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A marine coastal ecosystem is a marine ecosystem which occurs where the land meets the ocean. Worldwide there is about 620,000 kilometres (390,000 mi) of coastline. Coastal habitats extend to the margins of the continental shelves, occupying about 7 percent of the ocean surface area.
Coastal pelagic fish inhabit the relatively shallow and sunlit waters above the continental shelf, while oceanic pelagic fish inhabit the vast and deep waters beyond the continental shelf (even though they also may swim inshore). [3] [4] Pelagic fish range in size from small coastal forage fish, such as herrings and sardines, to large apex ...
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 . [ 1 ]
[105] [106] In the pelagic ocean, flyingfishes (13) channel energy and nutrients from zooplankton to pelagic predators such as mahi-mahi (14) and billfish (15), both of which utilize slicks as nursery habitat. Larvae of mesopelagic fishes like lanternfish (16) and bathydemersal tripod fishes (17) utilize these surface hotspots before descending ...
The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word pelagic is derived from Ancient Greek πέλαγος (pélagos) 'open sea'. [1] The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the surface of the sea and the bottom.
As a result, coastal marine life is the most abundant in the world. It is found in tidal pools, fjords and estuaries, near sandy shores and rocky coastlines, around coral reefs and on or above the continental shelf. Coastal fish include small forage fish as well as the larger predator fish that feed on them.
Some coastal areas have a long area of shallow water that extends far out beyond the landmass into the water and others, for example islands that have formed from ancient volcanos where the 'shelf' or edge of the land mass is very steep, have a very short neritic zone.
Coastal geography is the study of the constantly changing region between the ocean and the land, incorporating both the physical geography (i.e. coastal geomorphology, climatology and oceanography) and the human geography (sociology and history) of the coast.