What animals live in the ocean?

Take an interactive dive and see the animals that populate the oceans, from coral near the surface to shrimp-like organisms near the seafloor.

Visualizing the 75 largest underwater animals

With so many fish in the sea, which are the largest? This infographic shows fantastic illustrations of the 75 largest sea animals, ranked by average size. The detailed visual is organized in descending order of size, starting with the blue whale,...

The 10 most amazing deep sea creatures

In this video, researchers from the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium discuss the most fascinating deep sea creatures, and how they developed some of their strangest features.

View a gallery of animals found on abyssal plains, hydrothermal vents, seamounts, and other deep-sea habitats.

A collection of fascinating facts about the planet and its creatures

You may have already heard that cheetahs are the fastest animals on land, but did you know that Savannah elephants are the strongest? This page on the World Wildlife Fund's UK website features a diverse range of articles on mammals, underwater creatures, birds, reptiles, insects, and landscapes. Discover captivating information about Earth and the creatures you share it with.

The Southern Ocean features the Antarctic Circumpolar Current—the largest ocean current on Earth—which encircles Antarctica and creates a unique biogeographical zone.

The deep-sea fangtooth has the largest teeth of any marine species relative to body size

From transparent fish to the heaviest worms on the planet, these seven creepy creatures lurk in the deep sea. Learn all about them and the unique traits that help them survive and hunt.

Can coral live in cold water?

Dive deep beyond the sunlit coral reefs, and you'll discover a world of deep-sea corals. This article from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explores the ecosystems of deep-sea corals found way below the water's surface....

Track individual sharks around the world in real time.

National Geographic presents how to protect the oceans

What can we do to protect and preserve the world's oceans? Be inspired by spectacular wildlife footage from National Geographic while learning key strategies.

Explore the 2025 Ocean Photographer of the Year winners and finalists

The Ocean Photographer of the Year celebrates and advocates for the ocean and its creatures. From tiny 3mm amphipods to hunting orcas, see a collection of images highlighting the beauty of our blue planet.

Underwater nighttime photos capture the ocean's diversity

Self-taught photographer Steven Kovacs explores Palm Beach's ocean after sunset, capturing tiny sea creatures in deep waters. Over eight years, he's dived into Florida's eastern coast, drifting from 0 to 100 feet, photographing rarely seen larval fish. Lacking formal marine biology training, Kovacs collaborates globally to identify species like cusk eels and the female blanket octopus, known for its revealing membrane. Check out his photos here.

A simple pictorial explanation of ocean geography

Visualizing ocean geographical features, such as a coastal zone, continental shelf and abyssal plain. This article from the US Geological Survey also provides several links to diverse ocean facts.

Earth's oceans, which have an average depth of 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles), may be divided into zones based on depth or the abundance of light.

By targeting a diverse range of sick and injured marine life, sharks—a type of predatory keystone species—help keep ocean gene pools healthy and promote biodiversity by keeping prey species in check.

38 thought-provoking facts about the ocean

Coral produces its own sunscreen, tsunamis move at 500 miles per hour, one of the loudest sounds ever recorded came from an ice quake, and other interesting facts collected from sources such as National Geographic and NASA.

As part of the up to 15 pounds of seafood they consume daily, sea otters eat urchins that feed on kelp forests—sources of shelter and food to over 800 species—thereby making the marine mammal a keystone species.

Over 1 million fish, marine mammals, and invertebrate species depend on coral reefs for habitats, camouflage, and food.

Some marine life can survive the extreme pressure of the deep ocean because of specialized molecules that strengthen proteins, enzymes, and cellular membranes.

A collection of the world's best live animal cams

What are the animals up to? If you're too busy to get to the zoo today, you can take a quick glance at this site, which aggregates dozens of live feeds of animals from around the world. See elephants, bald eagles, and puppies all in one place—but...

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as of 2025, there are over 18,000 endangered animal species worldwide, with the share of fish, insects, mollusks, and reptiles increasing since 2007.

These animals are only found in the Amazon rainforest.

The mighty Amazon River and its surrounding rainforest is home to millions of different species of animals, with new ones being discovered regularly.

View a collection of images and videos of coral reefs from around the world.

Explore the deepest parts of the ocean

The deeps of the Earth's oceans are some of the most extreme environments on the planet. Take a trip 36,000 feet to the deepest parts of the sea in this informative, 10-minute animated video.

Listen to recordings of different fish species

Scientists have captured and curated this collection of species-specific recordings, helping us gain a deeper understanding of underwater ecosystems. Uncover their sounds, which include a lot of thumps, burps, and grunts.

An interactive of the deep sea

Why 75% of ocean animals glow

About 75% of ocean creatures can make their own light. It's called bioluminescence—and it all comes down to a special chemical reaction happening inside their bodies.

Desert wildlife: diverse, threatened, and misunderstood

This article sheds light on the surprisingly diverse wildlife that thrive in deserts, while also highlighting the gaps in human understanding of these ecosystems. Deserts are home to one-quarter of terrestrial vertebrate species—three percent of...

The Ocean Observatories Initiative aims to provide freely accessible, real-time ocean data for up to 30 years to help scientists identify and analyze short- and long-term ocean processes.

How the ocean is the new frontier of innovation

Space has been called the final frontier of innovation and investment for decades. Many innovators say the ocean is the new space, the vast majority of whose hidden depths remain obscure. In this podcast episode, business-minded experts discuss the opportunities founders see in the ocean, including seagrass restoration, underwater cable networks, and more.

River dolphins manhandle an unlucky anaconda

The natural world around us is endlessly inspiring, and fascinating, and often very odd too: like when researchers snapped a photo of Bolivian river dolphins swimming around with a Beni anaconda snake in their mouths, for example.

What happens when a whale dies and falls to the ocean floor

A large whale's body can blanket more than 538 square feet of ocean floor. That's an enormous amount of organic matter, providing food for the ecosystem for centuries. Researchers have discovered bones on the seafloor from whale species that have been extinct for over 100,000 years.

What's the difference between an ocean, sea, and saltwater lake?

What are the seven seas, the five oceans, and why isn't the Dead Sea considered a sea? This overview provides definitions for each.

Photos and descriptions of unique plants found in the Amazon rainforest

It’s the plants that provide homes for the incredible diversity of Amazon animals. Read about 29 of the most fascinating Amazon rainforest plants.

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—photosynthetic algae that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

Earth's oceans do mix, despite viral images and videos claiming to show boundaries between oceans that waters do not cross.

Scientists have found that the Great Barrier Reef's microbiome includes an estimated 362,802 distinct viruses and 876 distinct bacterial and archaeal species—584 of which had never been documented before 2026.

Although an estimated 99.999% of the deep ocean has not been explored, techniques such as sonar have been used to identify the deepest known point in each of Earth's five oceans.

View a breakdown of the identified species on Earth, led by about one million insect species, while mammals such as humans make up one of the smallest groups.

The ocean's ability to store carbon long-term is being hindered by marine heatwaves

More than 4,000 robotic floats with biogeochemical data sensors, including oxygen, pH, nitrate, suspended particles, chlorophyll, temperature, and conductivity, have been deployed as part of the Global Ocean Biogeochemical Array. They have identified changes to ecosystem structure affecting the ocean's ability to transport carbon from surface waters into the deep.

Starting with red, colorful objects will appear to lose their colors the deeper they are submerged because water scatters light, reducing the amount available to reflect off objects and be observed.

What a tiny marine worm can tell us about our brains

Meet the amphioxus, a small eel-like animal that has a lot to teach us about brain evolution. The genetic roots of our brains can be seen in these unusual creatures. This three-minute educational video focuses on the evolutionary history of the human brain through these odd little critters with a 500-million-year-old history.

Although ecologists have struggled to identify a species as a keystone—one of outsized importance to its ecosystem—an analysis of 50 years of data and 157 studies identified 230 such species.

See how each of the more than 2 million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

The world's largest species of marine algae is giant kelp, which can grow as much as two feet per day from depths of about 100 feet up to the ocean surface.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Just as landmasses have been divided into distinct nations, the world ocean has been divided into multiple oceans for various geographical, practical, and scientific reasons.

Bioluminescence became common in the ocean to support survival in dark environments

Despite seeming like a rare ability in land animals and unseen in plants, bioluminescence has evolved at least 29 times across marine species, indicating its necessity for survival where hiding spots are rare and highlighting how environments provide evolutionary pressure.

The warmest waters in the ocean are found at hydrothermal vents—hot springs on the seafloor that discharge plumes of mineral-rich water.

Deep water corals—located throughout the world's ocean basins at depths beyond 200 meters (660 feet)—slowly build small coral gardens in the dark with the help of underwater worms.