Note:Full text accompanies each panel. Only a portion of this, the introduction, is shown below.

Beautiful, blue and bubbly – this strange group is the most bizarre and easily noticed within the plankton community. “Blue”, so as to be well camouflaged from aerial attack by marauding tropical birds, gulls and petrels. “Bubbly” so as to remain floating on the top of the most unpredictable surface on the planet – exposed to merciless ultra violet radiation, wind, storm, wave, current and even the odd atomic test – these animals are consummate “floaters”! “Beautiful”, because they are. Much of their colour comes from symbiotic algae or crystalline material that imparts structural colour. They are amongst the few animals that sport true purple colouration. Amongst their number is the longest animal in the world. Read on for more...