title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Evil Angel is an American production company and distributor of pornographic films, founded and owned by John Stagliano.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Stagliano and Evil Angel pioneered the Gonzo pornography genre in the late 1980s. Several of the most acclaimed pornographic film directors have worked for Evil Angel, and its films have won numerous awards.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: It has been described as "the top porn-film producer" in the U.S, as one of the handful of companies which dominate the distribution of hardcore pornographic films in the U.S., and as one of the most profitable porn studios.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: The company's rise to prominence was fueled by the industry switch from film to videotape. In the late 1970s a feature-length porn film shot on photographic film —usually 35mm—might have cost as much as $350,000. In 1983 the VCR had been recently introduced, and producers were beginning to make pornographic films on videotape. A film using video could be made for as little as $5,000, compared to a minimum of $40,000 for a movie shot on film. Into the 1990s, by shooting its productions with video cameras, Evil Angel could still make films for $8,000. Stagliano initially had little knowledge of filmmaking, but he made his first movie for $8,000 in 1983: "Bouncing Buns", starring Stacy Donovan. For the next six years he shot films for other companies to manufacture and distribute.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: In 1989 he started Evil Angel, to sell his own films. The origin of the company's name goes back to when Stagliano was working as a stripper: "There was another guy in one of my shows named John. So this MC started calling me Evil John to differentiate us. This was when I was doing Dracula and chains. At the same time I had a girlfriend who called herself Angel when she did strip shows. She was a very nasty girl and I suggested that she call herself Evil Angel. She didn't, but I loved the name and wound up using it for my company."


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: The first Evil Angel film was "Dance Fire", filmed in 1988 by Stagliano, starring himself, Trinity Loren, Brandy Alexandre and others. It would only be released on DVD 20 years later. Influenced by amateur pornography, In 1989 Stagliano hit on the idea of performing in a film while also operating the camera, so that the viewer experiences the film through the eyes of his character. The first-person perspective was influenced by the 1960s film "Blowup". At the time this was in contrast to the majority of porn, which tended not to make viewers aware of the camera. This technique is today known as Point of view pornography. He formed his "Buttman" persona, and shot "Adventures of Buttman". The early "Buttman" films were written, produced, directed, edited, shot and manufactured personally by Stagliano. The first two "Buttman" films had lengthy scripts, but the series soon evolved into an improvised, spontaneous format. In contrast to his earlier work and the standard porn of the time, Stagliano did not link each scene together to form a conventional narrative. At times the camerawork was shaky. Partly due to his lack of funds, he didn't use elaborate sets or locations. At the time porn films had a traditional storyline, with sex scenes interspersed with dialogue by performers with little acting ability. Instead of that format, Stagliano chose to film "one sex scene which has a beginning, a middle and ends at a climax. Trying to make all that relate to a bigger story is very difficult and creates all sorts of problems that get in the way of making the best scene possible." The distinct style of the early Evil Angel films would be widely imitated, and would come to be known as Gonzo pornography.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: In the 1990s Stagliano became one of the most successful figures in the American pornographic film industry. In 1990 Patrick Collins and Stagliano founded the Elegant Angel label as a subsidiary of Evil Angel. In 1991 Stagliano established a production subsidiary in São Paulo, Brazil. By 1993 the company was producing a new videotape every three weeks, and was grossing more than $1 million a year; in 1996 it sold approximately half a million videos. In the mid-'90s the company started using the phrase "The Evil Empire" on its box covers, in reference to its growing stable of directors. In 1996 Collins established Elegant Angel as a separate company, and in 1998 it ended all cooperation with Evil Angel. His departure from Evil Angel has been called "less than amicable", and he and Stagliano are apparently "ex-friend[s]". At the time Collins said that Stagliano "couldn't run a business, and would fail without him". According to Stagliano, "Patrick's a bully . . . he wasn't doing his job properly . . . I should have fired him years ago".


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: A 1997 "U.S. News & World Report" investigation identified Evil Angel as the most profitable pornographic studio. In 2007 the studio received 127 AVN Award nominations in 60 categories, making it the fourth year in a row in which it received more than 100 nominations. In 2008 EA won 18 AVN awards. Stagliano won the "Best Director - Video" award for "Fashionistas Safado: Berlin".


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: In 2015, company vice president John Grayson reported that transsexual pornography was by far the company's most profitable category or genre, earning about 20% more on a per-movie basis than any other productions.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: In August 2007 Evil Angel and Jules Jordan prevailed in a DVD piracy case against Kaytel Video Distribution and several other defendants, winning a total of over $17.5 million, which was the largest sum ever awarded in an adult piracy case. Evil Angel was awarded $11.2 million and Jordan $5.3 million. EA had originally filed the lawsuit in November 2005.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: On April 8, 2008, Evil Angel and Stagliano were indicted on federal obscenity charges by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. Films named in the obscenity charges included "Storm Squirters 2" by Joey Silvera, "Milk Nymphos" by Jay Sin and a trailer for "Belladonna: Fetish Fanatic 5". Stagliano and Evil Angel were represented by Al Gelbard, who successfully defended JM Productions owner Jeff Steward in a 2007 obscenity case. The company released a compilation DVD entitled "Defend Our Porn", with proceeds going towards its legal defense fund, and set up the DefendOurPorn.org website to provide information on the legal proceedings.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: In December 2008 the BBC reported that Stagliano and Evil Angel were a client of UK lawyers Davenport Lyons who were seeking financial redress from people they asserted had downloaded copyright material using Peer to Peer software.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: The company differs from most other porn studios in that it contracts with in-house directors and permits them to own the films that they create, while Evil Angel handles the film's manufacture, distribution, promotion and sales and takes a percentage of the gross sales. Each director has their own particular style and is a star in their own right, with their own brand identity. Stagliano adopted this business model due to his previous experience selling his videos to other companies. He found it difficult to establish his reputation when someone else owned his content, and he didn't receive any more money if a film sold well.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: The company's roster of directors, includes Stagliano himself, , Proxy Paige, LeWood, John Leslie, Rocco Siffredi, Joey Silvera, Christoph Clark, Nacho Vidal, Jonni Darkko, Jake Malone, Jay Sin, Jazz Duro, Manuel Ferrara, Lexington Steele, Mike Adriano, Steve Holmes, Uncle D and Belladonna. Previous directors include Gregory Dark, Jules Jordan, Bruce Seven, Bionca, Alex de Renzy and Erik Everhard.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Gregory Dark left VCA over "creative differences" in the summer of 1995 and launched his own film company, Dark Works, with Evil Angel Video handling all distribution. His first film for Evil Angel was "Sex Freaks", starring Stephanie Swift, Nyrobi Knights, Lovette and Tom Byron. He also worked on "Snake Pit" and "The Best Of Gregory Dark". Dark has since stopped directing for the studio.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Jules Jordan formerly directed for Evil Angel, producing series including "Ass Worship". In 2006 he left to form his own company, Jules Jordan Video.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Erik Everhard also worked with the company, after directing for Anabolic Video, Diabolic Video and Red Light District Video. He left Red Light District in 2005 to join Evil Angel, before joining Jules Jordan Video.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Glenn King has also worked with the company producing several series including "Mean Cuckold" and "ManEaters".


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Stagliano has directed several series for the studio. By 2003 almost 30 entries in the "Buttman" series had been produced, some of them shot in locations including New Zealand, Prague (Czech Republic), San Diego and London. The premise of most of the films is Stagliano approaching a woman and persuading her to show him her buttocks, followed by their having sex. The films blurred the boundary between what was a pre-arranged set-up and what was real. It has also been turned into a comic-book.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: John Leslie had a successful career as an actor, then began directing for VCA Pictures in the mid-'80s. The first film he directed for Evil Angel was "The Dog Walker" in 1994, after its script had been rejected by VCA. Rocco Siffredi began working as a director for the company in 1994.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Joey Silvera started directing for Evil Angel in 1995. Previously he had been an actor, then directed for Devil's Film in the early 1990s, from 1998 onwards his 'Rogue Adventures' series (along with Devil's Film's own 'Transsexual Prostitutes' series) helped bring transsexual pornography into the mainstream. Christoph Clark joined the company in 1997. His first film was "Euro Angels". Nacho Vidal joined the studio in late 2001. Jonni Darkko first directed for New Sensations. In 2004 he formed Darkko Productions and joined Evil Angel.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Manuel Ferrara released his first Evil Angel film in May 2006, after working for Red Light District Video for two years. He was originally a protégé of Rocco Siffredi, and had an award-winning acting career, including an appearance in Stagliano's "Fashionistas". Jake Malone signed an exclusive distribution deal in June 2006.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Belladonna was first introduced to Stagliano by her then-boyfriend Nacho Vidal. Evil Angel is the exclusive distributor of titles under the Belladonna Entertainment and Deadly Nightshade Productions labels. Jay Sin started directing for Buttman Magazine Choice in early 2007, working on films including "Milk Nymphos 2", then became an EA director in January 2008.


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Sin is known for his extreme anal pornography, more recently including rectal prolapse in some of his videos. Many of his videos also feature women inserting objects such as oranges and baseballs into their rectums, then pushing the objects back out. Sin calls his films "artistic" and states that porn for him is "a way of life"


title: Evil Angel (studio)

text: Evil Angel Publishing is the magazine division of Evil Angel. In March 2007, it launched "Extra Parts", a 100-page publication featuring pictures from director Joey Silvera's movies featuring transgender women.


title: Keurig

text: Keurig is a beverage brewing system for home and commercial use. The machines are manufactured by the American company Keurig Dr Pepper. The main Keurig products are: K-Cup pods, which are single-serve coffee containers; other beverage pods; and the proprietary machines that use these pods to make beverages.


title: Keurig

text: Keurig beverage varieties include hot and cold coffees, teas, cocoas, dairy-based beverages, lemonades, cider, and fruit-based drinks. Through its own brands and its partnership licensed brands, Keurig has over 400 different varieties and over 60 brands of coffee and other beverages. In addition to K-Cup pods it includes Vue, K-Carafe, and K-Mug pods as well.


title: Keurig

text: The original single-serve brewer and coffee-pod manufacturing company, Keurig, Inc., was founded in Massachusetts in 1992. It launched its first brewers and K-Cup pods in 1998, targeting the office market. As the single-cup brewing system gained popularity, brewers for home use were added in 2004. In 2006, the publicly traded Vermont-based specialty-coffee company Green Mountain Coffee Roasters acquired Keurig, sparking rapid growth for both companies. In 2012 Keurig's main patent on its K-Cup pods expired, leading to new product launches, including brewer models that only accept pods from Keurig brands.


title: Keurig

text: From 2006 to 2014, Keurig, Inc. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. When Green Mountain Coffee Roasters changed its name to Keurig Green Mountain in March 2014, Keurig ceased to be a separate business unit and subsidiary, and instead became Keurig Green Mountain's main brand. In 2016, Keurig Green Mountain was acquired by an investor group led by private-equity firm JAB Holding Company for nearly $14 billion. In July 2018, Keurig Green Mountain merged with Dr Pepper Snapple Group in a deal worth $18.7 billion, creating Keurig Dr Pepper, a publicly traded conglomerate which is the third largest beverage company in North America.


title: Keurig

text: Keurig founders John Sylvan and Peter Dragone had been college roommates at Colby College in Maine in the late 1970s. In the early 1990s, Sylvan, a tinkerer, had quit his tech job in Massachusetts, and wanted to solve the commonplace problem of office coffee – a full pot of brewed coffee which sits and grows bitter, dense, and stale – by creating a single-serving pod of coffee grounds and a machine that would brew it. Living in Greater Boston, he went through extensive trial and error trying to create a pod and a brewing machine. By 1992, to help create a business plan, he brought in Dragone, then working as director of finance for Chiquita, as a partner. They founded the company in 1992, calling it Keurig; Sylvan later said that the name came from his having "looked up the word "excellence" in Dutch".


title: Keurig

text: The prototype brewing machines were also a work in progress and unreliable, and the company needed funds for development. That year, they approached what was then Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and the specialty coffee company first invested in Keurig at that time. Keurig needed sizeable venture capital; and after pitching to numerous potential investors the three partners finally obtained $50,000 from Minneapolis-based investor Food Fund in 1994, and later the Cambridge-based fund MDT Advisers contributed $1,000,000. In 1995, Larry Kernan, a principal at MDT Advisers, became Chairman of Keurig, a position he retained through 2002. Sylvan did not work well with the new investors, and in 1997 he was forced out, selling his stake in the company for $50,000. Dragone left a few months later but decided to retain his stake.


title: Keurig

text: In 1997, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters became the first roaster to offer its coffee in the Keurig "K-Cup" pod for the newly market-ready Keurig Single-Cup Brewing System, and in 1998 Keurig delivered its first brewing system, the B2000, designed for offices. Distribution began in New York and New England. The target market at that time was still office use, and Keurig hoped to capture some of Starbucks' market. To satisfy brand loyalty and individual tastes, Keurig found and enlisted a variety of regionally known coffee brands that catered to various flavor preferences. The first of these was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and additional licensees for the K-Cup line included Tully's Coffee, Timothy's World Coffee, Diedrich Coffee, and Van Houtte, although Green Mountain was the dominant brand. Keurig also partnered with a variety of established national U.S. coffee brands for K-Cup varieties, and in 2000, the company also branched out the beverage offerings in its K-Cup pods to include hot chocolate and a variety of teas. The brewing machines were large, and hooked up to an office's water supply; Keurig sold them to local coffee distributors, who installed them in offices for little or no money, relying on the K-Cups for profits.


title: Keurig

text: Keurig is credited with creating a new category with their cup-at-a-time pod-style brewing that was both a breakthrough product and a breakthrough business model.


title: Keurig

text: In 2002, Keurig sold 10,000 commercial brewers. Consumer demand for a home-use brewer version increased, but manufacturing a model small enough to fit on a kitchen counter, and making them inexpensively enough to be affordable to consumers, took time. Office models were profitable because the profits came from the high-margin K-Cups, and one office might go through up to hundreds of those a day.


title: Keurig

text: By 2004, Keurig had a prototype ready for home use, but so did large corporate competitors like Salton, Sara Lee, and Procter & Gamble, which introduced their own single-serve brewers and pods. Keurig capitalized on the increased awareness of the concept, and sent representatives into stores to do live demonstrations of its B100 home brewer and give out free samples. Keurig and K-Cups quickly became the dominant brand of home brewers and single-serve pods.


title: Keurig

text: In 2006, the publicly traded Vermont-based specialty-coffee company Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) – which had successively invested in and acquired increasing percentage ownership of Keurig in 1993, 1996, and 2003, by which time it had a 43% ownership – completed its full acquisition of Keurig. Green Mountain also acquired the four additional Keurig licensees, Tully's Coffee, Timothy's World Coffee, Diedrich Coffee, and Van Houtte, in 2009 and 2010.


title: Keurig

text: The joining of Keurig and Green Mountain combined a highly technological brewing-machine manufacturer and a nationwide high-end coffee provider into one company, and created an effective "razor/razorblade" model that allowed for explosive growth and high profits. By 2008, K-Cup pods became available for sale in supermarkets across the U.S. Coffee pod machine sales overall multiplied more than six-fold over the six years from 2008 to 2014. In 2010, Keurig and K-Cup sales topped $1.2billion. The high-margin profits from K-Cup pods are the bulk of the company's income; for fiscal year 2014, Keurig generated $822.3 million in sales from brewers and accessories, while the pods had $3.6 billion in sales.


title: Keurig

text: In February 2011, Green Mountain announced an agreement with Dunkin' Donuts to make Dunkin’ Donuts coffee available in single-serve K-Cup pods for use with Keurig Single-Cup Brewers. In addition, participating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants on occasion offer Keurig Single-Cup Brewers for sale. In March 2011, Green Mountain Coffee and Starbucks announced a similar deal whereby Starbucks would sell its coffee and tea in Keurig single-serve pods, and would in return sell Keurig machines in their stores as part of the deal.


title: Keurig

text: The company introduced the Keurig Vue brewer, paired with new Vue pods, in February 2012, seven months before the key patent on the K-Cup expired in September 2012. The Vue system was announced as having customizable features so consumers had control over the strength, size, and temperature of their beverages, and the Vue pod is made of recyclable #5 plastic. The Vue brewer was discontinued in 2014, although Keurig still sells the Vue pods.


title: Keurig

text: In November 2012, GMCR released its espresso, cappuccino, and latte brewer, the Rivo, co-developed with the Italian coffee company Lavazza; it was discontinued in December 2016. In the fall of 2013, the company released a full-pot brewer, the Keurig Bolt, for use mainly in offices; it was discontinued in December 2016.


title: Keurig

text: In November 2013, Keurig opened a retail store inside the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts. The store features the full line of Keurig machines and accessories, and nearly 200 varieties of K-Cups for creating individualized 3-, 6-, or 12-pod boxes.


title: Keurig

text: In February 2014, The Coca-Cola Company purchased a 10% stake in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, valued at $1.25 billion, with an option to increase their stake to 16%, which was exercised in May 2014. The partnership was part of Coca-Cola's support of a cold beverage system developed by Keurig to allow customers to make Coca-Cola and other brand beverages at home. In January 2015, the company made a similar deal with Dr Pepper Snapple Group, but without a stockholder stake. The cold beverage system, Keurig Kold, launched in September 2015.


title: Keurig

text: In early March 2014, shareholders of Keurig's parent company, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, voted to change its name to Keurig Green Mountain to reflect its business of selling Keurig coffee makers. Keurig Green Mountain's stock-market symbol remained "GMCR".


title: Keurig

text: In the fall of 2014, Keurig Green Mountain introduced the Keurig 2.0 brewer, with technology to prevent old or unlicensed pods being used in the brewer. The digital lock-out sparked hacking attempts and anti-trust lawsuits. The Keurig 2.0 K-Cup pods come in 400 varieties from 60 brands, and as of 2015 the 2.0 K-Cup, K-Carafe, and K-Mug pods encompass 500 varieties from 75 brands. The 2.0 brewer also has the capacity to brew full carafes in three settings from 2 to 5 cups, via the use of the new K-Carafe pod.


title: Keurig

text: In March 2015, Keurig launched the K-Mug pod, a recyclable pod which brews large travel mug–sized portions. The K-Mug pods, for use in the Keurig 2.0 brewing system, brew 12-, 14-, and 16-ounce cups, and the plastic is recyclable #5 polypropylene plastic.


title: Keurig

text: In mid 2015, Keurig debuted the K200, a smaller Keurig 2.0 model that can brew single cups or four-cup carafes and comes in a variety of colors. General Electric announced that its new Café French Door refrigerator, due out in late 2015, will have a Keurig coffee machine built into the door.


title: Keurig

text: In September 2015, Keurig launched a line of Campbell's Soup available in K-Cups. The Campbell's Fresh-Brewed Soup Kits come with a packet of noodles and a K-Cup pod of soup. The product is available in two varieties: Homestyle Chicken Broth & Noodle, and Southwest Style Chicken Broth & Noodle.


title: Keurig

text: Also in September 2015, Keurig launched Keurig Kold, a brewer which creates a variety of cold beverages including soft drinks, functional beverages, and sparkling waters. The machine brews beverages from The Coca-Cola Company (e.g. Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Fanta) and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group (e.g. Dr Pepper, Canada Dry) and Keurig's own line of flavored sparkling and non-sparkling waters and teas, sports drinks, and soda-fountain drinks.


title: Keurig

text: In December 2015, it was announced that Keurig Green Mountain would be sold to an investor group led by private-equity firm JAB Holding Company for nearly $14 billion. The acquisition was completed in March 2016.


title: Keurig

text: In July 2018, Keurig Green Mountain merged with Dr Pepper Snapple Group in a deal worth $18.7 billion, creating a publicly traded conglomerate which is the third largest beverage company in North America.


title: Keurig

text: Keurig launched Drinkworks Home Bar in late 2018, developed by Keurig Dr Pepper and AB InBev. The machine creates cocktails, beers and ciders through 24 different pods. The device launched to the general public in 2019. In December 2021 Keurig announced it was discontinuing the platform and offered refunds for the machines to purchasers.


title: Keurig

text: The company's flagship products, Keurig K-Cup brewing systems, are designed to brew a single cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or other hot beverage. The grounds are in a single-serve coffee container, called a "K-Cup" pod, consisting of a plastic cup, aluminum lid, and filter. Each K-Cup pod is filled with coffee grounds, tea leaves, cocoa powder, fruit powder, or other contents, and is nitrogen flushed, sealed for freshness, and impermeable to oxygen, light, and moisture.


title: Keurig

text: The machines brew the K-Cup beverage by piercing the foil seal with a spray nozzle, while piercing the bottom of the plastic pod with a discharge nozzle. Grounds contained inside the K-Cup pod are in a paper filter. Hot water is forced under pressure through the K-Cup pod, passing through the grounds and through the filter. A brewing temperature of is the default setting, with some models permitting users to adjust the temperature downward by five degrees.


title: Keurig

text: The key original patent on the K-Cup expired in 2012. Keurig has later patents, including on the filtration cartridge used in K-Cups, and has also launched a number of new pods since the beginning of 2012.


title: Keurig

text: Keurig sells many brewing system models, for household and commercial use. Licensed models from Breville, Cuisinart, and Mr. Coffee, were introduced in 2010.


title: Keurig

text: Its brewing systems for home use include single-cup brewers, and brewers that brew both single-cups and carafes. Keurig also sells commercial brewing models for offices and commercial venues.


title: Keurig

text: Through its owned brands and through its partnerships and licensing, as of 2015 Keurig's K-Cups and other pods offer more than 400 beverage varieties from 60 brands, including the top ten best-selling coffee brands in the U.S. The beverages include coffees, teas, hot chocolates and cocoas, dairy-based beverages, lemonades, cider, and fruit-based drinks. Keurig also offers Brew Over Ice pods for cold versions of teas, fruit drinks, and coffees.


title: Keurig

text: As of 2015, brands owned by Keurig/Keurig Green Mountain, and used in its K-Cup and other pods, include:


title: Keurig

text: Keurig was named Single Serve Coffee Maker Brand of the Year for four consecutive years from 2012 to 2015 by the Harris Poll EquiTrend Study.


title: Keurig

text: In the 2010s, beginning primarily with a 2010 article in "The New York Times", Keurig has been publicly criticized by environmental advocates and journalists for the billions of non-recyclable and non-biodegradable K-Cups consumers purchase and dispose of every year, which end up in landfills. Some competing single-cup brands have single-serve pods that are recyclable, reusable, compostable, or biodegradable.


title: Keurig

text: The cup portion of the K-Cup is made of #7 plastic, and although according to the company it is BPA-free, safe, and meets or exceeds applicable FDA standards, it cannot be recycled in most places. Even in the few locations in Canada where #7 plastic is recycled, the small size of the pods means they can fall through sorting grates.


title: Keurig

text: In late 2005, Green Mountain and Keurig launched the My K-Cup reusable and refillable pod, which could be filled with any brand of coffee. The product was discontinued in August 2014 with the launch of the Keurig 2.0 brewing system, and the 2.0 did not accept the My K-Cup pods. Consumer backlash prompted the company to announce in May 2015 that it was bringing back the My K-Cup and making it compatible with the 2.0 brewers.


title: Keurig

text: In 2011, GMCR launched the Grounds to Grow On program, in which office customers purchase recovery bins for used K-Cups, which are shipped to Keurig's disposal partner, which composts the coffee grounds and sends the pods to be incinerated in a waste-to-energy power plant. Critics point out that incineration produces airborne pollutants.


title: Keurig

text: Regarding potential recyclability, GMCR's vice president of sustainability stated in 2013 that "The system has a lot of pretty demanding technical requirements in terms of being able to withstand certain amount of temperature and to have a certain kind of rigidity, and provide the right kinds of moisture barriers and oxygen barriers and the like. So it isn't the simplest challenge." In 2015, Keurig Green Mountain's chief sustainability officer stated that every new K-Cup spin-off product introduced since 2006 – including the Vue, Bolt, K-Carafe, and K-Mug pods – is recyclable if disassembled into paper, plastic, and metal components. James Hamblin, writing in The Atlantic, argues that the level of conscientiousness required to disassemble the cups is somewhat of a paradox to expect from people using a push-button brewing process. In its 2014 Sustainability Report, released in February 2015, Keurig Green Mountain re-affirmed that a priority for the company is ensuring that 100% of K-Cup pods are recyclable by 2020.


title: Keurig

text: In August 2014, the Canadian chain OfficeMax Grand & Toy partnered with the New Jersey company TerraCycle to launch a K-Cup recycling program for businesses in Canada, using a recycling box purchased by the businesses and shipped to TerraCycle for recycling when full. In February 2015, TerraCycle launched a similar program for residential use in the U.S.: consumers purchase a Zero Waste Box which can hold 600 capsules, and when full the box, which has a pre-paid UPS label, is shipped to TerraCycle for recycling.


title: Keurig

text: In 2015, Egg Production created a Cloverfield-like short video on YouTube entitled "Kill The K Cup" to promote awareness of the waste impact of K Cup, starting the hashtag #KillTheKCup, and reporting that there were enough K pods sold in 2014 to circle the earth 10.5 times.


title: Keurig

text: In early 2014, following the announcement of its Keurig 2.0 machines engineered to lock out unlicensed pods, seven competitors and a number of purchasers filed lawsuits in Canada and in various United States federal courts. The complaints contain numerous allegations of anti-competitive actions designed to drive competitors out of Keurig's market.


title: Keurig

text: To handle the U.S. anti-competitive lawsuits, in June 2014 the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the litigation into one docket in the Southern District of New York, where Judge Vernon S. Broderick heard the consolidated case. The case had 46 plaintiffs, consisting of indirect purchasers, direct purchasers, and two competitors. Common allegations of the multidistrict litigation include claims that Keurig improperly acquired competitors, entered into exclusionary agreements with suppliers and distributors to prevent competitors from entering the market, engaged in unwarranted patent-infringement litigation, and unfairly introduced a product redesign that locks out non–Keurig branded cups.


title: Keurig

text: The introduction of the Keurig 2.0 brewer also sparked a number of hacks and workarounds by competitors and consumers in 2014. Rogers Family Coffee, one of the plaintiffs in the anti-trust lawsuits, created a "Freedom Clip" allowing unauthorized pods to work in the brewer. Another plaintiff, TreeHouse Foods, claimed to be able to produce its own pods that would work in the 2.0 system. A Canadian company, Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee, announced a capsule which would be compatible with the Keurig 2.0.


title: Keurig

text: In December 2014, the company recalled about 7 million of its Keurig Mini Plus Brewing Systems manufactured between December 2009 and July 2014 and sold in the U.S. and Canada. The recall was due to burn injuries reported from water overheating and spewing out of some of the machines, particularly if used to brew more than two cups in quick succession.


title: Keurig

text: By the first quarter of 2015, Keurig sales had dropped 23 percent year over year partly due to unease over Keurig 2.0. In response, Keurig announced they would revive the reusable My K-Cup product by the end of the year.


title: Keurig

text: In November 2017, Keurig posted on its Twitter account that it had ended its advertisements with Sean Hannity's program on Fox News, in reaction to Hannity's defense of Senate candidate Roy Moore, who had been accused of sexual misconduct against teenage girls. In response, videos of Hannity's fans destroying their Keurig machines proliferated on the Internet, with automated Russian accounts supporting Hannity's position on Twitter. In an internal email, Keurig CEO Bob Gamgort wrote that the way Keurig handled the situation was "highly unusual" and gave the unintended impression that the company had taken sides. Gamgort also announced an overhaul of Keurig's communications policies.


title: Keurig

text: In October 2020, Keurig agreed to settle for $31 million an antitrust lawsuit alleging they cornered the single-serve brewer market by making their machines only accept K-Cup coffee pods. Affected consumers had until July 15, 2021, to file a claim for the class action settlement.


title: Keurig

text: John Sylvan and Peter Dragone founded Keurig, Inc. in 1992, In 1995, Larry Kernan, a principal at MDT Advisers – an investment fund which had contributed $1,000,000 to the company – became Chairman of Keurig; he retained the position through 2002. Sylvan was forced out of the company in 1997, and Dragone left a few months later. Sweeney stayed on as the company's vice president of engineering; he later became Vice President of Contract Manufacturing and Quality Assurance.


title: Keurig

text: Nick Lazaris was president and CEO of Keurig, Inc. from 1997 to 2006. Keurig, Inc. was fully acquired by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in 2006; at the time, GMCR's founder Bob Stiller was its president and CEO. Stiller stepped down in 2007, but remained chairman until May 2012. Lawrence J. Blanford became Green Mountain Coffee Roasters' President and CEO in 2007. Brian Kelley, previously chief product supply officer of Coca-Cola Refreshments, became the President and CEO of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (later Keurig Green Mountain) in December 2012.


title: Keurig

text: Robert Gamgort, who had been CEO of Pinnacle Foods, replaced Brian Kelley as Keurig Green Mountain's CEO in May 2016 after KGM was acquired by an investor group led by JAB Holding Company,


title: MGA Entertainment

text: MGA Entertainment Inc. (short for Micro-Games America Entertainment; sometimes referred to as MGA) is a manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1979. Its products include, Bratz, L.O.L. Surprise!, Num Noms and Rainbow High. MGA also owns Little Tikes and animation studio MGA Studios.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: In 2018, the chairman and CEO of MGA Entertainment, Isaac Larian, announced that an Australian office of the business would be opening in early 2019.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: Introduced in 2001, Bratz is MGA's most successful product line, with various spin-offs from the original teenage dolls, including miniature versions (Lil' Bratz), kid versions (Bratz Kidz) baby dolls (Bratz Babyz), pets (Bratz Petz), tiny baby dolls with pets (Lil' Angelz), TV series (of the same name), live-action feature film ("") and direct-to-video film ("Bratz Girlz Really Rock") and numerous DVDs and soundtracks. Because of the lawsuit brought by Mattel against MGA in 2008, the Bratz Kidz and Bratz Lil' Angelz were renamed "4*Ever Kidz" and "4*Ever Lil' Angelz", respectively, before their eventual discontinuation in 2009. They returned in 2010 for their 10th Anniversary with brand new bodies and makeup, which resembled the makeup of the prototypes for the original dolls. In 2013, they were given a new, taller body and a brand new logo. They took a hiatus a year later to rebuild the brand to try and match their original success. They returned, once again, in 2015 with completely new branding, head and body molds, and the return of the original logo. They were met with low sales and dissatisfaction from children and fans alike, and were discontinued again in 2016. They returned in 2018 with a collector line designed by Hayden Williams, and relaunched the original 2001 dolls for their 20th anniversary.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: In 2009, a new doll line named Moxie Girlz was introduced. These Moxie girlz are similar, but legally distinct, from the Bratz line of dolls. This is to circumvent the ruling from the lawsuit described below.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: The Moxie Girlz were intended to replace Bratz, but when they came back, the Moxie Girlz became a separate line of their own. The line includes Avery, Lexa, Sophina, Bria and more characters, and has been around since 2009. They are similar to the Bratz line, only this line shows more modest fashions that typical tweens would wear.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: As of 2021, no Moxie Teenz were made after 2011, and Moxie Girlz were discontinued in 2014. Leftover dolls were made into Moxie Girlz Friends (exclusive to Target) and the Storytime Princess Collection (exclusive to Toys "R" Us).


title: MGA Entertainment

text: MGA introduced its Lalaloopsy brand in 2010 accompanied by the tagline "Sew Magical, Sew Cute." Lalaloopsy dolls were once rag dolls who magically came to life when their last stitch was sewn. Each Lalaloopsy doll has a personality reflected by the fabrics used to make them. They live happily together in Lalaloopsy Land, a whimsical world full of fun and surprises around every corner. Each Lalaloopsy doll comes with his or her own pet.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: Lalaloopsy dolls stand approximately 13 inches tall. Large dolls include Rosy Bumps 'n' Bruises, Crumbs Sugar Cookie, Dot Starlight, Peanut Big Top, and many more. In Fall 2011, MGA released Suzette La Sweet, a Lalaloopsy collector doll who was sewn from pieces of a duchess' dress.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: The Lalaloopsy line includes Littles dolls, the younger brothers and sisters of Lalaloopsy dolls. Just like their older siblings, the Littles magically came to life when their very last stitch was sewn. The Lalaloopsy Littles have their own unique personalities and pets. There are currently over 30 Lalaloopsy Littles dolls, including Matey Anchors (Marina Anchors' brother), Bundles Snuggle Stuff (Mittens Fluff 'n' Stuff's sister), and Scribbles Splash (Spot Splatter Splash's sister). The toy line’s popularity peaked at around 2013.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: Also in the Lalaloopsy line are Mini Lalaloopsy, Lalaloopsy Micros, and Accessories. The Accessories line includes outfits and furniture for the Lalaloopsy dolls and Littles dolls, and Mini Lalaloopsy playsets and vehicles.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: Lalaloopsy dolls are sold in-store and online at a variety of retailers. On December 7, 2010, Lalaloopsy won the People's Play Award for large dolls.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: The toymaker launched the unboxing toy line "L.O.L. Surprise!" ("Lil Outrageous Littles") on December 7, 2016. The brand became a huge success for MGA and the L.O.L. Surprise doll assortment was the #1 toy for 2017 through November in the US, according to The NPD Group. MGA Entertainment planned to double the sales of L.O.L. Surprise toys in 2018. Several new higher-priced L.O.L. Surprise toys were released over summer including the L.O.L. Surprise House, L.O.L. Amazing Surprise, and the L.O.L. Bigger Surprise!. The L.O.L. Amazing Surprise Playset was a Top 100 toy on Amazon in November 2019, according to Shareably.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: The L.O.L. Surprise brand was expanded in 2019 with the addition of the L.O.L. O.M.G. fashion dolls ("Outrageous Millennial Girls"). The new line received the award of Doll of the Year at 2020's Annual Toy Industry Awards in addition to the main L.O.L. Surprise brand winning the Toy of the Year award for a third consecutive year. 2020 saw the introduction of another spin-off line - the L.O.L. J.K. mini fashion dolls which were released during that summer.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: On October 8, 2021, an animated 47 min feature film, "L.O.L. Surprise! The Movie" was released on Netflix as an original movie. The film is about Queen Bee, a young girl who finds herself in the popular dolls' CG-animated world, where she must help them create a movie. It is the first feature length film of the L.O.L Surprise franchise. It received mixed-to-average reviews from audiences. Another movie, "L.O.L. Surprise! Winter Fashion Show" will be released in October 2022.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: Three video games, "L.O.L Surprise! Remix: We Rule The World" (2020), "L.O.L Surprise! Movie Night" (2021) and "L.O.L Surprise! B.B's Born" (2022), both developed by Maestro Interactive Games, have been released for the Nintendo Switch platform.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: "Project Mc" was a product line introduced in 2015. The line included science sets and a doll line which ran from 2015 to 2018. MGA also produced a live-action tie-in series with AwesomenessTV, a division of Viacom, which ran on Netflix from 2015 to 2017, spanning six series. The line's tagline is "Smart is the New Cool".


title: MGA Entertainment

text: True Hope was a special edition doll franchise introduced in 2012. In an effort to raise cancer awareness, MGA Entertainment created a line of bald Bratz and Moxie Girlz dolls, stating that "courage is always in style." MGA Entertainment said it would donate one dollar from every sale to the City of Hope Cancer Foundation.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: On July 20, 2006, MGA acquired a 19.2% minority stake in German toy company Zapf Creation. The deal allowed for MGA to distribute Zapf's products in North America and South America and for Zapf Creation to distribute MGA's products in certain European territories.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: During the 1990s, MGA also released handheld versions of various arcade games from Namco (Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Mappy), Taito (Space Invaders) and Atari (Centipede, Asteroids and Super Breakout), as well as handheld games based on Navy Seals, Goosebumps, Power Rangers and RoboCop, the latter two are not to be confused with similar handhelds made by Tiger Electronics.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: On March 13, 2018, MGA Entertainment confirmed in an email that it had submitted a bid for the Canadian division of Toys "R" Us. Their plan was, with a group of fellow toymakers, to keep some of its more than 700 locations open in Canada. CEO Isaac Larian made a statement during an interview saying "Toys 'R' Us Canada is a good business," and "If there is no Toys 'R' Us, I don't think there is a toy business."


title: MGA Entertainment

text: On November 14, 2022, MGA Entertainment acquired Australian animation studio Pixel Zoo and renamed it MGA Studios.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: In 1999, a rival to the Hasbro's Bop It line of games was made by MGA Entertainment under the name Super Click-It, and it was also made under the name Bonk It. It was sold in the UK by Marks and Spencer in 2003. The game unit has five actions which are Squish It (a double sided yellow button that is pressed), Zip It (a lever that can be pushed up and down), Twist It (an orange knob that looks similar to the Twist It knob from the Bop It Extreme), Blast It (a green fan that when the command is issued will work either by blowing or using one finger to make it work.) and Crack It (an object that is designed to pull backwards and then to normal position). The game has two game modes which are: One Player with Voice Commands (the voice will say: "One Player, Squish It!" when the player presses the Squish It button to select the game mode), One Player with Sound Commands (The voice will say "One Player" with a Squish It sound effect). There are also two two-player game modes which are Two Player Voice Commands and Two Player Sound Commands.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: The aim of the game is similar to Bop It where the game gives one command and the player has to obey and perform the action. The game has a maximum score of 100 points and on achieving the maximum score the player is celebrated with a fanfare. In the two player game mode, the game can continue up to 200 points if one player has scored 100 first. In the two player mode, the voice says "Switch" instead of "Pass It". Unlike "Bop It", the game gives the player more time to respond to the command. The game doesn't have any screaming sounds when the player performs the wrong action or runs out of time, instead cartoon sound effects are heard such as the "wa wa wa wa" melody or a slip up sound effect when a cartoon character slips over a banana peel.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: On July 17, 2008, the U.S. District Court in Riverside considered to rule a lawsuit between MGA and Mattel to fight over the creation rights of the Bratz doll line. The jury in the case determined that Carter Bryant, creator of the Bratz doll line, had violated his exclusivity contract and had designed the dolls while he was still working at Mattel. Mattel was awarded $100 million US in damages, far less than the $1 billion they were seeking.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: On December 3, 2008, U.S. District judge Stephen Larson granted an injunction requested by Mattel, which effectively banned MGA from manufacturing and selling Bratz dolls, though he allowed MGA to continue selling Bratz through the end of the 2008 holiday season. Larson determined that all of MGA's Bratz produced from 2001 through 2008, except for the Kidz and Lil Angelz lines, infringed on Mattel's intellectual property. Larson allowed MGA to continue to manufacture the Kidz and Lil Angelz lines, provided that they not be promoted under the Bratz brand. He also stipulated that MGA must, at their own cost, remove all Bratz merchandise from retailers' shelves, reimburse retailers for said merchandise, and turn all recalled product over to Mattel for disposal. In addition, MGA was to destroy all marketing materials, molds, and other materials that had been used in the manufacture and sale of Bratz. MGA immediately filed for a permanent stay of the injunction and, on February 11, 2009, was granted a stay through at least the end of 2009.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: On December 10, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted MGA an immediate stay of the injunction, effectively halting the recall of Bratz product, which was to have begun on January 21, 2010. In their initial ruling, the Court found Larson's previous ruling to be unusually "draconian", questioned why Mattel had simply been handed ownership of the entire franchise rather than be awarded a stake in the ownership of the franchise or a share of the royalties from future Bratz sales, and ordered MGA and Mattel into mediation.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: In April 2011, a federal court jury in Santa Ana, California, awarded MGA $88.4 Million and ruled that MGA didn't steal the idea for Bratz dolls from Mattel or infringe its copyright. Additionally, the jury found Mattel liable for stealing closely held trade secrets from MGA and other toymakers.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: Due to a technical procedural issue having nothing to do with the merits of the claims, the Ninth circuit vacated without prejudice the $170 million judgment against Mattel for this misconduct. On January 13, 2014, MGA filed a complaint for these claims in State court in California seeking in excess of $1 billion.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: In June 2020, Instagrammer Amina Mucciolo, known as Tasselfairy, alleged a doll in the L.O.L Surprise line called "Rainbow Raver" had plagiarized her likeness from photos posted on social media. MGA denied the allegations stating they "deeply respect the artistic and creative community and would not take from a creator in the way suggested."


title: MGA Entertainment

text: MGA founder and CEO Isaac Larian responded to the allegations on Twitter, calling Mucciolo a "Liar and a extortinist[sic] and fraud" and a "disgrace to Black people" and threatening legal action. He later deleted these messages and posted an apology before taking down his Twitter account after receiving backlash.


title: MGA Entertainment

text: In August 2020, media outlets reported that L.O.L. Surprise dolls, when dunked in cold water, show what seemed to be lingerie, tattoos, and bondage gear.


title: Pelagic fish

text: 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 do live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral reefs.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The marine pelagic environment is the largest aquatic habitat on Earth, occupying 1,370 million cubic kilometres (330 million cubic miles), and is the habitat for 11% of known fish species. The oceans have a mean depth of . About 98% of the total water volume is below , and 75% is below .


title: Pelagic fish

text: Marine pelagic fish can be divided into coastal (inshore) fish and oceanic (offshore) fish. 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).


title: Pelagic fish

text: Pelagic fish range in size from small coastal forage fish, such as herrings and sardines, to large apex predator oceanic fishes, such as bluefin tuna and oceanic sharks. They are usually agile swimmers with streamlined bodies, capable of sustained cruising on long-distance migrations. Many pelagic fish swim in schools weighing hundreds of tonnes. Others, such as the large ocean sunfish, are solitary . There are also freshwater pelagic fish in some of the larger lakes, such as the Lake Tanganyika sardine.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Epipelagic fish inhabit the epipelagic zone, the uppermost layer of the water column, ranging from sea level down to . It is also referred to as the "surface waters" or the "sunlit zone", and includes the photic zone. The photic zone is defined as the surface waters down to the depth where the sunlight is attenuated to 1% of the surface value. This depth depends on how turbid the water is, but can extend to in clear water, coinciding with the epipelagic zone. The photic zone allows sufficient light for phytoplankton to photosynthesize.


title: Pelagic fish

text: A vast habitat for most pelagic fish, the epipelagic zone is well lit so visual predators can use their eyesight, is usually well mixed and oxygenated from wave action, and can be a good habitat for algae to grow. However, it is an almost featureless habitat. This lack of habitat variation results in a lack of species diversity, so the zone supports less than 2% of the world's known fish species. Much of the zone lacks nutrients for supporting fish, so epipelagic fish tend to be found in coastal water above the continental shelves, where land runoff can provide nutrients, or in those parts of the ocean where upwelling moves nutrients into the area.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Epipelagic fish can be divided broadly into small forage fish and larger predator fish that feed on them. Forage fish school and filter feed on plankton. Most epipelagic fish have streamlined bodies capable of sustained cruising on migrations. In general, predatory and forage fish share the same morphological features. Predator fish are usually fusiform with large mouths, smooth bodies, and deeply forked tails. Many use vision to prey on zooplankton or smaller fish, while others filter feed on plankton.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Most epipelagic predator fish and their smaller prey fish are countershaded with silvery colours that reduce visibility by scattering incoming light. The silvering is achieved with reflective fish scales that function as small mirrors. This may give an effect of transparency. At medium depths at sea, light comes from above, so a mirror that is oriented vertically makes animals such as fish invisible from the side.


title: Pelagic fish

text: In the shallower epipelagic waters, the mirrors must reflect a mixture of wavelengths, and the fish accordingly, has crystal stacks with a range of different spacings. A further complication for fish with bodies that are rounded in cross-section is that the mirrors would be ineffective if laid flat on the skin, as they would fail to reflect horizontally. The overall mirror effect is achieved with many small reflectors, all oriented vertically.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Although the number of species is limited, epipelagic fishes are abundant. What they lack in diversity they make up for in numbers. Forage fish occur in huge numbers, and large fish that prey on them often are sought after as premier food fish. As a group, epipelagic fishes form the most valuable fisheries in the world.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Many forage fish are facultative predators that can pick individual copepods or fish larvae out of the water column, and then change to filter feeding on phytoplankton when energetically, that gives better results. Filter feeding fish usually use long fine gill rakers to strain small organisms from the water column. Some of the largest epipelagic fishes, such as the basking shark and whale shark, are filter feeders, and so are some of the smallest, such as adult sprats and anchovies.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Ocean waters that are exceptionally clear contain little food. Areas of high productivity tend to be somewhat turbid from plankton blooms. These attract the filter feeding plankton eaters, which in turn attract the higher predators. Tuna fishing tends to be optimum when water turbidity, measured by the maximum depth a secchi disc can be seen during a sunny day, is 15 to 35 metres.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Epipelagic fish are fascinated by floating objects. They aggregate in considerable numbers around objects such as drifting flotsam, rafts, jellyfish, and floating seaweed. The objects appear to provide a "visual stimulus in an optical void". Floating objects may offer refuge for juvenile fish from predators. An abundance of drifting seaweed or jellyfish can result in significant increases in the survival rates of some juvenile species.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Many coastal juveniles use seaweed for the shelter and the food that is available from invertebrates and other fish associated with it. Drifting seaweed, particularly the pelagic "Sargassum", provide a niche habitat with its own shelter and food, and even supports its own unique fauna, such as the sargassum fish. One study, off Florida, found 54 species from 23 families living in flotsam from "Sargassum" mats. Jellyfish also are used by juvenile fish for shelter and food, even though jellyfish can prey on small fish.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Mobile oceanic species such as tuna can be captured by travelling long distances in large fishing vessels. A simpler alternative is to leverage off the fascination fish have with floating objects. When fishermen use such objects, they are called fish aggregating devices (FADs). FADs are anchored rafts or objects of any type, floating on the surface or just below it. Fishermen in the Pacific and Indian oceans set up floating FADs, assembled from all sorts of debris, around tropical islands, and then use purse seines to capture the fish attracted to them.


title: Pelagic fish

text: A study using sonar in French Polynesia, found large shoals of juvenile bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna aggregated closest to the devices, 10 to 50 m. Farther out, 50 to 150 m, was a less dense group of larger yellowfin and albacore tuna. Yet farther out, to 500 m, was a dispersed group of various large adult tuna. The distribution and density of these groups was variable and overlapped. The FADs also were used by other fish, and the aggregations dispersed when it was dark.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Larger fish, even predator fish such as the great barracuda, often attract a retinue of small fish that accompany them in a strategically safe way. Skindivers who remain for long periods in the water also often attract a retinue of fish, with smaller fishes coming in close and larger fishes observing from a greater distance. Marine turtles, functioning as a mobile shelter for small fish, can be impaled accidentally by a swordfish trying to catch the fish.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Coastal fish (also called neritic or inshore fish) inhabit the waters near the coast and above the continental shelf. Since the continental shelf is usually less than 200 metres deep, it follows that coastal fish that are not demersal fish, are usually epipelagic fish, inhabiting the sunlit epipelagic zone.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Coastal epipelagic fish are among the most abundant in the world. They include forage fish as well as the predator fish that feed on them. Forage fish thrive in those inshore waters where high productivity results from the upwelling and shoreline run off of nutrients. Some are partial residents that spawn in streams, estuaries, and bays, but most complete their life cycle in the zone.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Oceanic fish (also called open ocean or offshore fish) live in the waters that are not above the continental shelf. Oceanic fish can be contrasted with coastal fish, who do live above the continental shelf. However, the two types are not mutually exclusive, since there are no firm boundaries between coastal and ocean regions, and many epipelagic fish move between coastal and oceanic waters, particularly in different stages in their life cycle.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Oceanic epipelagic fish can be true residents, partial residents, or accidental residents. True residents live their entire life in the open ocean. Only a few species are true residents, such as tuna, billfish, flying fish, sauries, pilotfish, remoras, dolphinfish, ocean sharks, and ocean sunfish. Most of these species migrate back and forth across open oceans, rarely venturing over continental shelves. Some true residents associate with drifting jellyfish or seaweeds.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Partial residents occur in three groups: species that live in the zone only when they are juveniles (drifting with jellyfish and seaweeds); species that live in the zone only when they are adults (salmon, flying fish, dolphin, and whale sharks); and deep water species that make nightly migrations up into the surface waters (such as the lanternfish). Accidental residents occur occasionally when adults and juveniles of species from other environments are carried accidentally into the zone by currents.


title: Pelagic fish

text: In the deep ocean, the waters extend far below the epipelagic zone and support very different types of pelagic fishes adapted to living in these deeper zones.


title: Pelagic fish

text: In deep water, marine snow is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. Its origin lies in activities within the productive photic zone. Marine snow includes dead or dying plankton, protists (diatoms), fecal matter, sand, soot, and other inorganic dust. The "snowflakes" grow over time and may reach several centimetres in diameter, travelling for weeks before reaching the ocean floor. However, most organic components of marine snow are consumed by microbes, zooplankton, and other filter feeding animals within the first 1,000 metres of their journey, that is, within the epipelagic zone. In this way marine snow can be considered the foundation of deep-sea mesopelagic and benthic ecosystems: As sunlight cannot reach them, deep-sea organisms rely heavily on marine snow as an energy source.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Some deep-sea pelagic groups, such as the lanternfish, ridgehead, marine hatchetfish, and lightfish families are sometimes termed "pseudoceanic" because, rather than having an even distribution in open water, they occur in significantly higher abundances around structural oases, notably seamounts, and over continental slopes. The phenomenon is explained by the likewise abundance of prey species that also are attracted to the structures.


title: Pelagic fish

text: 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 water benthic rattails.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Ray finned species, with spiny fins, are rare among deep sea fishes, which suggests that deep sea fish are ancient and so well adapted to their environment that invasions by more modern fishes have been unsuccessful. The few ray fins that do exist are mainly in the Beryciformes and Lampriformes, which also are ancient forms. Most deep sea pelagic fishes belong to their own orders, suggesting a long evolution in deep sea environments. In contrast, deep water benthic species are in orders that include many related shallow water fishes.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Many species move daily between zones in vertical migrations. In the following table, they are listed in the middle or deeper zone where they regularly are found.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Below the epipelagic zone, conditions change rapidly. Between 200 metres and approximately 1000 metres, light continues to fade until there is almost none. Temperatures fall through a thermocline to temperatures between and . This is the twilight or mesopelagic zone. Pressure continues to increase, at the rate of one atmosphere every 10 metres, while nutrient concentrations fall, along with dissolved oxygen and the rate at which the water circulates.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Sonar operators, using the sonar technology developed during World War II, were puzzled by what appeared to be a false sea floor 300–500 metres deep at day, and less deep at night. This turned out to be due to millions of marine organisms, most particularly small mesopelagic fish, with swimbladders that reflected the sonar. These organisms migrate up into shallower water at dusk to feed on plankton. The layer is deeper when the moon is out, and may become shallower when clouds pass over the moon. This phenomenon has come to be known as the deep scattering layer.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Most mesopelagic fish make daily vertical migrations, moving at night into the epipelagic zone, often following similar migrations of zooplankton, and returning to the depths for safety during the day. These vertical migrations often occur over a large vertical distances, and are undertaken with the assistance of a swimbladder. The swimbladder is inflated when the fish wants to move up, and, given the high pressures in the mesopelagic zone, this requires significant energy. As the fish ascends, the pressure in the swimbladder must adjust to prevent it from bursting. When the fish wants to return to the depths, the swimbladder is deflated. Some mesopelagic fishes make daily migrations through the thermocline, where the temperature changes between 10 and 20 °C, thus displaying considerable tolerances for temperature change.


title: Pelagic fish

text: These fish have muscular bodies, ossified bones, scales, well developed gills and central nervous systems, and large hearts and kidneys. Mesopelagic plankton feeders have small mouths with fine gill rakers, while the piscivores have larger mouths and coarser gill rakers. The vertically migratory fish have swimbladders.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Mesopelagic fish are adapted for an active life under low light conditions. Most of them are visual predators with large eyes. Some of the deeper water fish have tubular eyes with big lenses and only rod cells that look upward. These give binocular vision and great sensitivity to small light signals. This adaptation gives improved terminal vision at the expense of lateral vision, and allows the predator to pick out squid, cuttlefish, and smaller fish that are silhouetted against the gloom above them.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Mesopelagic fish usually lack defensive spines, and use colour to camouflage them from other fish. Ambush predators are dark, black or red. Since the longer, red, wavelengths of light do not reach the deep sea, red effectively functions the same as black. Migratory forms use countershaded silvery colours. On their bellies, they often display photophores producing low grade light. For a predator from below, looking upward, this bioluminescence camouflages the silhouette of the fish. However, some of these predators have yellow lenses that filter the (red deficient) ambient light, leaving the bioluminescence visible.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The brownsnout spookfish is a species of barreleye and is the only vertebrate known to employ a mirror, as opposed to a lens, to focus an image in its eyes.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Sampling via deep trawling indicates that lanternfish account for as much as 65% of all deep sea fish biomass. Indeed, lanternfish are among the most widely distributed, populous, and diverse of all vertebrates, playing an important ecological role as prey for larger organisms. The estimated global biomass of lanternfish is 550–660 million tonnes, several times the entire world fisheries catch. Lanternfish also account for much of the biomass responsible for the deep scattering layer of the world's oceans. Sonar reflects off the millions of lanternfish swim bladders, giving the appearance of a false bottom.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Bigeye tuna are an epipelagic/mesopelagic species that is carnivorous, eating other fish. Satellite tagging has shown that bigeye tuna often spend prolonged periods cruising deep below the surface during the daytime, sometimes making dives as deep as . These movements are thought to be in response to the vertical migrations of prey organisms in the deep scattering layer.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Below the mesopelagic zone it is pitch dark. This is the midnight or bathypelagic zone, extending from 1000 m to the bottom deep water benthic zone. If the water is exceptionally deep, the pelagic zone below sometimes is called the lower midnight or abyssopelagic zone.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Conditions are somewhat uniform throughout these zones, the darkness is complete, the pressure is crushing, and temperatures, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen levels are all low.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Bathypelagic fish have special adaptations to cope with these conditions – they have slow metabolisms and unspecialized diets, being willing to eat anything that comes along. They prefer to sit and wait for food rather than waste energy searching for it. The behaviour of bathypelagic fish can be contrasted with the behaviour of mesopelagic fish. Mesopelagic are often highly mobile, whereas bathypelagic fish are almost all lie-in-wait predators, normally expending little energy in movement.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The dominant bathypelagic fishes are small bristlemouth and anglerfish; fangtooth, viperfish, daggertooth, and barracudina are also common. These fishes are small, many about long, and not many longer than . They spend most of their time waiting patiently in the water column for prey to appear or to be lured by their phosphors. What little energy is available in the bathypelagic zone filters from above in the form of detritus, faecal material, and the occasional invertebrate or mesopelagic fish. About 20% of the food that has its origins in the epipelagic zone falls down to the mesopelagic zone, but only about 5% filters down to the bathypelagic zone.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Bathypelagic fish are sedentary, adapted to outputting minimum energy in a habitat with very little food or available energy, not even sunlight, only bioluminescence. Their bodies are elongated with weak, watery muscles and skeletal structures. Since so much of the fish is water, they are not compressed by the great pressures at these depths. They often have extensible, hinged jaws with recurved teeth. They are slimy, without scales. The central nervous system is confined to the lateral line and olfactory systems, the eyes are small and may not function, and gills, kidneys and hearts, and swimbladders are small or missing.


title: Pelagic fish

text: These are the same features found in fish larvae, which suggests that during their evolution, bathypelagic fish have acquired these features through neoteny. As with larvae, these features allow the fish to remain suspended in the water with little expenditure of energy.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Despite their ferocious appearance, these beasts of the deep are mostly miniature fish with weak muscles, and are too small to represent any threat to humans.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The swimbladders of deep sea fish are either absent or scarcely operational, and bathypelagic fish do not normally undertake vertical migrations. Filling bladders at such great pressures incurs huge energy costs. Some deep sea fishes have swimbladders that function while they are young and inhabit the upper epipelagic zone, but they wither or fill with fat when the fish move down to their adult habitat.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The most important sensory systems are usually the inner ear, which responds to sound, and the lateral line, which responds to changes in water pressure. The olfactory system also can be important for males who find females by smell.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Bathypelagic fish are black, or sometimes red, with few photophores. When photophores are used, it is usually to entice prey or attract a mate. Because food is so scarce, bathypelagic predators are not selective in their feeding habits, but grab whatever comes close enough. They accomplish this by having a large mouth with sharp teeth for grabbing large prey and overlapping gill rakers that prevent small prey that have been swallowed from escaping.


title: Pelagic fish

text: It is not easy finding a mate in this zone. Some species depend on bioluminescence. Others are hermaphrodites, which doubles their chances of producing both eggs and sperm when an encounter occurs. The female anglerfish releases pheromones to attract tiny males. When a male finds her, he bites onto her and never lets go. When a male of the anglerfish species "Haplophryne mollis" bites into the skin of a female, he release an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair to the point where the two circulatory systems join up. The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads. This extreme sexual dimorphism ensures that, when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Many animal forms other than fish live in the bathypelagic zone, such as squid, large whales, octopuses, sponges, brachiopods, sea stars, and echinoids, but this zone is difficult for fish to live in.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Demersal fish live on or near the bottom of the sea. Demersal fish are found by the seafloor in coastal areas on the continental shelf, and in the open ocean they are found along the outer continental margin on the continental slope and the continental rise. They are not generally found at abyssopelagic or hadopelagic depths or on the abyssal plain. They occupy a range of seafloors consisting of mud, sand, gravel, or rocks.


title: Pelagic fish

text: In deep waters, the fishes of the demersal zone are active and relatively abundant, compared to fishes of the bathypelagic zone.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Rattails and brotulas are common, and other well-established families are eels, eelpouts, hagfishes, greeneyes, batfishes, and lumpfishes.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The bodies of deep water benthic fishes are muscular with well developed organs. In this way they are closer to mesopelagic fishes than bathopelagic fishes. In other ways, they are more variable. Photophores are usually absent, eyes and swimbladders range from absent to well developed. They vary in size, with larger species greater than one metre not uncommon.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Deep sea benthic fish are usually long and narrow. Many are eels or shaped like eels. This may be because long bodies have long lateral lines. Lateral lines detect low-frequency sounds, and some benthic fishes appear to have muscles that drum such sounds to attract mates. Smell is also important, as indicated by the rapidity with which benthic fish find traps baited with bait fish.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The main diet of deep sea benthic fish is invertebrates of the deep sea benthos and carrion. Smell, touch, and lateral line sensitivities seem to be the main sensory devices for locating these.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Deep sea benthic fish can be divided into strictly benthic fish and benthopelagic fish. Usually, strictly benthic fish are negatively buoyant, while benthopelagic fish are neutrally buoyant. Strictly benthic fish stay in constant contact with the bottom. They either lie-and-wait as ambush predators or move actively over the bottom in search for food.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Benthopelagic fish inhabit the water just above the bottom, feeding on benthos and benthopelagic zooplankton. Most dermersal fish are benthopelagic.


title: Pelagic fish

text: They can be divided into flabby or robust body types. Flabby benthopelagic fishes are like bathopelagic fishes, they have a reduced body mass, and low metabolic rates, expending minimal energy as they lie and wait to ambush prey. An example of a flabby fish is the cusk-eel "Acanthonus armatus", a predator with a huge head and a body that is 90% water. This fish has the largest ears (otoliths) and the smallest brain in relation to its body size of all known vertebrates.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Robust benthopelagic fish are muscular swimmers that actively cruise the bottom searching for prey. They may live around features, such as seamounts, which have strong currents. Examples are the orange roughy and Patagonian toothfish. Because these fish were once abundant, and because their robust bodies are good to eat, these fish have been harvested commercially.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Benthic fish are not pelagic fish, but they are discussed here briefly, by way of completeness and contrast.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Some fishes do not fit into the above classification. For example, the family of nearly blind spiderfishes, common and widely distributed, feed on benthopelagic zooplankton. Yet they are strictly benthic fish, since they stay in contact with the bottom. Their fins have long rays they use to "stand" on the bottom while they face the current and grab zooplankton as it passes by.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The deepest-living fish known, the strictly benthic "Abyssobrotula galatheae", eel-like and blind, feeds on benthic invertebrates.


title: Pelagic fish

text: At great depths, food scarcity and extreme pressure works to limit the survivability of fish. The deepest point of the ocean is about . Bathypelagic fishes are not normally found below . The greatest depth recorded for a benthic fish is . It may be that extreme pressures interfere with essential enzyme functions.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Benthic fishes are more diverse and are likely to be found on the continental slope, where there is habitat diversity and often, food supplies. Approximately 40% of the ocean floor consists of abyssal plains, but these flat, featureless regions are covered with sediment and largely devoid of benthic life (benthos). Deep sea benthic fishes are more likely to associate with canyons or rock outcroppings among the plains, where invertebrate communities are established. Undersea mountains (seamounts) can intercept deep sea currents and cause productive upwellings that support benthic fish. Undersea mountain ranges may separate underwater regions into different ecosystems.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Small pelagic fish are usually forage fish that are hunted by larger pelagic fish and other predators. Forage fish filter feed on plankton and are usually less than long. They often stay together in schools and may migrate large distances between spawning grounds and feeding grounds. They are found particularly in upwelling regions around the northeast Atlantic, off the coast of Japan, and off the west coasts of Africa and the Americas. Forage fish are generally short-lived, and their stocks fluctuate markedly over the years.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Herring are found in the North Sea and the North Atlantic at depths to . Important herring fisheries have existed in these areas for centuries. Herring of different sizes and growth rates belong to different populations, each of which have their own migration routes. When spawning, a female produces from 20,000 to 50,000 eggs. After spawning, the herrings are depleted of fat, and migrate back to feeding grounds rich in plankton. Around Iceland, three separate populations of herring were fished traditionally. These stocks collapsed in the late 1960s, although two have since recovered. After the collapse, Iceland turned to capelin, which now account for about half of Iceland's total catch.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Blue whiting are found in the open ocean and above the continental slope at depths between 100 and 1000 meters . They follow vertical migrations of the zooplankton they feed on to the bottom during daytime and to the surface at night time.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Traditional fisheries for anchovies and sardines also have operated in the Pacific, the Mediterranean, and the southeast Atlantic. The world annual catch of forage fish in recent years has been approximately 22 million tonnes, or one quarter of the world's total catch.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Medium size pelagic fishes include trevally, barracuda, flying fish, bonito, mahi mahi, and coastal mackerel. Many of these fish hunt forage fish, but are in turn, hunted by yet larger pelagic fish. Nearly all fish are predator fish to some measure, and apart from the top predators, the distinction between predator fish and prey or forage fish, is somewhat artificial.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Around Europe there are three populations of coastal mackerel. One population migrates to the North Sea, another stays in the waters of the Irish Sea, and the third population migrates southward along the west coast of Scotland and Ireland. The cruise speed of the mackerel is an impressive 10 kilometres per hour.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Many large pelagic fish are oceanic nomadic species that undertake long offshore migrations. They feed on small pelagic forage fish, as well as medium-sized pelagic fish. At times, they follow their schooling prey, and many species form schools themselves.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Tuna in particular are of major importance to commercial fisheries. Although tuna migrate across oceans, trying to find them there is not the usual approach. Tuna tend to congregate in areas where food is abundant, along the boundaries of currents, around islands, near seamounts, and in some areas of upwelling along continental slopes. Tuna are captured by several methods: purse seine vessels enclose an entire surface school with special nets, pole and line vessels that use poles baited with other smaller pelagic fish as baitfish, and rafts called fish aggregating devices are set up, because tuna, as well as some other pelagic fish, tend to congregate under floating objects.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Upwelling occurs both along coastlines and in midocean when a collision of deep ocean currents brings cold water that is rich in nutrients to the surface. These upwellings support blooms of phytoplankton, which in turn, produce zooplankton and support many of the world's main fisheries. If the upwelling fails, then fisheries in the area fail.<ref name="Moyle574/5">Moyle and Cech, pp. 574–575</ref>


title: Pelagic fish

text: In the 1960s the Peruvian anchoveta fishery was the world's largest fishery. The anchoveta population was greatly reduced during the 1972 El Niño event, when warm water drifted over the cold Humboldt Current, as part of a 50-year cycle, lowering the depth of the thermocline. The upwelling stopped and phytoplankton production plummeted, as did the anchoveta population, and millions of seabirds, dependent on the anchoveta, died. Since the mid-1980s, the upwelling has resumed, and the Peruvian anchoveta catch levels have returned to the 1960s levels.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Off Japan, the collision of the Oyashio Current with the Kuroshio Current produces nutrient-rich upwellings. Cyclic changes in these currents resulted in a decline in the sardine "sardinops melanosticta" populations. Fisheries catches fell from 5 million tonnes in 1988 to 280 thousand tonnes in 1998. As a further consequence, Pacific bluefin tuna stopped moving into the region to feed.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Ocean currents can shape how fish are distributed, both concentrating and dispersing them. Adjacent ocean currents can define distinct, if shifting, boundaries. These boundaries can even be visible, but usually their presence is marked by rapid changes in salinity, temperature, and turbidity.


title: Pelagic fish

text: For example, in the Asian northern Pacific, albacore are confined between two current systems. The northern boundary is determined by the cold North Pacific Current and the southern boundary is determined by the North Equatorial Current. To complicate things, their distribution is further modified within the area defined by the two current systems by another current, the Kuroshio Current, whose flows fluctuate seasonally.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Epipelagic fish often spawn in an area where the eggs and larvae drift downstream into suitable feeding areas, and eventually, drift into adult feeding areas.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Islands and banks can interact with currents and upwellings in a manner that results in areas of high ocean productivity. Large eddies can form downcurrent or downwind from islands, concentrating plankton. Banks and reefs can intercept deep currents that upwell.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Epipelagic fish generally move long distances between feeding and spawning areas, or as a response to changes in the ocean. Large ocean predators, such as salmon and tuna, can migrate thousands of kilometres, crossing oceans.


title: Pelagic fish

text: In a 2001 study, the movements of Atlantic bluefin tuna from an area off North Carolina were studied with the help of special popup tags. When attached to a tuna, these tags monitored the movements of the tuna for about a year, then detached and floated to the surface where they transmitted their information to a satellite. The study found that the tuna had four different migration patterns. One group confined itself to the western Atlantic for a year. Another group also stayed mainly in the western Atlantic, but migrated to the Gulf of Mexico for spawning. A third group moved across the Atlantic Ocean and back again. The fourth group crossed to the eastern Atlantic and then moved into the Mediterranean Sea for spawning. The study indicates that, while there is some differentiation by spawning areas, there is essentially only one population of Atlantic bluefin tuna, intermixing groups that between them, use all of the north Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mediterranean Sea.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The term highly migratory species (HMS) is a legal term that has its origins in Article 64 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).


title: Pelagic fish

text: The highly migratory species include: tuna and tuna-like species (albacore, Atlantic bluefin, bigeye tuna, skipjack, yellowfin, blackfin, little tunny, Pacific bluefin, southern bluefin and bullet), pomfret, marlin, sailfish, swordfish, saury and oceangoing sharks, as well as mammals such as dolphins, and other cetaceans.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Essentially, highly migratory species coincide with the larger of the "large pelagic fish", discussed in the previous section, if cetaceans are added and some commercially unimportant fish, such as the sunfish, are excluded. These are high trophic level species that undertake migrations of significant, but variable distances across oceans for feeding, often on forage fish, or reproduction, and also have wide geographic distributions. Thus, these species are found both inside the exclusive economic zones and in the high seas outside these zones. They are pelagic species, which means they mostly live in the open ocean and do not live near the sea floor, although they may spend part of their life cycle in nearshore waters.


title: Pelagic fish

text: According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the world harvest in 2005 consisted of 93.2 million tonnes captured by commercial fishing in wild fisheries. Of this total, about 45% were pelagic fish. The following table shows the world capture production in tonnes.


title: Pelagic fish

text: In 2009, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) produced the first red list for threatened oceanic sharks and rays. They claim that approximately one third of open ocean sharks and rays are under threat of extinction. There are 64 species of oceanic sharks and rays on the list, including hammerheads, giant devil rays, and porbeagle.


title: Pelagic fish

text: Oceanic sharks are captured incidentally by swordfish and tuna high seas fisheries. In the past there were few markets for sharks, which were regarded as worthless bycatch. Now sharks are being increasingly targeted to supply emerging Asian markets, particularly for shark fins, which are used in shark fin soup.


title: Pelagic fish

text: The northwest Atlantic Ocean shark populations are estimated to have declined by 50% since the early 1970s. Oceanic sharks are vulnerable because they do not produce many young, and the young can take decades to mature.


title: Pelagic fish

text: In parts of the world the scalloped hammerhead shark has declined by 99% since the late 1970s. Its status on the red list is that it is globally endangered, meaning it is near extinction.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: Plitvice Lakes National Park (, colloquially "Plitvice", ) is one of the oldest and largest national parks in Croatia. In 1979, Plitvice Lakes National Park was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, due to its outstanding and picturesque series of tufa lakes, caves, connected by waterfalls.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The national park was founded in 1949 and is in the mountainous karst area of central Croatia, at the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The important north–south road that passes through the national park area connects the Croatian inland with the Adriatic coastal region.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The protected area extends over . About 90% of this area is part of Lika-Senj County, while the remaining 10% is part of Karlovac County.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: Each year, more than 1 million visitors are recorded. Entrance is subject to variable charges, up to 300 kuna or around €39 per adult per day in summer 2022.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The national park is world-famous for its lakes arranged in cascades. Sixteen lakes can be seen from the surface. These lakes are a result of the confluence of several small rivers and subterranean karst rivers. The lakes are all interconnected and follow the water flow. They are separated by natural dams of travertine, which is deposited by the action of moss, algae, and bacteria. The particularly sensitive travertine barriers are the result of an interplay between water, air and plants. The encrusted plants and bacteria accumulate on top of each other, forming travertine barriers which grow at the rate of about per year.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The 16 lakes are separated into an upper and lower cluster formed by runoff from the mountains, descending from an altitude of over a distance of some , aligned in a south–north direction. The lakes collectively cover an area of about , the water exiting from the lowest lake forming the Korana River.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The lakes are renowned for their distinctive colors, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colors change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The name "Plitvice" was first mentioned in a written document in 1777 by Dominik Vukasović, the priest of Otočac. This name was designated due to natural phenomena that have created the lakes. Nature formed shallow basins (Croatian "pličina" or "plitvak", "plitko" means "shallow"), which have been filled with water. For centuries, water has changed the limestone and thus the landscape of this area. The emerging travertine barriers decelerated and retained the flowing water. These dams are continuously growing in height.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: Some scientists refer to the river Plitvica as origin of the name. This little river flows into the Plitvice Lakes at the lower and final part of the lakes. A nearby village bears the same name. The water masses of the Plitvice Lakes continue as Korana river in northern direction.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The national park became famous during the 1960s and 1970s through several Western film productions of Karl May novels. Many scenes have been shot at the lakes or waterfalls.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The Plitvice Lakes have formed in a depression between the Mala Kapela mountain in the west and the Plješevica mountain in the east amidst the Dinaric Alps. The national park is located at the national route D1 Zagreb–Split between Slunj and Korenica in the vicinity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other larger municipalities within the surrounding area are Ogulin, Rakovica, Otočac, Gospić and Bihać in Bosnia.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The shortest linear distance between the Adriatic coast and the national park is . By road from the coastal town of Senj the distance is about . After traversing the Velebit mountain range travelers reach the Croatian karst plains of Lika. These plains are characterized by many karst poljes (e.g. the "Gacko polje").


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The fastest north–south road connection within Croatia, the A1 Zagreb–Split, runs about west of the national park and thus circumvents the protected area. Plitvice Lakes National Park can be reached from "Karlovac exit" in the north, from "Otočac exit" in the west or "Gornja Ploča exit" in the south.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The nearest airports are Zadar, Zagreb and Rijeka. The nearest train stations are Josipdol and Plaški, although no direct bus connection from these train stations to the lakes exists. Using public transport the lakes can easily be reached by direct bus lines from Zagreb, Karlovac, Zadar or Split.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The area of Plitvice Lakes National Park extends across two political subdivisions or counties (Croatian "županija"). Its area is divided between Lika-Senj County (90.7 percent) and Karlovac County (9.3 percent), hence the national park authority is under national jurisdiction. The overall water body area is about . The two largest lakes, Prošćansko jezero and Kozjak, cover about 80 percent of the overall water body area. These lakes are also the deepest, with a depth of respectively. On Lake Kozjak, low-noise and ecologically friendly electric boats are being used. None of the other lakes in the park exceeds in depth. The altitude drop from the first lake to the last is .


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The 16 lakes that can be seen from the surface are grouped into the 12 Upper Lakes ("Gornja jezera") and the four Lower Lakes ("Donja jezera").


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The highest waterfalls are the Large Waterfall (kroat. "Veliki slap") at the end of the Lower Lakes, over which the Plitvica river falls, and "Veliki Prstavac" at the Upper Lakes.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: Within the national park area there are 19 small settlements. Altogether they form the Plitvice Lakes municipality (Croatian "općina Plitvička Jezera"). The municipality is part of Lika-Senj County. The seat is located in Korenica.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The Plitvice Lakes area has always been regarded as part of the historic regions of Lika and Kordun. During the Ottoman Wars, the region was part of the Croatian Military Frontier that was under direct control of the Habsburg Council of War.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The particular geographic position of the Plitvice Lakes and the specific climate features contributed to the emergence of many natural phenomena and a rich biodiversity within this area. Despite the vicinity to the Mediterranean climatic region, a moderate mountainous climate prevails at the Plitvice Lakes. These climatic conditions prevail due to the Velebit mountain range, which acts as a climatic separator between the coastal region and the Lika high plateau. For centuries, legends have been created about this mythic mountain range.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The availability of water, influenced by the configuration of the terrain, has a great impact on the biodiversity of this area. The Plitvice Lakes are surrounded by various mountains. The western side of the national park area is enclosed by the Mala Kapela mountain, while the eastern side is enclosed by the Plješevica mountain, which also represents the border to Bosnia and Hercegovina. Plitvice Lakes National Park is situated in the Plitvice plateau which is surrounded by three mountains that are part of the Dinaric Alps: Plješevica mountain (Gornja Plješevica peak 1,640 m), Mala Kapela mountain (Seliški Vrh peak at 1,280 m), and Medveđak (884 m).


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The afforested mountain slopes serve as water reservoirs. They are also a refuge for many animal species. The large difference in altitude in a narrow space between the mountains in the south and the Korana river in the north also represents a significant criterion for biodiversity in this region. The overall difference in altitude within the national park area is 912 m (the highest elevation is "Seliški vrh" at 1279 m, the lowest elevation is reached at 367 m at the bridge across the Korana river).


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The national Park is underlain by karstic rock, mainly dolomite and limestone with associated lakes and caves, this has given rise to the most distinctive feature of the lakes. Right at the lakes, the "Golubnjača Cave" (145 m) before the second Korana waterfall and "Šupljara Cave" (68 m) above Lake Kaluđerovac can be visited. Other caves e.g. are "Mračna Cave" (160 m), "Vila Jezerkinje Cave" (104 m) and "Golubnjača at Homoljačko Field" (153 m). Within the national park, several pit-caves exist, such as the "Čudinka" pit-cave (-203 m) or "Jama" on Vršić (-154 m, length 110 m). In "Rodića Cave" at Sertić Poljana and in "Mračna Cave" at the Lower Lakes, cave bear bones were found, so these sites may be considered paleontologically significant.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The Plitvice Lakes originate in the south of the park area at the confluence of "Bijela Rijeka" (English "White River") and "Crna Rijeka" (English "Black River"). These rivers originate south of the municipality of Plitvički Ljeskovac and unite at one of the bridges in this village. From this place onwards to the lakes, the water masses are referred to as "Matica" (English for "water current," can also mean "root" or "origin"). At the bay of "Liman" (also called "Limun"), a part of "Prošćansko jezero", another little river flows into the lakes. This river is fed by permanent springs; the water quantity, however, varies. Temporarily, water from other, usually dead creeks reaches "Prošćansko jezero" from the west.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The river Plitvica reaches the Plitvice lake chain at the northern end via the "Large Waterfall". This place is called "Sastavci" (English "confluence" or "composition"). The water masses of the Plitvice Lakes and the river Plitvice form the Korana river.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: The underground configuration of the Plitvice Lakes consists of various geologic features. Generally, the whole area of Plitvice Lakes National Park can be attributed to the South-East European karst area. The typical feature of this karst area is brittle or porous rock, mostly limestone or dolomite. This configuration creates different geomorphological phenomena being referred to as dolina (sinkhole), polje, uvala, ponor, etc.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: In the future, the analysis of underground water courses could be an interesting field of research for speleologists. Up to now, little has been known about these unexplored courses. At first sight, a lack of water in the karst region could be ascertained. However, this is only the case on the surface. The major part of natural phenomena takes place underground, where an abundance of water exists.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: Due to the features of limestone, many rivers drain away into the rock. Therefore, extensive underground river systems exist. Upon reaching hard rock, rivers emerge on the surface. This phenomenon of underground karst rivers (Croatian "rijeka ponornica") can also be observed at the Plitvice Lakes.


title: Plitvice Lakes National Park

text: Tufa sediments have been formed from the Pleistocene onwards in sinkholes or depressed areas between the surrounding mountains. Generally seen, the underground of the Plitvice Lakes could be categorized into two zones. The Upper Lakes in the south predominantly consist of dolomite rock. The Lower lakes in the north predominantly consist of limestone rock. Dolomite rock is slightly harder than limestone. Though fragile upon physical influence, dolomite rock has lower water permeability properties. In contrast, limestone rock is more compact and massive, but has a higher water permeability.