Most of these plants and animals are too small for the human eye to see. Phey drift about lazily with the currents, providing a basic food for many large animals.

Plankton has been described as the equivalent of the grasses that grow on the dry land ontiiients, and the comparison is an appropriate one. In potential food value, however, ilankton far outweighs that of the land grasses. One scientist has estimated that while grasses f the world produce about 49 billion tons of valuable carbohydrates each year, the sea' s lankton generates more than twice as much. Despite its enormous food potential, little effort 'as made until recently to farm plankton on land. Now, marine scientists have at last begun ) study this possibility, especially as the sea' s resources loom even more important as a leans of feeding an expanding world population. No one yet has seriously suggested that plankton-burgers" may soon become popular around the world. As a possible farmed supple-lentary food source, however, plankton is gaining considerable interest among marine scien-sts. One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibilities is a tiny shrimp-like reature called krill. Growing to two or three inches long, krill provide the major food for the ant blue whale, the largest animal ever to inhabit the earth. Realizing that this whale may •ow to 100 feet and weigh 150 tons at maturity, it is not surprising that each one devours ore than one ton of krill daily. Krill swim about just below the surface in huge schools some-Ties miles wide, mainly in the cold Antarctic. Because of their pink color, they often appear i a solid reddish mass when viewed from a ship or from the air. Krill are very high in food ilue. A pound of these crustaceans contains about 460 calories—about the same as shrimp or bster, to which they are related. If the krill can feed such huge creatures as whales, many ientists reason, they must certainly be contenders as a new food source for humans.