They look like unfamiliar worlds, meandering around some cold and distant star.
But these are living things -- plankton -- tiny sea creatures so small they’re almost invisible
to the naked eye.
Individually, they are mere specks in a vast ocean.
But together, they are part of a grander story… one that affects us in ways
you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
The name plankton comes from a Greek word meaning “wanderer.”
That’s what they are. Drifters. They can’t fight the ocean currents. They just… drift.
Plankton get their energy in a couple of different ways.
Phytoplankton draw energy from sunlight -- like plants -- and produce oxygen along the way.
This one is called a diatom.
These are tiny, but super abundant. They produce about half of the oxygen we breathe.
These are dinoflagellates.
They get their energy from the sun too, but they can steer themselves through the water
- just a bit - with those little appendages you see called flagella.
The second group is called zooplankton.
Most of these are way, way bigger than the phytoplankton.
And unlike most phytoplankton, they need to actually eat.
You can see how this one creates little currents to pull the food in toward its mouth.
Some plankton drift forever.
Others, like these, grow up into something else.
But all of them are about to be called into action.
It’s called upwelling, and it happens when wind and currents converge.
Nutrients surge up from the deep ocean, and toward the surface, jump starting an explosion
of life… a bonanza.
The plankton reproduce at an amazing rate.
Krill and fish feast on plankton. Birds and sea lions feast on fish.
And so do we.
This is where most of the world’s seafood comes from.
And then, just as suddenly as it all began, the winds die back, the upwelling slows and
the frenzy subsides.
What’s left -- the remains of this giant oceanic bacchanalia -- drift back to the deep...
waiting for their next moment in the sun.