Electrical Conduction in the Oceans

Oceans are saline and their salinity varies with temperature. Electricity conducts through electrolytes (salt dissolved in water), so this raises the question of how energy is conducted within the oceans.

In the atmosphere, lightning occurs when charge differentials between clouds or between clouds and the ground reach levels strong enough to ionize the gas molecules between them. High voltage is required because air insulates current, i.e. because molecules in a gas can move around instead of being locked in place while their electrons are ejected by incoming energy.

In (salt) water, however, energy can flow as current without the high voltage and explosive ionization chains that cause lightning. So significant amounts of energy could be conducted through ocean water without noticeable phenomena like lightning accompanying the conduction.

So the question is whether there are geological reasons that energy would flow between the surface of the ocean and the ocean floor. Is there some phenomena like lightning, but more diffuse and subtle, which transmits energy to the bottom of the oceans, or vice versa where current generated within the magma and churning core of the planet conducts out through the ocean to power, say, certain organisms that resonate with the electrical current?