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Are you a fan of the ocean?
Do you love learning about all the different creatures that live beneath the waves?
We've compiled a list of 154 ocean trivia questions all about the ocean, from gigantic squids to tiny plankton.
So, dive on in and test your knowledge!
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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. 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
3. 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
4. Cephalofoil is the formal term for the distinctly shaped noggins of what 360-degree seeing shark group?
Answer: Hammerhead
5. 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
6. Phonorids, marine animals that filter feed and build homes out of chitin, are also known as what type of worm? The word is also an allegedly lucky item that is usually made to help a bronco walk.
Answer: Horseshoe Worms
7. “Morse” is an archaic term for which large marine mammal characterized by prominent tusks and whiskers?
Answer: Walrus
8. 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
9. What “B” fish, known as a “cuda” for short, is a large saltwater fish of genus Sphyraena?
Answer: Barracuda
10. 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
11. 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
12. In contrast to bony fish, Chondrichthyes, such as sharks and rays, have skeletons made of which material?
Answer: Cartilage
13. 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
14. What species of seal, Hydrurga leptonyx, gets its catlike name from the spotted pattern along its back?
Answer: Leopard Seal
15. Literally the study of whales, "Cetology" is the title of the 32nd chapter of what lengthy American novel?
Answer: Moby Dick
16. 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
17. 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
18. Genus Pterophyllum, a species of colorful freshwater fish found in basins in South America is what kind of fish? It’s also the name of a spiritual being believed to be an agent of God.
Answer: Angelfish
19. A "smack" is the collective term for a large group of what stinging, tentacled sea creatures?
Answer: Jellyfish
20. Mostly found shifting around under its water, what ocean is the namesake of Earth's largest tectonic plate?
Answer: Pacific Ocean
21. 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
22. What oceanic animal has the scientific name monodon monoceros, Greek for "one-tooth one-horn?"
Answer: Narwhal
23. What "A" word means a ring-shaped reef of coral that completely encloses a lagoon?
Answer: Atoll
24. 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
25. What's the better known name for the body part known scientifically as vibrissae, found on seals, walruses, sea lions, and house cats, too?
Answer: Whiskers
26. The Japanese yachtsman Kenichi Horie was the first person to use solar power to cross what body of water in 1996?
Answer: Pacific Ocean
27. Ask Nicki Minaj: The green species of a certain water boa is found in South America's rivers. What type of water boa would this be?
Answer: Anaconda
28. In what Texas city is SeaWorld located? This city was the site of an important battle for Texas independence.
Answer: San Antonio
29. The balanamorpha are what suborder of barnacles, also the name of the nut of oak trees and their close relatives?
Answer: acorn barnacles
30. 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
31. 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
32. 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
33. 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
34. 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
35. 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
36. Technically speaking, Norway's coastline is about 18,000 miles long, but only 1,600 miles if you omit what crinkly inlets?
Answer: Fjords
37. 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
38. 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
39. 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
40. 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
41. The global intersection of zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude is found in which ocean?
Answer: The Atlantic
42. Which E-term refers to the place where a body of freshwater (like a stream) meets the ocean?
Answer: Estuary
43. Wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and salinity differences are all different forces that create what continuous movement of ocean waters?
Answer: Currents
44. 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
45. 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
46. 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
47. 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
48. Which type of whale is also called the “toothless whale” because their mouths are specially designed to filter food out of seawater?
Answer: Baleen
49. 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
50. 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
51. 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
52. 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
53. 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
54. 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
55. 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
56. Hermione Granger's patronus is represented by what occasionally water-bound animal?
Answer: Otter
57. What sea creature is named after a type of flower and they do, indeed, look like plants? However, they’re actually stinging, predatory animals that enjoy immortality thanks to their ability to clone themselves.
Answer: Anemones
58. 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
59. 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
60. Since they lead a more aquatic life than other salamanders, the wild-looking axolotl don't shed what external respiratory organ?
Answer: Gills
61. Though their stinging tentacles aren't actually snakes, jellyfish are part of a subphylum named for what Gorgon?
Answer: Medusa
62. Corals create a hard exoskeleton by excreting what chemical compound, CaCO3, which also makes up limestone?
Answer: Calcium Carbonate
63. All seahorses belong to what genus, a name shared with a seahorse-shaped part of the human brain important to memory?
Answer: Hippocampus
64. 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
65. 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
66. Quebec City sits on what River, which connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean? It got its name from one of the seven deacons of Rome, Italy who was martyred by Valerian in 258.
Answer: St. Lawrence River
67. 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
68. A hydroid on the ocean floor that branches like a certain evergreen coniferous tree is called a sea what?.
Answer: Sea Fir
69. 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
70. 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
71. 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
72. What "Z" river, the fourth-longest in Africa, originates in Zambia and flows east through Zimbabwe and Mozambique before emptying into the Indian Ocean?
Answer: Zambezi
73. 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
74. If you’re in Mecca near the border of Mexico, what’s the name of the saline lake you can visit that’s saltier than the ocean and full of dead fish?
Answer: Salton Sea
75. The depth of the ocean (or perhaps a very big lake) is measured using what? The term is also the study of the floor of a body of water (though it sounds more like it’s the study of your tub).
Answer: Bathymetry
76. Australia's Great Barrier Reef is located in what appropriately-named sea, which lies between Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, and which gives its name to a WWII-era naval battle?
Answer: Coral Sea
77. 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
78. 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
79. 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
80. 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
81. In what body of water will you find the tiny island nation of Seychelles?
Answer: Indian Ocean
82. 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
83. 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
84. Dubbed Islas Malvinas by the Argentinians who also lay claim to them, what is the English name of the islands in the South Atlantic Ocean that saw Elizabeth’s son Andrew serve in a war there in 1982?
Answer: Falkland Islands
85. Callinectes sapidus, a food crab native to the western Atlantic Ocean, is distinguished by what color on its shell?
Answer: Blue Crab
86. What is the loudest animal on earth? Talking about the loudest noise it can generate, not its proportion of time spent making noise.
Answer: Sperm Whale
87. 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
88. 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
89. What word refers to small organisms, including both plants and animals, that are unable to move themselves against ocean currents?
Answer: Plankton
90. What “T” eight-legged segmented micro-animals can actually survive in the vacuum of space?
Answer: Tardigrade
91. 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
92. Known for its bulbous shape, the Irrawaddy dolphin is found in three rivers: the Ayeyarwady, the Mahakam, and what river that runs through, among other nations, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam?
Answer: Mekong
93. 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
94. 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 mollusc.
Answer: Cuttlefish
95. What whale species got its common name from the belief that pods were guided by a single namesake leader?
Answer: Pilot Whale
96. 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
97. What shrimp species is sometimes called the "thumb-splitter" because of the incredibly powerful strike of its club-like claws?
Answer: Mantis Shrimp
98. 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
99. 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
100. 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
101. 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
102. Also known as mola, which astronomical body features in the name of the genus that includes the heaviest species of bony fish?
Answer: Sun
103. What fish, in the the Rhinobatidae family of rays, have an elongated body and flattened head that make them look like what stringed musical instrument?
Answer: Guitar
104. 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
105. Hooded, Bearded, Ringed, and Spotted are all species of what marine animals also known as pinnipeds?
Answer: Seals
106. 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
107. 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
108. Sharks aren’t covered in scales—those sharp things are actually tiny teeth. What’s the proper name for them? It rhymes with tentacles.
Answer: Denticles
109. 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
110. 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
111. An experience as a young seaman being captured in the South Pacific by cannibals and imprisoned for mutiny inspired material for what American author for his future maritime fiction?
Answer: Herman Melville
112. 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
113. 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
114. What two-word "novel" island is the largest by area in the Pacific Ocean at over 800-thousand square kilometers?
Answer: New Guinea
115. 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)
116. 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
117. 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
118. A fish's dorsal fin is located along its spine; what corresponding adjective starting with C describes a fish's tail fin?
Answer: Caudal
119. What “A” name is given to a number of different marine snails in the family Haliotidae?
Answer: Abalone
120. What S-word is the technical name for the buoyant brown seaweed that floats on the ocean surface—sometimes for miles?
Answer: Sargassum
121. Agnathans, a type of fish, lack what body parts that other fishes have? Hagfish and lampreys are agnathans.
Answer: Jaws
122. The largest aquarium in the world is located in what country? Its enclosures contain almost 13 million gallons of water.
Answer: China
123. 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
124. 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
125. Physical geography—which includes many subdisciplines like climatology, glaciology, and oceanography—is technically known by which “-ography” term?
Answer: Physiography
126. 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
127. 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
128. 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
129. What Spaniard joined Vasco Núñez de Balboa when crossing the Isthmus of Panama to become one of the first Europeans to reach the Pacific Ocean?
Answer: Francisco Pizarro
130. What “toothed,” beaked whale is one of the rarest species of whales. A deck of cards will give you a hint about the name.
Answer: Spade
131. 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
132. 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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