The ocean is a mysterious place, with many interesting things living in it. Whether you live by the sea, and want to be more informed about it or you’re just interested, below, you can read some interesting facts about marine life!
1. Oceans cover around 71% of the Earth’s surface, they are enormous! They are so deep that they contain 99.9% of the habitable space for life on earth…
2. Most of the ocean hasn’t been explored, only around 5% of the seafloor has been mapped accurately by scientists.
3. The Pacific is the largest ocean, at its widest point it is wider than the moon. It also contains over 25,000 islands.
4. The furthest point of the ocean from land is closer to space, which is called “Point Nemo”.
5. The worlds largest waterfall is in the ocean, the Denmark Straight Cataract which is in the Atlantic and between Iceland and Greenland. It is a subsurface waterfall that consists of 5 million meters cubed of water falling continuously 3,505 meters.
6. The oceans are filled with treasure, in fact many experts predict that there are more historical artefacts on the seafloor than in all of the world’s museums combined.
7. UNESCO believes that there are around 3 million shipwrecks in the oceans, each one filled with many different historical treasures. This not accounting for the fact that there is estimated to be 20 million tons of gold in the oceans, most of which is dissolved in sea water at a concentration of a few parts per trillion.
8. The world record for the deepest scuba dive is currently 332.5m! it only took him 12 minutes to reach that depth, but it took over 15 hours for him to safely get back up to the surface.
9. Coral reefs are extremely important and valuable, they only cover less than 1% of the seafloor and yet they support up to ¼ of known marine species. This also means they provide food and income to hundreds of millions of people.
10. Half of the air we breathe comes from plankton; they produce as much oxygen as all the plants on land put together.
11. The world’s largest migration happens in the oceans every day, and it is done vertically. Every night, millions of deep-sea creatures travel thousands of meters upwards to feed on plankton that rise to the surface, before returning back to the depths of the ocean.
12. Greenland sharks can life for over 400 years, meaning that some of the Greenland sharks that are currently swimming around the arctic were born in the 1600’s!
13. Corals can be used to replace human bone; the chemical composition and structure of some corals is like our own bones. Of course some alterations need to be made to the coral before it is inserted but it is quite beneficial for the patients who don’t need as much surgery.
14. Sperm whales have the biggest nose in the animal kingdom.
15. World’s longest pregnancy happens in sharks, they have the longest gestation period of any vertebrate. Their pregnancies can last as long as 3.5 years, and the litter size can be as big as 15 offspring!
All information and facts gathered from: https://marinemadness.blog/2020/10/14/50-mind-blowing-facts-about-the-oceans-marine-life/
