Colourful coral reef fish tend to stay close to their territory on the reef. The deep ocean floor supports a special community of animals. Although seaweeds grow from the sea floor near coasts, it is too dark at the bottom of the deep ocean for plants to live. Some organisms living here look a little like plants but actually they are animals like sponges, sea mats, sea anemones, and sea squirts. Dead plankton, fish and fish faeces fall to the ocean floor where they are consumed by the decomposers.
Some creatures crawl over the bottom or burrow beneath it.
They include lobsters, crabs, prawns, starfish, brittlestars, featherstars, and many kinds of sea slugs and worms. Finally, there are the bottom-feeding fish such as rays, turbots, halibuts and gurnards. Creatures of the deep Much of the ocean is so deep that no light penetrates. Many fish that live at such depths have developed light-emitting organs that signal other fish or attract prey. Despite their huge size, the oceans have been greatly affected by human activity.