11.
I was fishing off the coast of malaysia in the middle of the night. Suddenly, the night sky brightened and I saw a bright glowing orb appear to the bow. The orb moved slowly across the sky, leaving a bright yellow trail and seemed to have sparks coming off it for about 20 seconds before disappearing into the night.
After getting back to shore, I learned that it was a retired japanese satellite re entering the atmosphere.
12.
We were out at night once, with our lights off because we were admiring a field of bioluminecent stuff that was just stretching for miles around us. Really freaky looking but neat… right up until a shadow twice the size of our boat started coming right towards us….
13.
one was an abandoned boat floating past us in the night
14.
I’m a marine biologist, while at uni I went out to the deep ocean on a scientific cruise. We were trawling about 800 m. Pulled up the catch. I found a hermit crab. What was cool about this was it wasnt in a mollusc shell but was in a hard anemone. The anemone had a bottom part that was hard and hollow perfectly fitted for the crab. On top was two clusters of stingers. It was an awesome little symbiotic relationship in which the anemone gave the hermit crab shelter and protection and the crab presumably moved the anemone to food. Anyway, I tagged and bagged it for another scientist to look at. I never followed what happened with it. I tried to search if it had been discovered. I couldn’t find anything. It could have been a unique discovery.
15.
Not deep sea but fishing. About 10 years ago now I was fishing at Coles bay, Australia, there were 4 of us in the ~14ft aluminium boat that day.
We were bottom fishing for flathead in the bay when the weather started cutting up, not wanting to give up so early we decided to do one more drift in near the beach. We were in shallow enough water that you could almost see the bottom.
Quiet fishing occurs for a few minutes when suddenly my rod almost bends completely in two and the line snaps. The same thing happens to my uncle to the right of me. Thinking we’re hitting rocks and snagging, my grandad tell my cousin to pull his line up.
Something bites, he manages to pull it up for one or two winds before his line snaps, just enough to pull this things shadow into view.
It was the shadow of a massive sting ray, almost as long as the boat and wide enough to darken the waters around us.
We all went completely silent and watched it swim away. Never seen anything like it before or since. We checked later and the water was only ~15-20ft deep there.
16.
Not strangest thing seen or heard, but more…felt. I was spearfishing a wreak off the west coast of Florida and found a neato den of Goliath Grouper each in the 400 lb class. Now these are a protected species so I’m not allowed to shoot them, but going in a little closer to get a good look seemed like a great idea. Now when a goliath grouper feels threatened they can drum their gillplates which creates this underwater boom boom* boom which makes your whole body vibrate. Now imagine like 5 of these bad boys just vibrating the s**t out of this wreak, and I’m in 40 feet of water very aware of that I hold no power down here. I had to wash that wetsuit a little more thoroughly.
17.
I went deep sea fishing last summer. I don’t have an insanely terrifying story or anything, but I have a couple that may entertain. Both happened on the same trip
The first story is that at one point, a teaser line got caught up in the prop shaft. No big deal, the captain (my friends dad) turns off the motors and then a couple of us dive in with goggles. At this point, we were 40-50 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, water depth 150-200 feet. We have a kitchen knife and are trying to cut this insanely tough fishing line off of a circular metal shaft. Being in the water, noticing how clear and blue it was, gave me a sense of awe, but at the same time a sense of fear. I knew that the water was as clear as a swimming pool, yet I still couldn’t see the bottom. I couldn’t see anything, really, except a gorgeous shade of blue. After a bit, my other buddy wanted to help out with the tangled mess, so I got out and gave him my goggles. While down there, the two guys noticed remoras swimming beneath.
Getting sucked into by one is inadvisable. Basically, the remora began to swim at my friends, so they just got the hell out of there, and the line was already well enough taken care of anyway.
Second story is less intimidating. We had 4 lines out, and one in the middle popped out of the outrigger. The line started flying, and I mean flying out of the reel. My friends and I rushed to pick up the rod so we could land this apparently massive hunk of sea meat, but the line snapped before we even got to the rod. To this day, I’m not 100% sure what sort of fish that was, although my suspicions are that it was a gargantuan king fish
18.
I don’t fish but when I was in the Navy we parked the ship over the Marianas trench with is like 5 miles deep, and went swimming, I did not see anything but in my mind!!! It’s freaky swimming in water that deep..
19.
I dive in the open ocean at night a lot while leading something called a blackwater dive. I have seen all sorts of strange life, but certainly one of the creepier encounters (cookie cutter sharks, larval fish, strange squids, schools of mola) was when I watched a spotted dolphin hit a squid and take off. Drifting down from the site of attack was this bright shiny thing. As I looked closer, I realized it was the squid’s eyeball that popped out in the attack, starting on a journey sinking 6000 feet below us.
20.
Late to the party etc etc. Not my story but rather my Granddads who was a Chief Engineer on Trawler ships operating out of Hull.
Was fishing at night of the coast of Norway in the 70s I believe when a call came on radio (Worth nothing its was an open secret all the radio operators on the trawlers worked for the government and also had sonar equipment to listen for USSR Subs) to evacuate a 100 or so mile area and if the trawlers could not get there nets up in time to GTFO then they should just cut them free (Which is a very expensive thing to do when you have dozens of miles of nets out in the water). On the way out my granddads trawler and other trawlers in the area saw a massive white flash on the horizon.
After returning to Hull it was discovered a ship called the Gaul had never returned and had lost all radio contact around time of this flash. Fast forward 20 or so years later and the wreckage of the Gaul was discovered and officially sank because of a waste flow pipe being overwhelmed by a massive wave that flooded the lower compartments of the ship and sent her to the bottom. Rather interestingly there was no human remains found on or near the ship nor any equipment food bedding etc and all the windows had been blown outwards along with a hole about 3m across through the middle of the ship with all the metal work being twisted upwards towards the sky. My granddad always insisted up to his death that the sea that night was as still as a pond and that his radio operator was fairly sure the GTFO warning came from the Gaul. As well around the time of the Gauls sinking 16 unknown graves were created and filled in Murmansk, Russia.
Another one of his favourite story’s was that one day the engine for hauling in the nets was redlining and came very close to exploding so had to be shut off as they assumed the nets had got stuck on the bottom. A few minutes later a Soviet sub surfaced behind them with the nets stuck to the periscope complete with a bunch of very pissed off soviet sailors armed with guns who unhooked the nets and disappeared back under the water. It was a known tactic that soviet subs tried to sit under the trawlers and use them as cover to get out into the Atlantic hence a lot of the ships having government paid radio operators on board.
