• Positive:  In 1991, the United Nations passed a law to prevent the use of drift nets in areas where the Pacific White-Sided Dolphin were most abundant.
• Negative:  Over fishing in areas where pelagic animals, such as the Pacific Manta Ray and other types of fishes only found in these environments, can cause the population of these animals to decline.
• Negative:  Pollution is a huge problem in basically all environments of the world.  In pelagic environments, dumping of chemicals for industrial reasons and oil spills are only a few of the many pollution problems that humans can cause.

Q:What flora and fauna exsist in the Pelagic zone?

A: The flora includes Sargassum weed, red seaweed, brown seaweed, and green seaweed. to learn more, click seaweed or sargassum on the taskbar. The fauna includes Jellyfish, Turtles, Barracuda, Sharks, Mola Mola, Dolphins, Whales, Sting Rays, and schooling fish, among many others. To learn more about one of these animals, find the animal you want on the taskbar and click on it, or look it up on the homepage.

Q: What are the characteristics of the flora and fauna? what specific adaptations allow the species to thrive in this environment?

A: Many animals, and even some plants, use camouflage. Sharks have dark backs, and light stomachs, so that from the lop, the dark back blend in with the darkness of the ocean floor. From the bottom, the white belly blends in with the light at the surface. The sargassum fish also uses camouflage to blend into the sargassum weed. Predators, and its prey don't know the fish is there, giving the fish the occasional easy meal. Sharks have been around for billions of years, so now they are perfectly adapted, and almost perfect killing machines. A final adaptation can be seen in schooling fish. they stay together as a group, and swim in patterns, and sometimes gather in spheres, so that the enemy is confused, and thinks it is one large animal, instead on many small fish.

Q: What are the common abiotic factors?

A: Temperature is an abiotic factor in the entire ocean, but it changes acording to depth. It is a lot warmer towards the surface because the sun heats it, and the absence of sunlight as the depth increases causes the water to get colder.  Depth also is an abiotic factor; the deeper the water, the less sunlight plant have to photosynthesize.  This is why plants cannot exists when the depth becomes too great.  Plants that can exist at deeper levels of the ocean have to survive by absorbing less light, causing their coloration to be affected.  Also, when the light decreases, the fish no longer can see or have coloration.  At a certain depth, some fish use bioluminescents to allow them to see and attract their prey.  Bioluminescents is a process in which some fish use bacteria to create light. 

Oveall, abiotic factors force animals and plants to evolve in order to survive in their environments.