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30 Of The Creepiest Facts About The Ocean You Might Wish You Never Knew, As Shared In This Online Thread
No wonder there are so many horror movies made about the ocean. Think of Deep Blue Sea and Jaws, and it’s clear that our ocean anxiety has long been lingering.
But you don’t need Hollywood to find out what happens there. Check out our previous article that features chilling stories from sailors, scuba divers, and surfers who have seen things in the ocean they’d much rather unsee.
This time, we are taking you on a similar ride into the deep waters with this viral thread that has people sharing the most disturbing facts about the ocean. Let’s start with the fact that only 5% of the ocean floor has been explored and I'll just leave it here.
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#1
I remember watching a YouTube interview with a military diver. He described how when you’re doing a covert op you spend a lot of time just underwater doing nothing with no lights on until it’s time to move.
He specifically mentioned how he had to get used to having large things bump into him in the pitch black.
When we talk about oceans, we cannot ignore how tragically polluted it is. With each passing year, we expose the ocean to more pollutants, from trash to chemicals, industrial and agricultural waste, particles, excess carbon dioxide, and many others.
“What's really startling is how widespread human pollution is in the ocean,” Heather Spence, Marine Biologist orchestrating Coastal Marine Ecology Investigation and Outreach, told Bored Panda in an interview via email. Spence also researches underwater sound and noise on the MesoAmerican Reef that you check on her website "Ocean World Of Sound".
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#2
It doesn't hate you. It doesn't love you. It doesn't even know you exist. When it destroys/capsizes your boat your boat didn't even cause a change in its movements.
I am a sailor and I am in love with a cold heartless b***h who couldn't care less whether I live or die.
#3
Most of the plastic pollution in the ocean is not from straws, shopping bags, or consumer items as most of us were led to believe.
It’s from fishing nets and fishing gear.
“I don't know of any place, no matter how remote, that doesn't have evidence of human pollution. And since waste products of human activities continue to go into the ocean, you could say the situation is getting worse,” she said.
Spence explained that short-term effects of ocean pollution include changes in animal behavior and sickness or death of marine organisms. “Long-term effects include these on larger scales and larger numbers of affected organisms, but also domino effects as decline or changes in one species impact other species that rely on them. For example, corals form the structure of coral reefs and if they die, it is a big problem for the whole ecosystem,” she said.
#5
I’m a scuba diver and one thing that really scared me when I first started off diving, you hear SO MUCH more underwater then you ever will above on the surface, I’m not even talking about like the shifting or just the water itself moving, your hear things like fish clicking and other things like that, cuz underwater sounds move and travel a lot more so you hear a lot more and much quicker, was pretty out of nowhere when I first went under
Telmo Belo 2 years ago
You also hear a wider range of wavelengths. Deeper sounds can only get to your eardrums via water. It's like showing color to a color blind person.
#6
"Hot tub of despair" is a lake under the ocean, in the gulf of Mexico. It is highly concentrated with salt and has dissolved methane. Any creature that enters dies.
#7
We don't really know whats it in I can say that for thousands of years we drew sea monsters beliving they lived in it. Surprising alot of stuff we found in those pictures were in the ocean. (Giant Squid recently ). Just makes you think what else is actually down there that we don't know about.
SilverRain 2 years ago
These are one of the reasons I believe most of the creatures we depict as myths or fantasy might actually exist or must have existed
“Other effects are to humans - even in the short term and certainly in the long term, we can get sick from contaminated seafood or swimming in contaminated water, and livelihoods and quality of life are impacted from the degradation of marine and coastal areas.”
There are many ocean polluters, including plastics that Spence calls “a huge problem.” Then, there are chemicals from runoff from land. “An invisible one is a noise, yet it is also extremely impactful since sound travels very well underwater and marine animals use sound to communicate and navigate.”
#8
There are perfectly-preserved shipwrecks from ancient Greece preserved at the bottom of the Black Sea. The water is so deep that it becomes anoxic (oxygen free), which preserves organic materials like wood.
Shipwrecks are cool, but I find the phenomenon a little disturbing, since there is probably no life down there.
TCW Sam Vimes 2 years ago
not all life needs oxygen, there are bacterias that can exist in oxygen-free environments
#9
The largest biomass migration takes place every night when deep sea animals come up to feed
#10
Only 5% of the entire ocean in the world has been discovered, that means that there is still 95% unmapped.
Paul Pienkowski 2 years ago
Don't go too deep. We'll stumble upon Ry'leh and be doomed. Wait, no, it's fine. I need a little Cthulhu in my life.
Having said that, Spence added that she likes to frame problems with the positive side of solutions. “When people feel hopeless or helpless, they may make short-sighted decisions, so it is important to maintain hope,” she said.
“We are currently at the start of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Globally, scientists, policymakers, and creatives are coming together to discuss the best ways to respect, protect, and work with ocean systems. We are looking for win-win solutions that recognize humans are not just actors but members of ocean ecosystems. We need to remember that just as humans can be the problem, we can also be the solution. And we need to be practical about it.”
#11
Lost sailors in the sea who cling to wreckage basically have their skin dissolved by salt water after soaking for more than 3 days.
#12
When you dip your toe in the water you are no longer at the top of the food chain.
Chyppa Homer 2 years ago
Ok, I realize... city people. I live in an area, where I meet bears more often than I would like to. You're not on top on land either. Learn respect :D
#13
This story is corroborated by the survivors. During one of the world wars, a ship was sunk and 11 survivors clung to a lifeboat until one of them was dragged down into the abyss by a "cephalopod". If he wasn't killed by the animal's beak, he would have died a horrific pressure death while the cephalopod probably rapidly descended with it's life prey. It's not possible to say which species this cephalopod belonged to, but the Giant Squid and Colossal Squid are the largest and heaviest known so far. And some scientists speculate there might lurk an even more massive species of cephalopods deep down in the ocean.
And whenever you sail by boat and look down into the deep blue darkness of the ocean, remember that the probability will never be zero to be suddenly grabbed by one and dragged down into the total darkness, dying a horrible, horrible death.
Spence has an example of one win-win solution which has to do with noise from boat motors. “The noise is not the purpose of the motor. It is a byproduct of energy lost in the form of sound. Reducing that sound at the source improves motor efficiency and reduces environmental impact.”
#14
I tell new scuba divers this: The ocean doesn’t care about you. It’s not actively trying to kill you. But it will do a lot of things on its own that will absolutely kill you if you’re not prepared and paying attention.
I realize this could apply to any natural environment but it feels much more apt when talking about the ocean. One wave that you weren’t prepared for can make your day pretty bad. For the ocean it’s just business as usual.
#15
Point Nemo is the most isolated place in the world. It's in the middle of the South Pacific gyre, which is a massive rotating current that basically keeps any nutrients rich water from ever getting in. So there is no sea life anywhere to be found except for a few crabs and bacteria that live near some thermal vents on the ocean floor. It's so far away from any land that if you sailed there the closest people would be on the international space station. This is the location HP Lovecraft was describing when he provided the location of R’Lyeh where Cthulu and the other old ones love, although Lovecraft's coordinates were slightly off.
And in 1997 the loudest unidentified underwater sound ever recorded, known as "the bloop", originated near there. It was loud enough that it was recorded from multiple sensors 5000 miles apart and lasted for over a minute.
The prevailing theory is that it was ice cracking off the south pole but we don't actually know what caused it for sure.
#16
The Gulf Stream is created by the melting of ice from the north polar ice cap. That ice cap is rapidly disintegrating. Once it's gone, the Gulf Stream is gone. Once the Gulf Stream is gone, the weather pattern for the whole northern hemisphere dramatically changes.
This will be catastrophic.
Spence also argues that the best way to reduce marine pollution is the reduction of waste. “Remember Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? We often talk about recycling, but these three actions are in priority order. If we bring people together from a variety of perspectives and focus on reduction of waste at the sources, I am sure we can make a positive impact on ocean pollution,” she concluded.
Moreover, World Listening Day is coming up on Monday, July 18th. "It's a good time to be putting a focus on ocean sound and noise. I'm the theme creator this year and here's the short video where I announce it," Heather Spence added.
#17
The sonar we use for deep sea mapping really screws up a number of species especially whales, dolphins and porpoises. Imagine walking around and a tornado alarm decibel-level noise triggers right next to you. We do that every time we use that high-powered sonar and it basically f's up their own sonar abilities causing them to be unable to communicate and navigate.
#18
Depending on the person then this could be scary or really cool.
Oceans can have underwater oceans, rivers and waterfalls. Due to different water temperatures and density and all that scientific nonsense.
#19
The Mauna Kea Volcano in Hawaii is the both the tallest Undersea mountain and the tallest volcano Hawaii. It sits 6000 meters below the surface of the ocean and stands a staggering 4000m above. Giving it an overall height from ocean floor to peak of 10,000m.
#20
Once you get to a certain depth your buoyancy changes and you actually start get pulled down instead of floating up
#21
Ocean Acidification.
Increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) lead to higher concentrations of dissolved CO2 in surface seawater. This results in ocean acidification, which may affect the growth of the photosynthetic phytoplankton that form the basis of marine food webs.
So, total marine ecosystem collapse due to greenhouse emissions, the ocean produces more than half of the oxygen on earth, so that doesn't bode well for us.
Fred Van Der Zee 2 years ago
You can change the "may affect" in "affects" since this is already happening. One lifeform that thrives in this environment is toxic algae. Crabs are eating these and become so poisonous themselves that they are not fit for consumption anymore.
#22
Well Crippin should have dumped his wifes remains in the ocean because not an ounce of food goes to waste including the bones.
If you need to get rid of a mass grave don't bury dump at sea and the entire body will be eaten which will actually be beneficial to the ecosystem as a whole.
We shouldn't be burying people but dumping them at sea.
#23
94% of the Earth's oceans are just pitch black darkness.
https://www.deepseanews.com/2014/11/we-dont-know-the-ocean/
#24
If you commit suicide by jumping off a ship in deep water you will never be found, happens often enough on cruise ships, in those warm waters you'll be nibbled away before you gain buoyancy and return to the surface
Party Poison (They/Them) 2 years ago
So, theoretically, dumping a body in deep water makes sure it never gets found? Just theoretically, mind you. Also, just asking for a friend, who most certainly exists.
#25
The ocean is blue because all the other pigments are absorbed. So after a certain distance down everything thing becomes a monotone blue color, unless you have some other light source.
The freaky part is if a diver gets cut underwater the blood looks black, like ink. All the red has long since been absorbed so there’s no wavelengths left to show you a red color when you bleed.
#26
There are more viruses in the ocean than there are stars in the Milky Way.
#27
There are parts of the ocean which are dead no oxygen in the water which means nothing can survive, no fish no plankton nothing at all. They are spreading exponentially. Whilst they are tiny now and have been. At the rate of growth. They’ll cause serious problems before the end of the century.
#29
The fact that scientists think we have discovered more of outer space than we have of the oceans just scares me considering we don’t even know how big our universe is
Gandalf the Pink 2 years ago
I always find this such a strange and dishonest comparasion. We have mapped the sort of large scale structure of the observable universe. At the same time, we've only mapped about 1% of our own galaxy, not to mention any other galaxy. And only 4.6% of everything in the observable universe is ordinary matter, the rest is dark matter and dark energy which _we're not even sure what that is _. That 4.6% ordinary matter is calculated to be there, but we've only actually observed the tiniest fraction of it.
#30
When sea creatures die in the ocean and their bones sink to the deep ocean floor, zombie worms eat the bones. The skin secretes an acid dissolving the bones, digesting the remaining fat and protein left behind.
What do you think ?
Gandalf the Pink 2 years ago
Well this was full of inaccuracies or just false claims, I guess it goes to show how little we know about the ocean? 😅😂
Kristin Ingersoll 2 years ago
Sources???? This is Bored Panda. We don't need no stinkin' sources!!
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Gandalf the Pink 2 years ago
Well this was full of inaccuracies or just false claims, I guess it goes to show how little we know about the ocean? 😅😂
Kristin Ingersoll 2 years ago
Sources???? This is Bored Panda. We don't need no stinkin' sources!!
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