Vertical Migration and theDeep Scattering Layer
Rather than staying put and waiting forfood to fall from above, most mesopelagicorganisms make
vertical migrations.
They swim up at night to feed in the richsurface layers and during the day descendto depths of several hundred meters ormore. In the dim light they are probably relatively safe from predators. Some verti-cal migrators spend the day in a lethargicstupor, conserving energy until their next