Freshwater vs. Saltwater

 Ever wonder what the difference is between saltwater and freshwater? The five major oceans account for 96.5% of all the saltwater on the planet Earth. 3% of the earth's water is fresh. 2.5% of the earth's fresh water is unavailable: locked up in glaciers, polar ice caps, atmosphere, and soil. Sure, freshwater is fresh and saltwater has salt, but what else is different about them? Saltwater and freshwater have different animals, bodies of water, and similarities.

Freshwater is very important to us because everything living thing on this earth depends on it. And where there’s fresh water, there’s plants and animals. Animals that live near and in freshwater include snails, fish, worms, turtles, frogs, marsh birds, mollusks, alligators, beavers, otters, snakes, and many types of insects. Very rare animals like the river dolphin and diving bell spider are freshwater creatures too. Freshwater is found in different bodies of water, some are lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, and even groundwater. So don’t run the tap longer than you need to and don’t take more fresh water than you need because it’s very important to us. 

Saltwater may seem useless because most people think that any living thing in it dies, but, saltwater is thriving with creatures. Fish, sharks, dolphins, and crocodiles can manage and drink it. Bodies of water that contain saltwater include a few lakes, some ponds, oceans, and seas. Saltwater has unique features because there can never be a freshwater sea or ocean. The Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans are all saltwater bodies of water. Coral reefs rely on saltwater to survive, and they cannot live in freshwater otherwise they die. So even though we cannot drink salt water, some creatures need it because they cannot survive in freshwater.

But, now the differences have been sorted out, what are the similarities? They are not just both bodies of water, there are a lot of small things. Lakes can be filled with saltwater or freshwater, it doesn’t matter. For example, The Great Salt Lake and Lake Baikal. And some fish can survive in both conditions saltwater and freshwater including Salmon. Both have obstacles and can be pressurized. So saltwater and freshwater are extremely different, but, sometimes small similarities make a change.

In conclusion, saltwater and freshwater have different types of creatures, bodies of water, and similarities. Some freshwater lakes are: Lake Baikal, Lake Victoria, and Lake Superior. Some saltwater lakes are: Great Salt Lake, Lake Eyre, and Lake Balkhash. What freshwater or saltwater bodies of water do you have around you and your animals in those surroundings?