A reference to marine organisms living at great depths throughout most of the year, however during the winter they move to the surface: Certain deep-sea organisms, such as the pteropods, heteropods, and Radiolana, are chimopelagic and inhabit the upper layer only during the cold months.

Chimopelagic creatures also refer to certain bathypelagic (biogeographic region of the the ocean bottom) organisms that appear at the surface of the ocean only in the winter.