Any water in a sea or lake that is not close to the bottom or near to the shore can be said to be in the pelagic zone. The word pelagic comes from the Greek πέλαγος or pélagos, which means "open sea". The pelagic zone can be thought of in terms of an imaginary cylinder or water column that goes from the surface of the sea almost to the bottom. Conditions change deeper down the water column; the pressure increases, the temperature drops and there is less light. Depending on the depth, the water column, rather like the Earth's atmosphere can be divided into different layers.

The pelagic zone occupies 1,330 million cubic kilometres (320 million cubic miles) with a mean depth of 3.68 kilometres (2.29 mi) and maximum depth of 11 kilometres (6.8 mi). Fish that live in the pelagic zone are called pelagic fish. Pelagic life decreases with increasing depth. It is affected by light intensity, pressure, temperature, salinity, the supply of dissolved oxygen and nutrients, and the submarine topography. In deep water, the pelagic zone is sometimes called the open-ocean zone and can be contrasted with water that is near the coast or on the continental shelf. However in other contexts, coastal water that is not near the bottom is still said to be in the pelagic zone.