212 Ocean Trivia Questions (Ranked From Easiest to Hardest)

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212 Ocean Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)

1. What toothed whale with a falsely incriminating name belongs to the oceanic dolphin family? Also known as an orca, they have black bodies with a white underside and patches near the eye.
   
   Answer: Killer whale
   
   
2. Duke Kahanamoku, a Native Hawaiian, was an Olympic swimmer for the U.S. national team. But he’s probably best known for popularizing what sport, whose iconic boards were developed from Hawaiian olo?
   
   Answer: Surfing
   
   
3. Translating cleanly into English as “Saint Mary,” what was the name of the flagship that Christopher Columbus commanded alongside Niña and Pinta on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean?
   
   Answer: Santa Maria
   
   
4. What “C” New Zealand Peninsula, extending north from the western end of the Bay Of Plenty, forms a natural barrier that protects Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames from the Pacific Ocean?
   
   Answer: Coromandel Peninsula
   
   
5. What tremendous three-word site off the coast of Queensland is the world’s largest coral system, composed of over 2,900 of its namesake items and 900 islands, spreading over 2,300 square kilometers? It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
   
   Answer: Great Barrier Reef
   
   
6. Cephalofoil is the formal term for the distinctly shaped noggins of what 360-degree seeing shark group?
   
   Answer: Hammerhead
   
   
7. If you order uni at a sushi bar, you're going to get what spiky ocean dweller that anagrams to SURE CHINA?
   
   Answer: Sea urchin
   
   
8. In 1907, White Star Line ordered a trio of ocean liners from shipbuilder Harland & Wolff which were designed as the largest and most luxurious passenger ships in the world. The ultimate names given to the ships were Olympic, Britannic, and what third moniker?
   
   Answer: Titanic
   
   
9. What British overseas territory is partially protected from severe hurricanes due to a surrounding coral reef but remains frequently associated with disasters due to an allegedly large number of unexplained aircraft disappearances?
   
   Answer: Bermuda
   
   
10. “Morse” is an archaic term for which large marine mammal characterized by prominent tusks and whiskers?
    
    Answer: Walrus
    
    
11. The mysterious Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is said to have swallowed many ships, planes, and helicopters into its depths. In which ocean is this regional anomaly located?
    
    Answer: Atlantic
    
    
12. Mission Park in San Diego, CA is home to a location of what animal theme park and oceanarium? It used to best known for its connections to the killer whale Keiko and the movie “Free Willy”, until outside pressure limited their use of orcas.
    
    Answer: SeaWorld
    
    
13. What “B” fish, known as a “cuda” for short, is a large saltwater fish of genus Sphyraena?
    
    Answer: Barracuda
    
    
14. Which squid gets its name not because it has a taste for blood but from the dark skin on its arms that makes it look like it’s wearing a Dracula-esque cape?
    
    Answer: Vampire
    
    
15. In "Finding Nemo," what is the circus-related name of the type of anemone-dwelling fish that Nemo and his dad Marlin are?
    
    Answer: Clownfish
    
    
16. In contrast to bony fish, Chondrichthyes, such as sharks and rays, have skeletons made of which material?
    
    Answer: Cartilage
    
    
17. The flightless cormorant, the only known member of this bird species that has lost the ability to fly, fishes in the waters off of what isolated islands known for unusual animals?
    
    Answer: Galapagos Islands
    
    
18. What species of seal, Hydrurga leptonyx, gets its catlike name from the spotted pattern along its back?
    
    Answer: Leopard Seal
    
    
19. Literally the study of whales, "Cetology" is the title of the 32nd chapter of what lengthy American novel?
    
    Answer: Moby Dick
    
    
20. What iconic Australian beach has the Icebergs ocean pool, the Hall Street area, and the Coogee Coastal Walk? It gets its name from an aboriginal word meaning “water breaking over rocks.”
    
    Answer: Bondi Beach
    
    
21. What oceanic animal has the scientific name monodon monoceros, Greek for "one-tooth one-horn?"
    
    Answer: Narwhal
    
    
22. Founded in 1946, the IWC is an international organization that aims to "provide for the proper conservation" of what kind of marine mammal which includes the Baleen and Rorqual families?
    
    Answer: Whales
    
    
23. The largest living species of tortoise in the world is native to what island archipelago in the Pacific Ocean? The archipelago was also the name of a 1985 Kurt Vonnegut novel, about a shipwreck there.
    
    Answer: Galapagos
    
    
24. A "smack" is the collective term for a large group of what stinging, tentacled sea creatures?
    
    Answer: Jellyfish
    
    
25. The Pacific Ocean, is found off the American West Coast. How many U.S. states have coastlines on the Pacific Ocean?
    
    Answer: Five
    
    
26. Solar-powered desalination plants use the sun’s energy to take which shakable mineral you might keep on your kitchen table out of ocean water, thereby making it safe to drink?
    
    Answer: Salt
    
    
27. Mostly found shifting around under its water, what ocean is the namesake of Earth's largest tectonic plate?
    
    Answer: Pacific Ocean
    
    
28. The rare score of three under par on a single hole is called a "double eagle" or is alternately named after what giant oceanic bird?
    
    Answer: Albatross
    
    
29. On its east, the New Zealand city of Auckland touches the Pacific Ocean. What is the body of water that borders Auckland to its west?
    
    Answer: Tasman Sea
    
    
30. Measuring about 63 million square miles, which one of the world’s oceans is the biggest and deepest?
    
    Answer: Pacific
    
    
31. Don’t touch that dial! The Blériot XI is the aircraft French aviator Louis Blériot used to become the first person to fly an airplane across what famous arm of the Atlantic Ocean that splits Southern England from Northern France?
    
    Answer: English Channel
    
    
32. Some scientists believe that the spiral tusk on which type of Arctic whale helps it attract mates?
    
    Answer: Narwhal
    
    
33. What "A" word means a ring-shaped reef of coral that completely encloses a lagoon?
    
    Answer: Atoll
    
    
34. What's the better known name for the body part known scientifically as vibrissae, found on seals, walruses, and sea lions—oh, and house cats?
    
    Answer: Whiskers
    
    
35. Located about 120 miles east of the namesake islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, what famous trench is best known as the Earth’s deepest oceanic trench?
    
    Answer: Mariana Trench
    
    
36. The Japanese yachtsman Kenichi Horie was the first person to use solar power to cross what body of water in 1996?
    
    Answer: Pacific Ocean
    
    
37. Bearing the name of a ship from the far-west of Europe, what translucent, gelatinous organism from the Physaliidae family is known as the "floating terror" due to its painful sting?
    
    Answer: Portuguese man o' war
    
    
38. Although Christopher Columbus was an Italian citizen, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492 with sponsorship from the monarchs of what other country?
    
    Answer: Spain
    
    
39. What “A” fish, also known as longfin tuna, is of the order Perciformes and is one of the most sought after food fishes in the world?
    
    Answer: Albacore
    
    
40. According to a Season 10 episode of "South Park," the animated sitcom "Family Guy" is scripted by what whiskered Florida sea cows?
    
    Answer: Manatees
    
    
41. In what Texas city is Sea World located? (Hint: This city was the site of an important battle for Texas independence.)
    
    Answer: San Antonio
    
    
42. What was the name of the British ocean liner, briefly the largest passenger ship in the world, that a German u-boat sank in to international uproar. The sinking of this ship killed 128 Americans and is credited with helping turn American public opinion in favor of joining WWI
    
    Answer: The Lusitania
    
    
43. What “M” cliffs in the Burren region of County Clare, Ireland, are famed for their large vistas of stone butting out into the ocean?
    
    Answer: Cliffs Of Moher
    
    
44. Paul, a common octopus, became famous in 2010 for correctly predicting 12 of 14 matches in what quadrennial international sports event?
    
    Answer: FIFA World Cup
    
    
45. The balanamorpha are what suborder of barnacles, also the name of the nut of oak trees and their close relatives?
    
    Answer: Acorn barnacles
    
    
46. The Sargasso Sea of the Atlantic Ocean, the only sea without a land boundary, is named after a genus of which type of organism that is also called macroalgae?
    
    Answer: Seaweed
    
    
47. What cephalopod has the highest brain-to-body ratio of any invertebrate, with some 500 million neurons scattered across its body?
    
    Answer: Octopus
    
    
48. The koa tree is endemic to what U.S. state? The very sturdy wood from this true is resistant to saltwater and has been used for boat building and surfboards.
    
    Answer: Hawaii
    
    
49. In 1989, a ship hit a reef in the Prince William Sound and spilled more than 10 million gallons of crude oil over more than 1,000 miles of coastline. What was the famous, ill-fated two-word name of this ship?
    
    Answer: Exxon Valdez
    
    
50. What festively-named island in the Indian Ocean roughly 200 miles south of Indonesia is one of Australia's seven external territories?
    
    Answer: Christmas Island
    
    
51. What small, common forage fish, of the family Engraulidae, can be found in marine and fresh water? They are an acquired taste as far as food fish go, sometimes eaten out of a can, or served on a pizza.
    
    Answer: Anchovy
    
    
52. Summer 2023 drought conditions and low water levels led to a bit of a traffic jam in which canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and is a key point in global trade routes?
    
    Answer: Panama
    
    
53. Ocean currents are essential to the propagation of what kind of tree, defined as one of many species that grow in brackish or saline coastal waters?
    
    Answer: Mangroves
    
    
54. We're in the money! What species of sea urchin (known as sea cookies or snapper biscuits in New Zealand, or pansy shells in South Africa) is three to four inches across, flat, and with a calcium carbonate skeleton covered with tiny spines which makes it possible for the animal to move across the ocean floor? Their round skeletons, with their five-point radial symmetry, can be found washed up on beaches in temperate and tropical zones.
    
    Answer: Sand dollars
    
    
55. What type (or color, if you will) of squall is one where a big ol’ windstorm whips up over the ocean but is not accompanied by the usual dark ‘n stormy black clouds?
    
    Answer: White
    
    
56. At lengths of 39-43 feet (12-13 meters), you'd think they would be large enough not to be preyed on, but no...what whale species is the main predator of the giant squid?
    
    Answer: Sperm whales
    
    
57. What small, oily fish, also known as a "pilchard," probably gets its common English name from an Italian island where it was once said to be abundant?
    
    Answer: Sardine
    
    
58. Named for the fish eggs common at nearby State Fish Hatchery, Montana is home to the shortest river in the United States, measuring just over 200 feet. What is the name of this alliterative river?
    
    Answer: Roe River
    
    
59. Founded with the aims of developing and improving "economic cooperation" amongst its 21 member economies, the inter-governmental group APEC is comprised of countries around what ocean?
    
    Answer: Pacific Ocean
    
    
60. What French explorer and oceanographer co-invented the Aqualung, the first self contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), in the early 1940s?
    
    Answer: Jacques Cousteau
    
    
61. "Branchia" is the zoologists' name for what common structure found in aquatic organisms including fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and tadpoles?
    
    Answer: Gills
    
    
62. What green-skinned salad ingredient features in the name of a toxic echinoderm, capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction, that lives on the sea floor?
    
    Answer: Cucumber
    
    
63. Technically speaking, Norway's coastline is about 18,000 miles long, but only 1,600 miles if you omit what crinkly inlets?
    
    Answer: Fjords
    
    
64. Which type of ray gets its name from the Portuguese word for “blanket,” has triangular fins, and is known for its big brain (it’s one of the only sea critters that has passed the “mirror test” for self-awareness!)?
    
    Answer: Manta
    
    
65. What is the name for the barrier islands separating North Carolina's Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean?
    
    Answer: Outer Banks
    
    
66. Certain species of red algae seaweed of the genus Pyropia are used to make what dried Japanese seaweed, which is probably most widely known for being wrapped around sushi?
    
    Answer: Nori
    
    
67. In 1960, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard became the first people to reach Challenger Deep, the deepest point in the ocean. It was 2012 (52 years later!) when which Oscar-winning Canadian director became the third person to make the descent?
    
    Answer: James Cameron
    
    
68. Often considered the smallest-known species of shark, the dwarf lanternshark is only found in a small area of what tropical body of water?
    
    Answer: Caribbean Sea
    
    
69. The global intersection of zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude is found in which ocean?
    
    Answer: Atlantic
    
    
70. Texas tends to get a lot of hurricanes because it’s close to which basin of the Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea?
    
    Answer: Gulf of Mexico
    
    
71. What is the colorful name often given to what scientists call "harmful algal blooms" (HABs) which create toxins that result in the death of marine life and can induce illness in humans?
    
    Answer: Red Tide
    
    
72. Which E-term refers to the place where a body of freshwater (like a stream) meets the ocean?
    
    Answer: Estuary
    
    
73. Wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and salinity differences are all different forces that create what continuous movement of ocean waters?
    
    Answer: Currents
    
    
74. Traditionally, the word "caviar" only refers to roe from wild sturgeon in one of two seas that border Russia. Name either one of those caviar-rich seas.
    
    Answer: Caspian Sea or Black Sea
    
    
75. Sharing its name with a type of firearm is which species of shrimp, capable of using its claws to make a noise of up to 210 decibels?
    
    Answer: Pistol shrimp
    
    
76. What eight-letter "M" island country is located entirely in the Indian Ocean, has Malé as the capital city, contains 26 atolls, and has Dhivehi as the official and most common language?
    
    Answer: Maldives
    
    
77. Its origins are in the highlands of Peru (although exactly where is a matter of debate), but where does the Amazon River end up?
    
    Answer: Atlantic
    
    
78. What "K" island nation has the lowest GDP per capita in Oceania? The economy largely depends on international remittance of citizens working overseas, the nation's population is 110,000 and half of the population lives on Tarawa Atoll.
    
    Answer: Kiribati
    
    
79. During some feeding frenzies, blue whales can eat a daily total of more than 8 tons of what tiny crustaceans, whose name in Norwegian means "small fry of fish"?
    
    Answer: Krill
    
    
80. Which type of whale is also called the “toothless whale” because their mouths are specially designed to filter food out of seawater?
    
    Answer: Baleen
    
    
81. The neon blue "bioluminescent bay" off the island of Vieques is the brightest in the world. Vieques is part of what U.S. territory in the Caribbean?
    
    Answer: Puerto Rico
    
    
82. What is the common name of Pterosis, a genus of marine fish characterized by colorful stripes and venomous fin spines? This common name of comprises the name of a felid.
    
    Answer: Lionfish
    
    
83. The undersea arthropod’s name sounds more equestrian than epidemiological, but its blue blood is used by medical researchers to test out medicines and treatments. Its scientific name is Limulidae, but it’s commonly called what?
    
    Answer: Horseshoe Crab
    
    
84. What Pacific Northwest inlet of the Pacific Ocean is technically part of the Salish Sea and is considered an estuary?
    
    Answer: Puget Sound
    
    
85. The Vazimba are often considered to be the first inhabitants of which island nation in the Indian Ocean whose capital is Antananarivo?
    
    Answer: Madagascar
    
    
86. Reaching weights of up to 2,000 lbs, which species of sea turtle is the world’s largest species of turtle? The name of this species of turtle references its tough skin.
    
    Answer: Leatherback
    
    
87. Captain Ahab chased the monstrous white whale known as Moby Dick, but what whale is the only real world cetacean that is regularly white in color?
    
    Answer: Beluga
    
    
88. What species of shark found in cold-water oceans is believed to have the longest lifespan of any vertebrate animal, living between 250 and 500 years?
    
    Answer: Greenland Shark
    
    
89. Which group of typically colorful tropical fish species is named for their bird-like beak formed by the fused teeth of the jaws? Their feeding activity is important for the production of sand.
    
    Answer: Parrotfish
    
    
90. In what two oceans would you find sea snakes? These highly venomous snakes live in tropical and subtropical waters.
    
    Answer: Pacific, Indian
    
    
91. Optical lens making with a natural stone called Diyatarippu was common practice during the 1400s in what teardrop-shaped Indian Ocean country?
    
    Answer: Sri Lanka
    
    
92. Though their stinging tentacles aren't actually snakes, jellyfish are part of a subphylum named for what Gorgon?
    
    Answer: Medusa
    
    
93. Since they lead a more aquatic life than other salamanders, the wild-looking axolotl don't shed what external respiratory organ?
    
    Answer: Gills
    
    
94. Once called the Champa Sea by Southeast Asia and where one-third of global shipping passes through, what sea within the Western Pacific Ocean is surrounded by China, Taiwan, Borneo and the Indochinese Peninsula?
    
    Answer: South China Sea
    
    
95. Corals create a hard exoskeleton by excreting what chemical compound, CaCO3, which also makes up limestone?
    
    Answer: Calcium Carbonate
    
    
96. Pollywogs appear before King Neptune and his court to become shellbacks in a weird, unofficial U.S. Navy ceremony commemorating a sailor's first official crossing of what imaginary line?
    
    Answer: Equator
97. All seahorses belong to what genus, a name shared with a seahorse-shaped part of the human brain important to memory?
    
    Answer: Hippocampus
    
    
98. What island in the Pacific Ocean has been designated a Costa Rican National Park since 1978, has no permanent inhabitants other than Costa Rican park rangers, and is approximately 9 sq miles in size and 340 miles southwest of the Costa Rican mainland?
    
    Answer: Cocos Island
    
    
99. What type of squid, scientific name Illex illecebrosus, is a neritic squid found in the northern Atlantic Ocean? Their name points out their relatively miniscule dorsal regions.
    
    Answer: Shortfin Squid
    
    
100. From the Greek for "depths of the sea," what seven-letter B-word means the community of organisms—both flora and fauna—that live on or near the bottom of a body of water?
     
     Answer: Benthos
     
     
101. Also the nickname of a "Game of Thrones" character, what 2013 documentary exposes the consequences of keeping orcas in captivity, using SeaWorld's orca Tilikum as an example?
     
     Answer: Blackfish
     
     
102. What “W” Beach in La Jolla, San Diego, is one word that sounds like three words describing a combination of breeze and ocean water?
     
     Answer: Windansea Beach
     
     
103. The highly poisonous blue-ringed octopus warns people to "buzz off" by lighting up super bright rings powered partly by what G-word nucleobase that's in DNA and Monster energy drinks?
     
     Answer: Guanine
     
     
104. Which French river rises in the southern Massif Central and flows northwest for 634 miles to the Atlantic Ocean? This river gives its name to six departments.
     
     Answer: Loire
     
     
105. What technique uses concrete blocks to prevent ocean waves from damaging breakwaters and other seaside structures?
     
     Answer: Accrodpode
     
     
106. Sharing its name with a piece of sporting equipment is which fish, notable for the bioluminescent fishing rod-like appendage used to lure prey?
     
     Answer: Football fish
     
     
107. Which L-word is the legal term for stuff at the bottom of the ocean? Usually, it’s goods you tossed overboard with a buoy attached since you have the intent of retrieving them from the sea floor later.
     
     Answer: Lagan
     
     
108. Which type of plankton is self-feeding in the sense that it gets nourishment through photosynthesis? (Hint: They’re also called microalgae and dinoflagellates and diatoms are the two main classes of them).
     
     Answer: Phytoplankton
     
     
109. What Italian-derived word is defined as an area of calm sea water separated from the ocean by a line of rock or sand?
     
     Answer: Lagoon
     
     
110. Hiccup in "How to Train Your Dragon" and Captain Archibald in "The Adventures of Tintin" both have a surname that is also the name of what member of the cod family which lives in the North Atlantic Ocean?
     
     Answer: Haddock
     
     
111. What is the only fish known to be endothermic? Like birds and mammals, they are able to keep their internal organs warmer than their surroundings.
     
     Answer: Opah
     
     
112. The largest fish (sharks and rays) are cartilaginous (that is, they have skeletons made of cartilage). What is the largest fish with a skeleton made of bone (i.e., a bony fish)?
     
     Answer: Giant sunfish
     
     
113. The Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute for Oceanography boasts a 70,000-gallon tank habitat featuring a "forest" of what giant seaweed?
     
     Answer: Kelp
     
     
114. What is the name for a provision in an ocean marine insurance policy that adds coverage for damage directly resulting from the bursting of boilers or other mechanical failures, latent defects in the ship's equipment or machinery, and errors in the navigation or management of the ship? The beginning of the term sounds like a unit of measure.
     
     Answer: Inchmaree clause
     
     
115. Which river, found in North America empties into the Pacific Ocean just a little to the West of Astoria in Oregon?
     
     Answer: Columbia
     
     
116. Rising sea temperatures around the world put many of the globe's corals at risk of what process, by which coral expel the colorful algae that live inside their tissue?
     
     Answer: Bleaching
     
     
117. What substance, long prized by perfume makers--and banned in many countries in order to protect whale populations--is formed within whales' tear ducts?
     
     Answer: Ambergris
     
     
118. Perhaps you might go to a similar sounding place decades after leaving school. Of France's 11 overseas territories, French Guyana is by far the biggest in area, but which island in the Indian Ocean with over 800,000 people has the largest population?
     
     Answer: Réunion (Reunion)
     
     
119. The deepest part of the Pacific Ocean can be found in the Mariana Trench. What is the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean?
     
     Answer: Puerto Rico Trench
     
     
120. The Falklands War began on April 2, 1982, when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. On the following day, the Argentine Navy invaded what British controlled island in the South Atlantic Ocean?
     
     Answer: South Georgia
     
     
121. Luzon is the biggest and most populated island in what archipelago country in the western Pacific Ocean?
     
     Answer: The Philippines
     
     
122. It sounds fake but it’s true: The highest point on Earth (Mount Everest, at 29,000 feet tall) could fit inside the deepest point on Earth, which is what trench in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines? (Hint: The bottom-most point is called Challenger Deep and it's 36,000 feet down)
     
     Answer: Mariana
     
     
123. The European species of what fish has the longest migration of any fish, being born in the Sargasso Sea before swimming up to freshwater rivers, and then at the end of their lives swimming back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and then die?
     
     Answer: Eels
     
     
124. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, the largest UNESCO-designated Marine Protected Area in the world, is located in what country?
     
     Answer: Kiribati
     
     
125. The "sublittoral zone" is another name for what zone, a relatively shallow area above the drop-off of the continental shelf, which is a stable and well-illuminated region for marine life?
     
     Answer: Neritic Zone
     
     
126. On its website, it says that the firm is now nationwide law with marquee private and insurance clients in the United States, United Kingdom, and which archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean?
     
     Answer: Bermuda
     
     
127. At a whopping three percent of their body, the aptly named Bigeye species of what fish has the largest eyes in relation to their bodies of any living vertebrate?
     
     Answer: Thresher Sharks
     
     
128. In 1966, Nat Young became the world's first world champion at what sport in San Diego's Ocean Beach neighborhood?
     
     Answer: Surfing
     
     
129. In 2023, the city of Dallas partnered with what government agency in a study to determine where "heat islands" were in the city?
     
     Answer: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
     
     
130. "Plankton" is the term for aquatic animals (and plants) that cannot swim against the current so they drift, but what is the name for aquatic animals that can swim independently of the current?
     
     Answer: Nekton
     
     
131. Designed and built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, what was the name of the first ocean-going oil tanker?
     
     Answer: Vaderland
     
     
132. As of 2022, only 27 people have gone to the bottom-most point in the sea (that we know of, anyway). James Cameron, of "Titanic" fame, actually took a solo trip down. What’s the name given to the spot, which is in the Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench?
     
     Answer: Challenger Deep
     
     
133. What trench, located off the coast of Indonesia, contains the deepest point in the Indian Ocean, with a depth of 25,344 feet?
     
     Answer: Sunda Trench
     
     
134. In 2022, a cargo ship made by what corporation (maybe best known among the general public as a manufacturer of cars) made the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean using autonomous shipping technology?
     
     Answer: Hyundai
     
     
135. What large game fish, known to reach speeds of 97 kph, is the only species in the Xiphiidae family?
     
     Answer: Swordfish
     
     
136. In what body of water will you find the tiny island nation of Seychelles?
     
     Answer: Indian Ocean
     
     
137. Acanthaster planci, a large, venomous sea star, has what common name, which it takes from an item associated with the Biblical crucifixion of Jesus?
     
     Answer: Crown-of-thorns Starfish
     
     
138. Which award-winning actor known for “Hotel Rwanda,” “Ocean’s 11,” and “Iron Man 2” was born in Kansas City in 1964?
     
     Answer: Don Cheadle
     
     
139. The elephant bird, which became extinct in the second millennium AD, was a very large flightless bird native to which island in the Indian Ocean?
     
     Answer: Madagascar
     
     
140. Callinectes sapidus, a food crab native to the western Atlantic Ocean, is distinguished by what color on its shell?
     
     Answer: Blue Crab
     
     
141. A jellyfish goes through several phases in its life cycle, beginning as an egg, becoming a larval planula, a polyp, an ephyra, and then what final and most familiar stage, a word taken from Greek mythology?
     
     Answer: Medusa
     
     
142. Facing critical alterations as the planet experiences climate change. what ocean is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth?
     
     Answer: Arctic Ocean
     
     
143. King salmon, Quinnat salmon, spring salmon, chrome hog, and Tyee salmon are all alternate names for the official state fish of Alaska which is more often referred to by what name?
     
     Answer: Chinook salmon
     
     
144. The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up of 15 volcanic mountains in the Pacific Ocean. Spain ceded the largest island in the chain to the U.S. in 1898, and it today remains a part of the United States. What is this largest island?
     
     Answer: Guam
     
     
145. What is the loudest animal on earth? Talking about the loudest noise it can generate, not its proportion of time spend making noise.
     
     Answer: Sperm Whale
     
     
146. Young eels moving from salt water to freshwater are known by what adjective, thanks to the transparency of their bodies?
     
     Answer: Glass
     
     
147. The trash heap known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" exists inside the NPG, a system of circulating ocean currents. "N" and "P" stand for "North Pacific"; what word is represented by the "G?"
     
     Answer: Gyre
     
     
148. The bull species of what deep sea creature has evolved to store salt so it can go on hunting sprees in the ocean and fresh water?
     
     Answer: Shark
     
     
149. What tiny crustaceans are found in all the world's oceans, provide food for a wide variety of marine life, and have a name that derives from the Norwegian for "small fry of fish?"
     
     Answer: Krill
     
     
150. Contrary to its consolatory name, what species of lethargic shark is responsible for the fourth most human bites on record?
     
     Answer: Nurse
     
     
151. What word refers to small organisms, including both plants and animals, that are unable to move themselves against ocean currents?
     
     Answer: Plankton
     
     
152. What “T” eight-legged segmented micro-animals can actually survive in the vacuum of space?
     
     Answer: Tardigrade
     
     
153. The Pokémon Seel evolves into another seafaring creature that also is a "misspelling" of a sea critter. Name the evolved Pokémon or the correct spelling.
     
     Answer: Dugong
     
     
154. The Oceania country of Papua New Guinea has maritime borders. However, it only has one land border, with which other country?
     
     Answer: Indonesia
     
     
155. What unusual shark gets its name, which it shares with a common kitchen item, from the circular "plug" bites it takes out of its prey?
     
     Answer: Cookiecutter Shark
     
     
156. Despite its name, which bottom-dwelling fish that prefers tropical or subtropical waters does not have actual facial hair, just a couple of barbels hanging from its chin?
     
     Answer: Beardfish
     
     
157. The smallest fish in the ocean is the dwarf pygmy goby. It’s also sometimes named for the country where it’s most often found—which would be what archipelago in Southeast Asia?
     
     Answer: Philippines
     
     
158. "True seals" like grey, harp, and harbor seals are typically distinguished from their relatives--like fur seals and sea lions--by the absence of what anatomical structures?
     
     Answer: Ears
     
     
159. What is the most recently named ocean? This ocean would be the next to smallest, after only the Arctic Ocean.
     
     Answer: Southern
     
     
160. Sepia is the name given to the ink secreted by which marine creature? This marine creature can change its skin color to communicate and for camouflage. Though its common name includes “fish”, this creature is, in fact, a mollusk?
     
     Answer: Cuttlefish
     
     
161. Which Point refers to both the community and the peninsula that separates San Diego from the Pacific Ocean? (Hint: It’s the Spanish word for “hill.”)
     
     Answer: Loma
     
     
162. What whale species got its common name from the belief that pods were guided by a single namesake leader?
     
     Answer: Pilot Whale
     
     
163. Under the Mangusen-Stevens Fishery Conversation and Management Act, in the United States, NOAA is responsible for monitoring and protecting ocean fish. What does NOAA stand for? (This agency is also responsible for monitoring hurricanes.)
     
     Answer: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
     
     
164. What kind of fish has a pair of defensive dorsal spines, the second of which can only be "unlocked" by releasing the first--hence its name?
     
     Answer: Triggerfish
     
     
165. Which marine-dwelling bacteria is named for its blue hue and can produce toxins that are dangerous for humans and animals (who can easily stumble upon it in a lake)?
     
     Answer: Cyanobacteria
     
     
166. You probably couldn't eat a whole whale, but you might be able to eat what fictional cetacean introduced in the 1970s by the Carvel ice cream company?
     
     Answer: Fudgie the Whale
     
     
167. What shrimp species is sometimes called the "thumb-splitter" because of the incredibly powerful strike of its club-like claws?
     
     Answer: Mantis
     
     
168. Although sometimes called eel pie, the traditional coronation dish for UK monarchs—a tradition rejected by Charles III in 202—-is actually made with what jawless, eel-like fish?
     
     Answer: Lamprey
     
     
169. To demonstrate that ancient people of the area could have made long sea voyages using the materials and technologies they had before European contact, Thor Heyerdahl led The Kon-Tiki Expedition on an 8,000km journey across which ocean?
     
     Answer: The Pacific Ocean
     
     
170. Similar to a jellyfish in appearance, the Portuguese Man o' War is also known by what "colorful" two-word name, which it shares with a brand of specialty coffee shops?
     
     Answer: Blue Bottle
     
     
171. Usually, you watch them break against a sandy beach but the largest of which ocean-wind phenomenon actually occurs below the water’s surface? (And no, you can’t surf them).
     
     Answer: Waves
     
     
172. What type of fish, “r”ay-finned members of the family Echeneidae, use suction to hold onto larger marine animals, and are sometimes referred to as suckerfish? Their name comes from the Latin for “delay.”
     
     Answer: Remora
     
     
173. Also known as mola, which astronomical body features in the name of the genus that includes the heaviest species of bony fish?
     
     Answer: Sun
     
     
174. What internationally award-winning preschool program, shown in the U.S. on Disney Junior, includes a polar bear named Captain Barnacles, and teaches children about ocean life?
     
     Answer: Octonauts
     
     
175. Hooded, Bearded, Ringed, and Spotted are all species of what marine animals also known as pinnipeds?
     
     Answer: Seals
     
     
176. Which species of baleen whale are named for the distinctive triangular skull? This species of whale is thought to be able to live to over 200 years old.
     
     Answer: Bowhead whale
     
     
177. Patagonian and Antarctic toothfishes were given what other commercial moniker by a fish wholesaler in the U.S. in 1977?
     
     Answer: Chilean Sea Bass
     
     
178. Sharks aren’t covered in scales—those sharp things are actually tiny teeth. What’s the proper name for them? (Hint: It rhymes with tentacles!)
     
     Answer: Denticles
     
     
179. What biome is also known as the boreal forest or snow forest? The biome is identifiable through its coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. Although sparsely populated compared to other biomes, it is the world's largest apart from the oceans. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska.
     
     Answer: Taiga
     
     
180. Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl led a famous 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian Islands aboard what raft with a hyphenated name?
     
     Answer: Kon-Tiki
     
     
181. What deep-sea fish, named for its use of bioluminescence, is thought to be so numerous that it makes up two-thirds of the total biomass of all deep-sea fish?
     
     Answer: Lanternfish
     
     
182. This question stinks! Unlike fish, manatees lack a "swim bladder," an organ that helps regulate buoyancy. Instead, the prevailing thought is that manataees use what bodily function to control their buoyancy?
     
     Answer: Farting
     
     
183. Which marine mammals, also known as sea cows, live in warm coastal waters and primarily feed on underwater grasses? Unlike manatees, these mammals have a fluked tail.
     
     Answer: Dugong
     
     
184. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, what "P" word means relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea, oceanic? The term is used, among other things, to refer to birds such as albatrosses that spend much of their time (when not nesting) out on the open ocean.
     
     Answer: Pelagic
     
     
185. The vaquita, the smallest of all living cetaceans, is a species of porpoise endemic to which gulf that is also known as the Sea of Cortez?
     
     Answer: Gulf of California
     
     
186. What mascot of the U.S. Naval Academy also names a toadfish in the genus Porichthys, because its pattern of luminous spots resemble the buttons on a sailor's coat?
     
     Answer: Midshipman
     
     
187. What two-word "novel" island is the largest by area in the Pacific Ocean at over 800-thousand square kilometers?
     
     Answer: New Guinea
     
     
188. Officially classified as an anxiety disorder in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”, the fear of deep bodies of water is known as what 14-letter “T” word?
     
     Answer: Thalassophobia
     
     
189. What family of marine mammals includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises? This order of completely aquatic animals is made up of nearly eighty living species.
     
     Answer: Cetaceans
     
     
190. Starfish, sea urchins, and sand dollars are a few examples of which phylum of sea critter that live on the bed of the ocean and is easy to spot by their (typically 5-point) symmetry? (Hint: The name is Greek for “hedgehog skin”)
     
     Answer: Echinoderms
     
     
191. Captain James Cook gave the islands their current name, which comes from the Roman name for Scotland. Grand Terre (known to locals as Le Caillou) is the largest island of which French archipelago in the Pacific Ocean?
     
     Answer: New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie)
     
     
192. Getting stung by one most certainly does not rock. Closely related to scorpionfish, what group of fish from the genus Synanceia is considered the most venomous, with untreated stings sometimes leading to death?
     
     Answer: Stonefish
     
     
193. A fish's dorsal fin is located along its spine; what corresponding adjective starting with C describes a fish's tail fin?
     
     Answer: caudal
     
     
194. What “A” name is given to a number of different marine snails in the family Haliotidae?
     
     Answer: Abalone
     
     
195. What S-word is the technical name for the buoyant brown seaweed that floats on the ocean surface—sometimes for miles?
     
     Answer: Sargassum
     
     
196. Agnathans lack what body parts that other fish have? Hagfish and lampreys are agnathans.
     
     Answer: Jaws
     
     
197. Bearing iive young vs. laying eggs is the principle difference between rays and what similar, related fish?
     
     Answer: Skates
     
     
198. The largest aquarium in the world is located in what country? Its enclosures contain almost 13 million gallons of water.
     
     Answer: China
     
     
199. Divers, photographers and scientists set out on an ocean adventure to discover why the world's reefs are disappearing, in what alliteratively named 2017 documentary film?
     
     Answer: Chasing Coral
     
     
200. The inaccessible island rail, the world’s smallest flightless species of bird, is endemic to and island in which ocean?
     
     Answer: Atlantic
     
     
201. Copepods are small marine crustaceans found in nearly every saltwater and freshwater environment. Somewhat uniquely, these organisms have three of what part of the eye?
     
     Answer: Lens
     
     
202. The Sea Around Us, a poetic imagining of sea life, won a National Book Award for what writer and naturalist, most famous for writing Silent Spring?
     
     Answer: Rachel Carson
     
     
203. What is the word that describes fish that are born in fresh water, live out their lives in the ocean, and return to rivers and creeks to spawn? Salmon and striped bass are examples of this type of fish.
     
     Answer: Anadromous
     
     
204. What “A” type of penguin is one of the most prominent penguin species on the Antarctic continent? It comes from a French word meaning “noble in nature.”
     
     Answer: Adelie
     
     
205. Kelp forests are susceptible to predation by what two-word animal of the ocean bottom? Excessive damage by these creatures can result in areas barren of kelp.
     
     Answer: Sea urchins
     
     
206. From the Greek for "cuttlefish" and "knowledge," what is the zoological study of cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish, and nautilus) called?
     
     Answer: Teuthology
     
     
207. Deriving from the Latin words for "fin" and "foot," what is the name of the order of carnivorous, flippered mammals that includes seals and walruses?
     
     Answer: Pinniped
     
     
208. In ocean marine insurance, "PA" is the abbreviation for what term that refers to a partial loss sustained by a specified cargo or vessel?
     
     Answer: Particular Average
     
     
209. What theme park, meant to rival Disneyland, opened in 1958 in Santa Monica, CA, and boasted a host of attractions, including a sea circus, a simulated submarine voyage, diving bells, and an ocean skyway with suspended gondolas that took passengers a half-mile out to sea? The park shut down in 1967 after long-term construction in the area made it difficult for guests to reach the park.
     
     Answer: Pacific Ocean Park
     
     
210. Used for more than 50 years in cancer treatment, what drug, also known as "Ara-C" and "Cytosar-U," is the first ever isolated from a sea sponge?
     
     Answer: Cytarabine
     
     
211. You might assume that the deepest parts of the ocean are also the coldest, but they can actually get pretty warm thanks to which geological phenomenon where magma meets water on the ocean floor?
     
     Answer: Hydrothermal vents
     
     

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