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How the oceans have become hostile for animals

Climate change and overfishing have rocked life in the ocean—but some species fare better than others.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL NICKLEN, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

TRADITIONALLY, THE OCEAN wasn’t all that hostile of a place to live. The species that make the ocean their home have evolved over millennia to thrive in its depths.

What seems mind-boggling to us-a fish’s ability to live five miles under the sea, for instance-is just life for other animals. "That environment’s not hostile to them-its like us being in our living rooms," says Matthew Savoca, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, in Monterey.

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