Down by the Sea My Family and Me

The surface of our planet consists of 71% oceans that account for 97% of the water in the world, yet the vast majority of the world's oceans remain a mystery. Information technology'due south easy to permit your imagination run wild when you recollect virtually what might be beneath the seas that we know nothing most.

Underwater mysteries aren't new — just tin be admittedly enthralling. Beneath the ocean waves, there are many things we tin't fifty-fifty begin to imagine. For your viewing pleasure, we compiled a list of personal accounts of some of the about shocking and astonishing occurrences to ever take place on the h2o.

Dolphins Leaving Bioluminescent Trails

Nosotros were sailing on a 134-foot, double-masted steel brigantine through an expanse of high biological productivity in the north Atlantic i dark. My shipmate was on bow watch. I was on the quarter-deck assisting the mate with whatsoever needed to be washed. I suddenly heard my shipmate yelling my name and saying I needed to come up up to the bow as quickly as I could.

When I got up there, I saw seven or eight bottlenose dolphins swimming through the bioluminescent water correct nether the bow of our boat. Every inch of them glowed greenish. It was like something out of a dream. They looked like glow in the dark torpedoes. When we looked out across the horizon, we saw green spots everywhere. There must accept been shut to 30 dolphins swimming effectually. Nosotros got almost the entire coiffure out of bed to come watch. That was definitely something I'll remember for the remainder of my life.

My buddy that grew upwards in Hawaii has a ton of crazy tales of the sea. He told me one well-nigh this one-time man that survived from bringing in fish from the sea. My friend went out on the boat with him, and he watched the sometime man do some sort of ritual of hitting the boat and the water. He said he saw bubbles starting to rise to the surface, and an one-time barracuda came upwards, forth with many smaller fish. The man collected the smaller fish, thanked the barracuda, and information technology returned to the depths. He did this every 24-hour interval and sold the fish as a manner of living.

Nature Is Happy to Show Off

I was out on Lake Michigan early on in the summer. It was a actually warm day, but the water was actually cold nevertheless. Much similar a hot day on the tarmac, this created mirages. The merely difference was that the mirages were inverted since the air was much warmer than the water. So, if you looked at a boat in the distance or the Chicago skyline across the lake, you would see a mirror image of the object in the air above the actual object. It also made the sand dunes in the distance look similar a sheer cliff that was painted in watercolor. Information technology was actually trippy.

Their Eyes Weren't Playing Tricks on Them

I was sailing in the Caribbean for five weeks a few years ago when I was xvi, somewhere between Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago. It was nighttime, and I was on watch with a fellow child and our head instructor. We're sailing forth, looking at the stars and talking about stuff, when all of a sudden a very brilliant light appears in the sky. In the blink of an eye, it had lit upwardly everything we could see for miles effectually, as though there had been a total moon (there was no moon).

We couldn't discern annihilation about the shape of the source of calorie-free. Information technology was merely a brilliant dot flying beyond the sky. Our best guesses were that it was a satellite or meteor, but I've never known either of those things to be that bright. I also saw it once more one or two nights afterward, but neither of those people was on watch with me.

What He Found at Body of water Changed His Life

I worked at a gunkhole rental rock during my late teens. I was sailing around my local harbor for a quick trivial lap after piece of work. I got out to the middle of the bay and saw something struggling in the h2o. I sailed closer and took a pass — information technology was a puppy. I went back to exercise another pass, and I got close enough to catch it by the scruff of its neck. I took it home, and it was the best dog my parents always had.

You lot, Too, Can Observe a Message in a Bottle

I was maybe 8 or nine. We were boating around the San Juan Islands, and my sister saw something glinting in the ocean. My dad pulled the boat upwardly next to information technology and pulled a freaking letter in a bottle out of the water. It said basically to go to these coordinates (on a nearby island) to become his "treasure." Nosotros went there and found a chest nether a log.

Eerie Darkness and Complete Quiet Showing No Signs Of Life

Navy sailor here with ii deployments to the Gulf. My send establish two "ghost ships" — one was drifting with no power in the Indian Body of water. No response on bridge-to-span and no visible signs of life or electricity. The other was stuck on an outcrop of rocks off the declension of Oman, completely abandoned. We wound upward using it equally target practice for an F-18 to clear a structural risk to the waterway.

A Manatee in Disguise

I was canoeing on the declension of Florida, and my wife said, "Allow'south paddle up to that log." Nosotros did, and right before we reached it, the "log" snorted heavily and swam away. Information technology freaked me out. My wife laughed because she knew it was a manatee and knew what would happen. She grew up in Florida.

He Wasn't Trying to Surprise Y'all…

I almost hitting a sea turtle the size of a mattress off the declension of Washington. It suddenly appeared, and I threw the engine in reverse and swerved difficult to port, throwing passengers off their seats in the process. I looked out the starboard window as I went past and saw two eyes staring at me on a head the size of a basketball.

Hey, Penguins Need Vacations Too

I saw a penguin swimming around in the Gulf of Mexico. A friend invited me to become angling offshore when I was visiting him. While out there, he pointed out the funny black and white bird in the altitude that would occasionally dive downwards. He proclaimed information technology was a penguin. I calmly explained at that place was zero, zilch, NO Fashion that was a penguin. I explained currents, geography, water temperature, etc. We floated closer to information technology. It was a penguin. We snapped a few pics of it. Dorsum at home, a few minutes on Wikipedia told us it was Spheniscus demersus. Go figure.

Ocean Creatures Falling from the Sky

I was on a yacht commitment across the Gulf of Mexico, heading from the Dry Tortugas to Key W when there was a series of wap, wap, wappapa wap noises higher up united states. We looked upward in time to meet a bunch of flight fish hitting the sheet, simply as the start of them started falling and flopping all over the deck.

The Water Has a Mood That's Quieter Than Quiet

The about astonishing affair is the non-sound of wind. When you're on shore, current of air rustles through the trees, moves wind chimes, makes birds chirp, etc. Way off shore, none of those sounds exist. It's very eerie to feel the air current but have it brand no dissonance. It's simply a force that moves across your skin then gently leaves without a audio.

A Whale'southward Hole in One

I was walking along the beach with my girlfriend, when suddenly I hear someone scream, "Is anyone hither a marine biologist?" Being a marine biologist myself, I ran over to the commotion. What I saw was a beached whale with a golf brawl stuck in its blowhole. I removed the golf game ball, and the beach-goers helped me push the whale dorsum into the ocean. The sea was angry that day, my friends.

A Sweet Visitor Who Isn't Afraid to Say Hello

This isn't as well amazing, but it was really cool at the time for me. While in Cape Cod, right off the shore of Nauset Beach near Due east Orleans, about seven years agone, I was on the family boat, a 24-foot Grady white. We were sitting at that place looking at the seals in the water feeding on some sort of bait fish when we saw one of them split off the pack. Now, keep in heed that we were almost 100 yards away, so nosotros were surprised to see that this seal was headed in our direction. He must have been very interested.

Information technology didn't take more 30 seconds for this guy to come right up to the side of the boat we were on, and, I child yous non, it merely treaded h2o and looked at u.s.a. for near five minutes. Nosotros were all taking pictures and "talking" to this kind company as most people would do, all while he calmly watched us. Afterwards we had put down our cameras and sabbatum back down, still watching our new friend, he swam off and went back to his seal buddies to proceed feeding. It was truly an amazing experience for me.

Bailiwick of Passenger Trauma

When I was a kid, we used to take the hovercraft beyond the English Channel, which I hated, even more so afterward the particular solar day of strength-ix gales. I recall waiting to board just being told that it was besides rough for the crossing. And then, eventually, they said they'd do it, and nosotros all got on. Only instead of just being the usual 25 minutes, it took much longer considering the hovercraft had to go forth the English language coast first to try and detect a prophylactic passage beyond the aqueduct. I remember quite vividly the usually beautiful white cliffs of Dover careening up and down by the spray-covered porthole windows while I felt very ill.

The Ocean's Misleading Aureola of Condolement

I got to swim in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I'm a very proficient swimmer and have never had any fears of the water ever. Every bit soon equally I jumped in (the h2o is very clear when y'all're away from the shore line), I couldn't help but notice how deep and big the body of water is. Information technology was a very unsettling feeling, so I got out immediately. I would never exercise that again.

Surrounding Sounds in the Deep

It's not nearly what I saw simply well-nigh what I heard. I was on a 688i second flight form boat for part of my career in the U.Southward. Navy. We were heading from Hawaii to Nihon, moving fast, and so y'all tend non to see a whole lot on sonar because of period noise unless you're close.

SAWS (Situational awareness systems) reported a transient sound and said it was weird, simply at that place was no trace on the screen so it wasn't a distant source. It was all effectually us. I switched my station over to broadband, so I could run into and hear what SAWS was seeing and hearing and started listening. Sure enough, I heard it too. It was a sound like crystal bells ringing with no defined source, except I had more than sensors at my disposal because I could flip through whatever configuration. The sounds, whatever they were, were deeper than we were and were all around us past the end of information technology.

I still don't know what it was, but we always called them the deep ones in reference to Cthulhu. It was the type of thing that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up up to listen to, though. I was in 1 of the deadliest hunter-killers, powered by a nuclear reactor, and that kind of audio fabricated you imagine something much bigger out in the depths.

Sea Creatures Can't Hide When They're Being Hunted

I used to piece of work on an educational tall transport in California. One fourth dimension, we were lucky enough to encounter a pod of orcas. As we followed them, they picked up speed, and we realized they were later a huge pod of common dolphins. They dissever up, flanked the dolphins, and of a sudden we see a dolphin go knocked into the air, followed past a lot of red water.

Too Shut for Comfort

I was pleasure sailing with a lady off the declension of Commonwealth of australia. A great white shark outburst out of the bounding main with a seal in its oral cavity and fell within half dozen feet of our vessel. Nosotros had both been snorkeling earlier that twenty-four hours.

Hungry Dolphin Shatters Peaceful Stereotypes

I was pulling in a massive squid on the surface, letting it de-ink, when a huge black shape came out of the water and took it. I initially thought it was a shark equally information technology was brutal, only it was a "squeamish, gentle" dolphin. If I ever hear some other person tell me dolphins are beautiful or gentle, I'll point out my great-white-type experience with a dolphin.

Modern Pirates and Their Shady Behavior

I was sailing with a couple of buddies, and we came across this powerboat seemingly stranded. When we went up to it, a ton of people came out on deck with iPhones recording us and enervating we give them a lift to shore. They were super shady-looking guys, and we did not allow them on. As we started sailing away, they were shouting, and one guy lifted his shirt and showed the states his weapon. We took off.

Live Animals Aren't Meant for Jousting

I own a jet ski, so I like to consider myself a slight crewman. I was speeding up and down the middle of the lake next to my business firm when I hitting something underwater, and it acquired the jet ski to come off the water a few inches. I came to a terminate and turned around to — low and behold — a gator floating upside downwards in the water next to me. I didn't stick around to discover out if it was conscious, but I similar to remember I jousted an alligator that 24-hour interval.

A Small Boat Won't Work equally a Submarine

I was sailing my Splash Dinghy (11 feet) on the sea for the first time at a regatta in Weymouth (United kingdom) back in 2012. The winds/waves were Strength Six. So I was running downwardly wind when all of a sudden the bow of my boat plunged into the water, lifting the entire rear end up out of the h2o. I managed to recover her and go along, only I'll never forget the sight of all that water rushing over and by the deck and mast. I felt as if my dinghy suddenly became a submarine.

Sea Creatures Bring Children'due south Books to Life

While serving in the U.S. Navy in the early on '90s, we were in the Adriatic. One forenoon at about dawn, I saw through my lookout glasses what looked like a pole sticking straight out of the water. We were in the middle of the ocean, and so I didn't know what to make of seeing that out there in the mirror-like seas.

Equally the transport approached it, I reported seeing a pole sticking out of the water. Every bit nosotros passed information technology by, I could encounter what it was. Information technology was a sunfish, and having never seen one before because my home is equally inland as you can become, I was super thrilled, because information technology looked exactly how my illustrated children's books on body of water life described it. The 10-year-old in me rejoiced about seeing 1.

A Loftier-Powered Nightlight on the Horizon

While on a crossing from the Bahamas to Charleston, South Carolina, I was on watch in the eye of the nighttime and saw a strange bright orange lite rising upwards from the horizon until information technology flickered out. I couldn't figure out what information technology was, but when nosotros got to shore I saw in the paper there was a rocket launch in Florida.

A Chilling Ice Tale Three Stories Tall

I was on a gunkhole in Alaska, and we were correct near a glacier. On our way away from the glacier, nosotros saw a small slice of ice fall off one of the icebergs. About two minutes later, right in the spot where the gunkhole had been a minute before, a massive piece of ice shot out of the h2o. It had to exist three stories tall and at least 15 yards wide, and information technology shot 30 feet into the air and settled down to a height of about 10 feet above the surface of the h2o. I accept no thought how that could have happened.

Leap Frog? No, Leap Spotted Eagle-Ray

My parents were out line-fishing off the coast of Florida when a massive spotted hawkeye-ray with a half-dozen-human foot fin/wingspan leapt out of the ocean, flew right over the boat and their heads, close enough to touch, and so splashed into the water on the other side.

These Eagles Have Swift Reflexes

Information technology was a cute solar day off the coast of Juneau, Alaska, and nosotros were hobby fishing for salmon when we defenseless a small fish. We noticed a big bald hawkeye soaring overhead and decided to attempt and throw the fish to the eagle to requite him an piece of cake lunch. My father-in-law threw the fish up in the air, and the hawkeye swooped down, grabbing information technology out of the air before information technology hit the water. I was pretty stunned the eagle was then ready to catch a fish like that, only information technology seems his reflexes were pretty eagle-eyed, for certain.

A Ghost in the Hall During Night Watch

I'm training on big ships right now, and on the training vessel, I have to stand up night watches. Downwards in the ships, steering gear at two to 4 a.m. is non fun when you're in an isolated room. Sometimes, it sounds like a girl is talking down the hall, but you know no one's in there because in that location's only one entrance. Information technology's the scariest thing.

The Silver Lining of Running from a Deport

I was paddling a canoe with some friends on a trip in Quebec (I think it was in the Lac Mistassini area). One evening, a bear showed up adequately close to our campsite, so we decided the best selection was to suspension camp and paddle through the nighttime to our adjacent site, almost a 10-60 minutes paddle away. Paddling under the stars was absurd enough with aurora borealis and very lilliputian lite pollution, but I'll never forget the bolide (superbolide?) that zoomed across the sky and was brilliant enough to light up the area like it was daytime. I believe something similar happened in Thailand. It really was a once in a lifetime visual effect.

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Source: https://www.smarter.com/lifestyle/sailors-share-the-most-unexplainable-things-they-have-ever-seen-at-sea?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740011%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex