Dear Vic:

According to Scripture sea creatures were not included in the destruction:

Gen 6:5-7 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."

It was only the creatures above the sea to be destroyed. But, the actual target of God's judgment was man. Men had become so wicked, not unlike what we are seeing today, that God judge mankind by sending a flood. The animals on the land were, in essence, collateral casualties but serve as a lesson to us, which I will esplain below.

We should not get hung up on such details as the real meaning of the story of the Flood is not any historical accounts or facts. The real meaning, as it is with all of the Genesis stories, is religious. As the Navarre Bible Commentary states concerning this severe purification, "The Bible is offering us here an impressive lesson about the destiny of mankind when it turns its back on God and rejects the laws that are stamped on creation itself."

As for the animals sharing the same fate as man, the Navarre Bible Commentary explains:

The fate of the animal world is closely linked to that of man, in terms of both punishment and salvation. The verse (6:19) is a way of reminding us that all creation is designed for man's benefit and has a share in man's destiny.

The Catholic Encyclopedia states:

Moreover, the Fathers regarded the ark and the Flood as types of baptism and of the Church; this view they entertained not as a private opinion, but as a development of the doctrine contained in 1 Peter 3:20 sq. Hence, the typical character of both ark and Flood belongs to the "matters of faith and morals" in which the Tridentine and the Vatican Councils oblige all Catholics to follow the interpretation of the Church.

These religious and theological meanings of the Flood are the point of the story, not its historical accuracy or even if the Flood never happened. I am not saying the Flood never happened. I believe that it did. I am just saying that such issues do not matter as the religious and theological meaning are the point of the stories.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary