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A school of large pelagic predator fish (bluefin trevally) sizing up a school of small pelagic prey fish (). Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters—being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore—in contrast with demersal fish that live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral reefs.
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.
Diverse pelagic and reef fish species live at the surface when young, [12] including commercially important fish species like the Atlantic cod, salmon, and billfish. Neuston can be concentrated as living islands that completely obscure the sea surface, or scattered into sparse meadows over thousands of miles.
The fish in the different pelagic and deep water benthic zones are physically structured, and behave in ways, that differ markedly from each other. Groups of coexisting species within each zone all seem to operate in similar ways, such as the small mesopelagic vertically migrating plankton-feeders, the bathypelagic anglerfishes , and the deep ...
Pelagic fish – fish that spend most of their life swimming and feeding in the pelagic zone, as opposed to resting on or feeding off the bottom. Examples are tuna and most sharks . Phosphate – a chemical compound containing phosphorus and oxygen, commonly found in agricultural fertilizers and land runoff.
Mode water is a water mass that is typically defined by its vertically mixed properties. [5] It often forms as deep mixed layers at the depth of the thermocline. [5] The mode water in the mesopelagic has residency times on decadal or century scales. [5]
In contrast to organisms in the water column, benthic organisms in this region tend to have limited to no bioluminescence. [47] The bathypelagic zone contains sharks, squid, octopuses, and many species of fish, including deep-water anglerfish, gulper eel, amphipods, and dragonfish. The fish are characterized by weak muscles, soft skin, and ...
Pelagic spawners: a type of broadcast spawners, spawn in the open sea, mostly near the surface. They are usually pelagic fish such as tuna and sardines. Some demersal fish leave the bottom to spawn pelagically, particularly coral reef fish such as parrotfish and wrasses. Pelagic spawning means water currents widely disperse the young.