Phytoplankton and other drifters

acrylic paints on wood, 80x120cm. 2023

When it comes to things drifting in the ocean, some are useless or harmful while the rest produce 50% of the oxygen on our planet. It should be an easy guess, which one of the above is phytoplankton.

While it’s not really a plant, nor an animal, these microscopic creatures wandering on the surface of the ocean are critically important for our environment. Phytoplankton, where ‘plankton’ from Greek means ‘a drifter’ take their name from their inability to move but instead drifting and letting the ocean take them. 

On top of their ability to produce O2, they massively help in absorbing carbon emission, locking carbon on the bottom of the oceans and turning it into fish food or rock formations like, for example, the White Cliffs of Dover.

All they need to be able to do their job is clean nutritious water. There are a few interesting solutions coming up to start farming plankton. However, let’s hope it’s not too late to clean up the oceans, so they can grow without our assistance.

The biggest thing we can do is ensure that we eat sustainable sources of fish.  Overharvesting the ocean is one of the biggest killers of plankton.

Fun fact about phytoplankton:

• Some of phytoplankton are bioluminescent and so they glow in the dark. Most of these plankton glow blue, but a few can glow green, red, or orange. 
• Individually invisible to a naked eye, together plankton can be visible from space. Just wow, right?