Sea Life
There is a huge variety of other sea-life living in the Southern Ocean. Examples of these include coral, anemones, sponges, sea spiders, starfish, squid and jellyfish.
Coral occupies the seabed and eats plankton out of the water. It eats in two ways: either by filtering it from the water with its very small stinging tentacles or by absorbing the waste materials of a type of algae that actually lives within each animal. The algae absorb sunlight and turn the sun’s energy into food energy. The tiny coral animals then eat the food. Although coral looks really massive, it is actually clumps of very tiny animals living together.
Anemones live alongside coral on the seabed, feeding on small fish and starfish. They push very sticky tentacles into the surrounding water, which small creatures get stung by and then permanently stuck to. The anemone pull the tentacle into their mouths and anything stuck will be eaten. To humans the tentacles just stick a little, but with the small prey of the anemones they are far more effective.
Around 300 varieties of Sponges also secure themselves to the seabed. They feed by filtering plankton out of the water, like corals, but instead of using tentacles, they suck the water into the middle of themselves (through very fine tubes) and then filter the particles there.
Sea spider
Sea spiders are found in deep water and can be up to 15cm wide. They are carnivores and move around the ocean floor looking for sponges, anemone and other small, soft animals. They feed by putting their straw-like mouth into the soft part of the animal and sucking.
Starfish, like sea spiders, move along the seabed in their hunt for food. They move very slowly and if they come across something edible and immobile, they will try and eat it. Starfish are incredibly strong and can pull apart the shells of mussels and clams they come across. In order to eat, starfish will push their stomach out through their mouths, wrap it around their prey, wait till it's all digested and then suck their stomach back in again. Antarctic starfish can successfully survive for over 30 years.
Antarctic squid mainly eat krill and jellyfish. Squid belong to the same group of animals – the molluscs – as snails, cockles and whelks. Within that group, their particular family is called the cephalopods and include cuttlefish and octopuses as well. Squid dive quite deep to find their prey and use their two long suckered tentacles to capture it. The tentacles then put the food into their beak-like mouths. There are thought to be about 20 species of squid in the Southern Ocean but little is known about them because many species live at great depths.
Jellyfish are very common in the Southern Ocean. They can grow up to 50cm long. Jellyfish eat whatever gets caught in their tentacles, mainly small fish and crustaceans. The tentacles trail underneath them (some species have metres of tentacles). Jellyfish can be extremely poisonous, even to humans. This poisoning ability is vital because they are very delicate and so must kill their prey quickly, to avoid a struggle, which could damage or kill them. The tentacles are packed with cells that individually shoot out the poison. The cells have a coiled up spring inside them, if anything brushes past it the spring is released. The spring then shoots out and injects whatever brushed it with poison. Jellyfish can be very dangerous, as the spring is completely automatic, so even dead jellyfish tentacles can still sting.
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