Some of these are probably not new to you but yes theyare all plankton. Plankton is a collective term that refer toall drifters in the ocean. They could be in deep water orshallow coastal areas, but all of them live and driftaimlessly in the water column. The name “plankton” in factaptly comes from the Greek word “planktos” which means“drifter” or “wanderer”. That said, we’ve often missed themin our incursions underwater because we naturally tend tolook for critters in the sea flfloor. All the while, they havebeen flfloating around and above us in midwater, just likethis sea butterflfly.Sea Butterflfly. Of late, the interest in photographicallydocumenting plankton has been growing, notonly for novelty’s sake, but for the fact thatthey resemble the other world. Take forinstance larval fifishes, albeit planktonic onlyuntil they grow into their swim-capable adultversions, these young critters are translucentand transparent-bodied to compensate fortheir poor swimming skills by this cloak ofinvisibility.Larval Flounder.This developmental design has enabled themto wander unseen in the water columnalongside unsuspecting predators. This is atypical characteristic with other meroplanktonor critters that go through a temporaryplanktonic phase. These larval fifishes do notlook anything like their adult versions. Acommon larval fifish in the coastal areas thatshow up on night dives is this larval flflounder.5 of 24