One objective of benthic ecology is to describe the spatial distribution of living organisms at or near the sediment—water interface, as well as to explain how and why the distribution occurs at that particular location on the seabed. The descriptive part of the job of the benthic ecologist thus becomes a sampling challenge since a depth gradient is involved from the intertidal to the hadal zone — a depth range of 0 to >6000m (Parsons et al. 1977). Another sampling problem is that of substrate variability, thus hard, e.g. rocks and corals, versus soft substrates, e.g. muds, sands, and gravel, which means that appropriate samplers for each type must be quite different. Because it is considerably more difficult to sample at depth, the bulk of the available sampling results are for the littoral and sublittoral zones down to SCUBA diving depth. Thus, much of our knowledge of the spatial distribution of benthic organisms is heavily biased to these limited depths in the nearshore environment. The benthic animals which we would expect to be present in a grab or core sample of soft sediments in the nearshore region would include micro-, meio-, and macrofauna (Table 1.1). The size ranges shown are arbitrary and based on sampling convenience; thus, if a 0.5- or 0.8-mm mesh was used in sieving, then the lower size limit for macrofauna becomes 500 or 800 μm.