Are you one of the 10% who are afraid of deep water and the vastness of the sea? Don't feel bad about it! The fear of large expanses of open water, and the sudden panic it brings, is a sign of your keen awareness of the unknown, which is often seen as a sign of intelligence.
If you have to choose a phobia, then oceanophobia is undoubtedly the most "reasonable" choice. Do you know? In just one milliliter of seawater, about 10 million viruses can be found! Not to mention the real-life giant sea creatures such as squid, as well as mysterious freshwater lakes covered with shipwrecks and freshwater monsters such as crocodiles lurking inside. All this is enough to make people full of awe and fear of the ocean.
Let all these pleasant thoughts come to your mind, here are 24 real-life images (in no particular order) that will trigger your oceanophobia.
24, Flooding
Are you the kind of person who is not afraid of darkness and murky water? One user shared a photo of his feet immersed in a freshwater lake – hanging in what can only be described as a black abyss. Artistically, it's a beautiful picture, but we can't understand what he was thinking when he put his feet in the lake. Hasn't he seen the movie "Piranha"?
23. Freefall for freedivers
Every diver wants to dive into a cenote in Mexico. These caves are also known as sinkholes or sinkholes and can be found all over the world.
But only in Mexico is this phenomenon known as a "cenote", which means "cave filled with water". There are 6,000 to 10,000 cenotes all over the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and they are truly beautiful. Or rather, it's scary, depending on how you look at it. Especially when a freediver recorded his freefall into a cenote 100 meters deep.
22, the old man in the lake
For more than a hundred years, a giant hemlock tree has been floating in Oregon's crater lake. Known as the "Old Man of the Lake", its sun-hardened and fragmented head and torso floated nearly 1 meter above the water's surface. Its lower body sank to a depth of 10 meters. You might wonder why "Old Man of the Lake" received an honorable mention on this list that was supposed to be about undersea phobia, and the answer is simple. It's scary. And it floats in huge water.
This ancient tree is scary because it looks as if it should take root, but it swings around as if it is defiing the laws of physics. Not only that, but it is disturbing that a large part of the tree remains below the surface.
21. Seaweed forest
Since we're talking about objects in bodies of water, we'd like to show a shot of a seaweed forest that will surely activate your oceanophobia in 5, 4, 3, 2......
As scary as seaweed forests may be, they are essential to the planet and to all of us who live here. We really can't live without it, it provides nursery environments and feeding grounds for a variety of marine animals, and brings a strong sense of identity to indigenous and coastal peoples, who have used it as medicine, food and material for thousands of years. But we don't swim among them. Especially in the case of low visibility.
20. Harpooner's surprise
There's nothing scarier than expecting something right behind you and then confirming its existence. And this feeling multiplies under the water. In 2018, a spearfisherman was "hunting" dinner off the coast of South Africa when he had such a terrible accident. In his footage – we first see him entering the murky green water, then descending a few meters and swimming away. What happened next was much scarier than 99% of horror movies.
A shark emerges from the darkness and swims straight towards the spearfisher – and guess what? He could only defend himself with a fragile harpoon gun.
19. Animals
While diving near the southwestern tip of England, the two noticed a giant jellyfish emerging from pitch-black waters. This is a bucket jellyfish, a rare species that is also known as the trash can lid jellyfish. It's a pity that this is what its "head" looks like. Under the huge dome are eight stout tentacles that can stab. As the largest jellyfish in the UK, this humanoid creature is mostly known for its stranded samples. I think I said thank you on behalf of all of us, but we'll get over.
18. Discover strange things
We know and accept that there are many strange things in this world. But why do they almost always appear in large bodies of water? In 2017, a diver spotted something strange off the coast of Australia. It looks like some kind of creature. This thing is tubular in the form of a tube, translucent, and huge. The most amazing thing is that it glows.
Fringe theorists were quick to speculate that it was a mysterious creature, but biologists disagreed. This tube is not a living thing, but a squid's nest lined with strings of eggs. These eggs are pink in color and have a pearl-like appearance.
While I'm not an expert, it certainly looks like it should be the egg of some much larger animal.
17. Sewer diving
This is actually a shot of a sewer dive.
Sewer systems in large cities have a lot of moving parts. Hundreds of pipes and pumps are needed to flush away human excrement, and you better believe that they will be clogged with all sorts of unspeakable garbage. That's where you need a sewer diver. For nearly four decades, Julio Cu Camara has been working deep in the sewers of Mexico City to maintain the complex drainage system and keep the city clean. He wears a three-centimetre-thick sealed wetsuit and jumps into the black water every week to perform routine maintenance on the waterway system.
16. Cave diving
While cave diving is a million times more hygienic than sewer diving, it can also be ten times more dangerous. In fact, cave diving is insane. This is not just a bold statement; It is supported by a large body of evidence.
A terrifying, waterlogged, decaying, lightless cavern scattered underground, stuck in thousands of narrow, uneven caverns. Cave diving is a huge challenge because it combines the isolation and desolation of cave exploration with the powerlessness and madness of scuba diving. Only the bravest and most gifted adventurers can engage in this most extreme extreme sport, and even then, it is not necessarily successful.
15. Abandoned mines
Many of us are already upset about the mine. A deep, dark, claustrophobic tunnel leads for miles into the plundered crust, leaving us feeling downright uneasy. Now imagine something even more disturbing: a mine filled with murky, dark water!
One of the most dreaded dives is diving into the abandoned mine shafts of Lake Thunderbay Superior in Ontario. Now, most of us won't even swim past – however, the water-loving adventurers among us will explore everything, regardless of the water temperature or whether or not a freshwater sea monster awaits them below.
14. When the ocean flips over the ship
Earlier this year, Coast Guard helicopters captured the moment a huge wave swept a yacht into the deep sea, never to be seen again. Aside from the crazy waves and storms, when you watch this video, what really catches your attention is the figure in black behind the yacht.
13. Diving in a high-altitude environment
If you want to bring claustrophobia to your oceanophobia, watch the 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World. In this film, Werner Herzog explores Antarctica, observing the animal world at the bottom of the world – above and below the thick layers of ice that are constantly thinning – and showing the same peculiar pursuit of human involvement in extreme exploration.
I mean, above the ice, the view is very beautiful. The penguins are adorable.
But why dive under the ice, where you can't go up and out?
12. a vortex
If we haven't given you enough reasons to stay away from large bodies of water, the whirlpool is definitely enough. A whirlpool of water is a rotating body of water formed by a reverse or strong flow into an obstacle, such as a dam or weir. Some whirlpools are formed in the ocean by fast-moving currents and tides. For some reason, some people like to jump into the whirlpool......
The whirlpools in Haier Harbor occur only a few times a year, when the tide rises faster than the current passes through the tunnels below the pier. In 2013, a young photographer/videographer/artist who was fascinated by water photography decided to jump into a whirlpool with his photography to capture shots of an underwater whirlpool, and unfortunately drowned.
11. Big blue waves off the coast of Oahu
Diving must be a lot of fun. You can dress up in a snazzy black superhero suit, don tons of space-age gear, put on a fancy watch that beeps and jump into the ocean. Sounds great! Until you did the same off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii and saw what a diver recognized. Shark. There are sharks everywhere. And there is no seabed in sight.
10. Diving in the oil spill
In this footage, we can see divers diving into the ocean after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. That's right, that's crude oil, in which divers swim. This is a scenario that any oleophobia can only dream of. But they didn't do it on a whim.
The Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon event is one of the worst ecological disasters in U.S. history. In addition to commercial fishermen and Gulf Coast residents, divers sent to clean up the spill were among the most affected victims. The sea is filled with carcinogenic crude oil, crews work up to 20 hours a day in dangerous waters, and some divers get sick before the cleanup is complete. Crude oil itself is a source of contamination, but the dispersants used by divers when cleaning up crude oil can also expose them to toxic chemicals.
9. Shark video clips
Over the years, there has been a lot of criticism over the visuals of the shark movies and the use of CGI to add more shock to the show. However, in 2022, the producers got the best footage ever in a massive Jaws attack – and it's 100% real. In fact, it's so real that we may never go back to the ocean again.
Don't, we repeat, if you have a sea phobia, never watch this video. In the video, we can see an unlucky diver (as divers always do) sitting in a transparent box under the surface. Underneath him, a 16-foot shark swam and occasionally nudged him once or twice.
Suddenly, the shark attacks from below, swims towards the box with its mouth wide open, and bites the box violently. Bite the box to pieces. On the surface, another camera captured the shark breaking through the cage, screaming and a lot of swearing as the diver fell into the water. We can confirm that the diver managed to escape, but there is no need to say too much detail - but this is the most horrific footage we have ever seen.
8. Night diving
Would you want to jump into the pitch-black water at night, armed only with a flashlight, and watch the corals and fish? Look at least those that are about a meter away from you, because we know you can't see farther away. It was just miles of pitch-black water. Imagine those creatures and weird things that might stare at you from a few meters away, aren't you afraid? For example, explore the shark week shark ......
7. Unexpected visits
When diving in the tropics, your visibility is limited, even in clear blue waters – from a certain point, everything looks blue. These images prove that you never know what's waiting for you around coral or shipwrecks.
6. Swim in an underwater lake
This particular saltwater pool seems safe to swim in, but scientists discovered another saltwater pool in 2022 that has an uplifting name: Death Salt Water Pool. Any creature that swims into it will die. This is because the gills of the fish are adapted to a specific salinity level – which is why freshwater fish cannot survive in the sea. However, it has been recorded that saltwater pools are too salty for even saltwater fish to adapt, so when they swim through the saltwater, their gills malfunction, and – in fact – they drown. It's very disturbing to know that even fish are not immune from drowning, to say the least.
5. Disturbing undersea rivers
Now that we've talked about the deadly Pool of Death, we'd also like to introduce you to the Deadly Salt Thermocline located at the Angelita Cenote in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
From above, it looks like an ordinary freshwater pool. After diving for about 30 meters, divers are presented with an incredible sight – an underwater river. It is shrouded in an eerie mist that envelops the river in an ethereal blanket at least 3 meters thick. Divers who dare to swim into the fog often start to panic. The mist is pure hydrogen sulfide and can be very disorienting when swimming. Not only that, but inhalation of this gas can be fatal.
4. Freediving Zenobia
Freedivers are a special species among humans. They are the closest thing to superhuman beings among humans. This is an extremely dangerous sport; Any accident can be catastrophic. Freediver William Trubridge swimming past the Zenobia (a shipwreck off the coast of Cyprus) in one gulp is probably one of the most frightening clips we can show you.
3. A good day on a cruise
Have you ever been on a cruise? You know, the kind of cruise where you pay for everything and you can eat and drink to your heart's content at sea for a week? I've heard that's funny. In fact, some people prefer to take an annual cruise rather than a long drive to a beach that is usually overcrowded. In fact, an Australian couple recently decided to spend their life savings on 51 consecutive cruise trips because it's more fun than spending twice as much money in a nursing home. In our view, these are all goals that we should all strive to achieve. But maybe not the part about cruises.
We found incredible footage of a cruise ship in the event of a storm, and to be safe, we would rather spend our life savings on a house near or far from the beach.
2. A beautiful day on an oil rig
Have you ever seen a video that makes you seasick? This one might. This frightening footage, filmed by marine worker James Eaton in 2015, shows a huge wave hitting a Bogholm dolphin rig 145 miles east of Aberdeen in the North Sea. With a total weight of nearly 15,000 tonnes, the rig is part of a much larger Dolphin drilling fleet that also includes rigs off the coast of Norway. Think about what it's like to be on it.
1. Iceberg exploration
You've probably heard of cave diving, but have you ever thought about diving in an ice floe cave? Professional cave diver Jill Heinerth and her team attempted this unprecedented challenge in 2019 – diving into iceberg crevasses. During the dive, Heinerth and her companions were also hit by cold-water crustaceans (isopods), which she found to be almost like a horror story.
But that's not the end of the story. On their second dive, a strong current swept them into an iceberg, and it was only by luck that they found another way to escape.
On the third dive, Henas tried again with two other divers. As soon as she entered the crack of the iceberg, she found that the current was too fast, and quickly signaled her companions to retreat. Still, they were trapped. They tried to swim against the current to the exit, but the current was too strong for them to return. At this time, Hainas came up with a solution, she used the small holes in the glacier to climb the 130-foot-high ice wall step by step like a handrail, and finally everyone survived.