The Ocean — coral reefs, whales & tides
65 illustrated ocean topics for ages 7–10: sharks, octopuses, coral reefs, the deep-sea trenches, currents, bioluminescence and how we protect the sea. Free.
Ages 7–10
What's inside
Coral Reefs — cities under the sea
A coral reef looks like a colourful rocky garden, but it is actually alive. It is built by thousands of tiny animals called polyps, each one smaller than your little fingernail. Together they make the busiest neighbourhood in the whole ocean.
Whales — gentle sea giants
Whales are not fish — they are mammals, just like you, so they breathe air and drink their mother’s milk. The blue whale is the biggest animal that has ever lived on Earth, bigger even than the largest dinosaur. And the giant of them all eats some of the smallest creatures in the sea.
The Deep Sea — the dark down below
Go down about a kilometre in the sea and the sunlight runs out completely — it is night down there all the time, forever. It is freezing cold, and the water above presses down with an enormous squeeze. And yet the deep sea is full of animals, most of which glow in the dark like living torches.
Tides — the sea breathing
If you sit on a beach all day, you will see the sea climb slowly up the sand and then slide back down again. That is the tide, and it happens twice a day almost everywhere. The surprising part is who is doing the pulling: the Moon, 384 000 kilometres away.
Protecting the Ocean — small hands, big sea
The ocean does a lot for us: more than half of the oxygen in every breath you take comes from tiny plants floating in the sea. Some of the rubbish people drop ends up there, especially plastic, and animals can mistake it for food. The good news is that this is a problem with real, working solutions — and plenty of them already started.
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