The pasture of the sea
Billions and billions of tiny plants and animals live in the ocean. Most
of them are so small they can be seen only with a microscope.
These tiny plants aren’t like plants you have seen. Some look like
squares of jelly fastened together in chains. Some look like little
balls. Some are like tiny anchors with threads hanging from them.
The tiny animals are strange looking, too. Some look like bells. Some
look like light bulbs with six wiggly legs. Some of them are just little
round balls. Many of these animals are the babies of bigger animals,
such as jellyfish.
All these plants and animals float in the upper part of the ocean. They
are called plankton. Plankton is the most important food in the sea. It
is often called the pasture of the sea.
Billions of tiny plants and animals float in the ocean. They are called
plankton. They are the food of many of the big animals in the ocean.
This is what plankton looks like through a microscope.
Plankton
Many kinds of baby fish eat plankton. So do many grown fish. So do many
other sea animals. If suddenly there were no plankton, all these animals
would die. And all the animals that eat them for food would then die.
Soon there wouldn’t be a single living thing in any of the oceans.
That’s why plankton is the most important food in the sea.
