the Earth?
10. What animals live in shallow ocean water?
11. Why do continental shelves exist?
12. Is jellyfish found in oceans and seas?
13. Which ocean zone has the most animals?
14. What marine zone has salt spray?
15. Is India a continental shelf?

What can be found on the continental shelf?

The world's largest continental shelf extends 1,500 km (about 930 miles) from the coast of Siberia into the Arctic Ocean. Continental shelves are usually covered with a layer of sand, silts, and silty muds.

Does the continental shelf have life?

Continental shelves teem with life because of the sunlight available in shallow waters, in contrast to the biotic desert of the oceans' abyssal plain. The pelagic (water column) environment of the continental shelf constitutes the neritic zone, and the benthic (sea floor) province of the shelf is the sublittoral zone.

Do fish live in the continental shelf?

Coastal fish, also called inshore fish or neritic fish, inhabit the sea between the shoreline and the edge of the continental shelf. Since the continental shelf is usually less than 200 metres (660 ft) deep, it follows that pelagic coastal fish are generally epipelagic fish, inhabiting the sunlit epipelagic zone.

Why is most ocean life found on near the continental shelf?

These flat, shallow ledges gently slope from the shore to a steep drop called the continental slope. The shallow, sunlit waters of the continental shelf are flooded with nutrients, supporting an abundance of sea life. Many animals live here. Ninety percent of the world's fish are found along the continental shelf.

What animals live in the abyssal plain?

Animals that commonly occur in abyssal sediments include molluscs, worms (nematodes, sipunculids, polychaetes, hemichordates and vestimentiferans) and echinoderms (holothuroids, asteroids, ophiuroids, echinoids, and crinoids).

What is an example of a continental shelf?

Example of a Continental Shelf Landform: Siberian Shelf, Arctic Ocean. The picture is of Southeast Florida Continental Shelf (It is under water). It is smaller than the side in the Gulf of Mexico.

Do most marine organisms live near the continental shelf?

Most marine life is found in coastal habitats, even though the shelf area occupies only seven percent of the total ocean area. Open ocean habitats are found in the deep ocean beyond the edge of the continental shelf. Alternatively, marine habitats can be divided into pelagic and demersal zones.

Is the Deepest Indian ocean Trench?

The Indian Ocean's average depth is 12,274 feet (3,741 metres), and its deepest point, in the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench off the southern coast of the island of Java (Indonesia), is 24,442 feet (7,450 metres).

Is the ocean bigger than the Earth?

Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface, with the largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean, taking up more than one-third of the planet's surface.

What animals live in shallow ocean water?

Some organisms in this environment, specifically those in the intertidal zone, are sea stars, sea anemones, sponges, worms, clams, mussels, predatory crustaceans, barnacles and small fish. Hydrozoa, or hydroids, also live in shallow marine ecosystems and eat surrounding algae and zooplankton.

Why do continental shelves exist?

Some 18,000 years ago, at the peak of the most recent ice age, much of the Earth's water was frozen into huge masses of ice called glaciers. The sea level dropped, exposing continental shelves.

Is jellyfish found in oceans and seas?

First of all, jellyfish are not picky. They are found in oceans all over the world: at the surface, deep beneath the sea, in warm water, in cold water, some species of hydrozoa even live in freshwater! Jellyfish are plankton—they're drifters.

Which ocean zone has the most animals?

The epipelagic zone reaches from the surface of the ocean down to around 650 feet. This is the zone most exposed to light, and as such is host to the highest concentrations of the ocean's life. There are thousands of animals that roam this zone, including dolphins, most sharks, jellyfish, tuna and corals.

What marine zone has salt spray?

The supralittoral zone, also known as the splash zone, spray zone or the supratidal zone, sometimes also referred to as the white zone, is the area above the spring high tide line, on coastlines and estuaries, that is regularly splashed, but not submerged by ocean water.

Is India a continental shelf?

The 2493 km-long shoreline of eastern India is fringed with a continental shelf with a variable width of 35 km off Tamil Nadu to 60 km off north Andhra Pradesh and 120 km around Digha. ... The east continental shelf of India is characterized by four major deltas; the Ganges, Mahanadi, Krishna–Godavari and Cauvery.