Pelagic life consists of three categories. The phytoplankton, which constitute the food base of all marine animals, are microscopic organisms that inhabit only the sunlit uppermost oceanic layer, using sunlight to photosynthetically combine carbon dioxide and dissolved nutrient salts. zooplankton are the marine animals that rely mainly upon water motion for transport, although some forms such as jellyfish are feeble swimmers. Zooplankton subsist on phytoplankton and smaller zooplankton and are dominated in their numbers by small crustacean copepods and euphasiids. nekton, the free swimmers, are dominated by the bony and cartilaginous fishes, molluscans, and decapods, with rarer mammals and reptiles.