Stories of Tiny Marine Life (For Planet Ocean Challenge, 02/06/2025)

This is my contribution to the second prompt of the For Planet Ocean challenge "Tiny Marine Life", for which I made 3 paintings using watercolour, pen and some fantasy... You can find my contribution to the first prompt (Stories of the Coastline) here.

Dinoflagellates and coccolithophores. Diatoms and cyanobacteria.

Chances are high you've never heard of these.  

Daisies and dandelions. Hazelnut and bearberry. Oak and lime tree.

These on the other hand, are probably quite familiar.

It’s odd that over fifty percent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by the first group, but we only know the second.

Shakespeare might have been wrong when he wrote the famous Romeo and Juliet quote "What’s in a name?” - implying that what we call someone doesn’t matter; it’s the inside that counts. He has a point. But giving phytoplankton unpronounceable, multisyllabic names doesn’t exactly help people remember them.

Maybe we should start giving our ocean’s phytoplankton some cute names, too.

If we can call land plants Dragon Fingers, String of Hearts, Pink Princess, or Angel’s Tears, why not do the same with marine photosynthetic species? Dinoflagellates could be Seaberries. Coccolithophores become Ocean Discs. Diatoms might be Marine Minestrone. And cyanobacteria could be Liquid Straw. Just like Angel’s Tears is so much easier to remember than Brugmansia suaveolens, giving phytoplankton popular names might help with their branding.

 

Why do I care so much?

Because phytoplankton produce over half of Earth’s oxygen and absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide. Some species are even known to produce dimethyl sulfide, a compound that influences cloud formation. How cool is that?! 

They are the foundation of all marine life. Phytoplankton feed zooplankton, which feed small fish, which feed larger predators - including us. Millions of species throughout the food chain depend on them.

They drive biogeochemical cycles (like the nitrogen cycle), and they help sequester carbon in ocean sediments through the biological carbon pump. Some even have enormous medicinal potential.

Also, they’re super cute - you know, under the microscope.

Reasons enough to admire them, love them, and take care of them.

We have a World Planting Day, a World Oceans Day, a World Animal Day. World Phytoplankton Day should be a thing too.

Children could dress up as phytoplankton and march in a street parade. In the evening, we could read them magical phytoplankton bedtime stories. We could create street art with a phytoplankton theme and order Dinoflagellate Cocktails on the beach. We could organize Plankton Light Shows on nights with bioluminescent blooms, hold citizen science events where people go fishing for plankton, or launch a Mindful Film Festival where we quietly watch phytoplankton drifting through the water column.

I can’t believe we’re not celebrating this already...

This post is part of my contribution to the For Planet Ocean Challenge 2025, using art and storytelling for ocean awareness.

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