PAINTED STINKFISH: Painted stinkfish are colorful and like to bury themselves in the sand.

PLANKTON: Plankton is an organism that cannot swim strongly, so it flows with the currents.

RIBBON WORM: Nemertine worms, also known as “ribbon worms,” can grow to be as long as a football field is wide.

SEA CUCUMBER: Sea cucumbers clean up the bottom of the sea.

SE ALILY: Sea lilies live on the seafloor and are similar in many ways to starfish.

SEAWEED: Giant kelp is the largest seaweed. It can grow two feet in one day!

SNAPPING SHRIMP: This tiny creature is only one to two inches long, but its tremendous snapping sound makes it one of the loudest animals in the ocean.

SPONGE: The Mediterranean bath sponge is soft enough to make a cushion!

STARFISH: Starfish are also known as sea stars. Most have five arms, but there is a seven-arm starfish as well as the crown-of-thorns starfish, which has up to twenty arms.

VENT TUBE WORM: Huge worms (as tall as a person) live near hot water vents on the ocean floor.

ZOOPLANKTON: This is animal plankton. Jellyfish are a type of zooplankton.

The News

WHAT IS TAKING SHELLY so long?” Echo asked. She swam back and forth, then peeked around the corner of her shell. If Shelly didn’t hurry, they would be late for school.

“Too bad I don’t have one of those gadgets humans use to talk to someone who’s far away,” Echo said.

People fascinated Echo. Ever since Shelly’s grandfather had told her about their machines that capture singing, Echo had wanted to see a human. She even wondered what it would be like to not have a tail.

She did a huge backward flip and smiled. Having a tail did have some advantages. If she kept practicing her flips, she hoped to make the Tail Flippers team at her new school, Trident Academy. Tryouts were this week. Her best friend, Shelly, had already tried out for the Shell Wars sports team at school. Echo did another flip, this time twisting sideways.

“That was great,” Shelly said, swimming up beside her.

“There you are!” Echo squealed. “Have you heard the news?”

“Yes!” Shelly shouted. “I can’t wait!”

“Me neither,” Echo said. “Come on, let’s get to school.”

The two mergirls splashed past the statues of famous merfolk in MerPark.

“I can’t believe Pearl was able to do it,” Echo said as they swam quickly along.

Shelly brushed a lock of red hair out of her face. “Pearl?” she asked. “Pearl didn’t even try out.” Pearl was another mergirl in their third-grade class, who seemed to think she was better than everyone else.

Echo laughed as they reached the entrance to their school. “You don’t have to try out; you just need lots of jewels to pay for them.”

“You can pay to get on the Shell Wars team?” Shelly asked. “I thought Pearl hated Shell Wars.”