Oceans: The Deep Blues.

It's fair to say that we know close to nothing about the oceans. And that fact is and it should be, terrifying. Some of the things that we have seen before are so scary that they make us wonder as to what creatures lurk beyond the deep blues.

Let us take the example of the Jellyfish. Jellyfishes are simple creatures. They possess no brain, no heart or bones. The box jellyfish is much more evolved and has eyes all throughout its head giving it a 360° view of the surroundings. It stings what ever predators are near, having slim to none protection in its skeletal system. It has no strong bones to protect the vital organs because it has no vital organs. They can grow up to 2 meters. Although, the largest known jellyfish, which is confined to the cold, boreal waters of the North Atlantic, artic and pacific oceans, the Lion's Mane Jellyfish is known to be larger than a blue whale! It can grow up to 37 Meters in length which is 121 feet top to bottom, measuring the tentacles. To put this into perspective, the tallest man to have ever walked the Earth was 8 feet tall. You can imagine the rest. Tentacles of the Lion's mane jellyfish are known to be larger than a blue whale in length and those tentacles throughout are poisonous. Perhaps not to humans, but to the ocean's creatures, they are. That's 121 feet of wires filled with electricity just floating around the ocean, you can say.

But that's not the only terrifying animal in the deep blue. Let's take an example of the Megalodon. We've all played Hungry Shark Evolution so we all have an idea as to what the Megalodon is. Basically the largest shark to have ever existed. Some people don't believe in the existence of the Megalodon but given that we have no evidence as to what is down there, I for one definitely believe there must have been creatures that big. With teeth reaching sizes up to a human arm, we should really be helpful that the megalodon is extinct.

When we think about the Titanic, we imagine the movie. Think about the movie. When the ship went down, imagine you were in the water. The ship is sinking in front of you, all of the people you know, drowning and screaming for help, you see the people around you, try to help them. Following me? Now imagine the same situation, more realistically. How? Imagine everything happening in pitch black.

You have no idea what is happening around you, who is screaming for help, what condition is the ship in, hell, you don't even know if the ship is gonna sink right over you and take you down with it. The titanic sunk at 2:05 AM on a moonless night. And for us to even comprehend about that and even other such shipwrecks, just the panic and the anxiety that follows, is terrifying.

My point is this. When we think about the ocean we think about clean blue waters all around and though there are some dangerous animals, it is nevertheless beautiful. But here's the thing. Sunlight reaches us all over the world because we live on the surface, at sea level or at least not very significant difference from the sea level. But light only reaches up to a kilometer that is a thousand meters into the ocean. Guess how deep is the deepest point of the ocean. 11,000 meters. That's 11 kilometers below sea level. Which means after the first kilometer, the 10,000 meters that remain, lie in absolute darkness. And we can only imagine the kind of creatures that evolution must have given birth to down there.

Humans evolved on the surface of the earth under extreme, though managable conditions. We dealt with earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones, but we managed and we evolved into tough beings that could think beyond all of this to protect ourselves. What about the oceans? All of this happens under the ocean too. There's so many volcanoes under the ocean we don't even know about. How do they protect themselves? One possibility is that they have creatures evolved like us humans, extremely intelligent who could build civilizations to survive all of this. Another possibility might be that they are still primitive, they just evolved to be so strong that they can just live through all of this with their primitive mind and bodies.

Trust me, both of those possibilities are equally terrifying.

Then why don't we just set out there, go and explore to find out what lurks beyond? Well, it's not that simple. One of the major factors that stops us from doing that is the absence of light. We cannot see anything and the human technology can only be trusted up to a limit into unknown and possibly fatal grounds. Another factor is pressure. Maximum pressure that a human can withstand is up to 5 atmospheres which is about 75 PSI. The pressure level at the deepest point of the ocean is 15,750 PSI. That's 1000 atmospheres more than we can live through. That really makes us think. If there is so much pressure inside the ocean, how did the aquatic creatures grow to be so big? If they survive in so much pressure then naturally they should be getting considerably smaller in size, but that, evidently is not the case. Last thing we need to know is the creatures do not follow the laws of nature. So these are some of the reasons we cannot just plan a trip downtown to the ocean.

So how do the beings survive inside the ocean in such darkness. Well, it's simple, really. They produce their own light. I know right. Such creatures produce their own light through a process called bioluminescence. Fascinating and terrifying at the same time. And of course survival of the fittest, still applicable to the primitive (maybe) life down there.

We had no idea that squids existed until a video of a squid surfaced on the internet in 2005-2007. And that is one of the largest species we have encountered till now. A squid's eye is a meter long. Makes me wonder.

Even more factors that contribute to such scenarios is that oceans have been around for a long long time before humans. In fact, life began in the ocean. Because at the time land was far too disastrous for any life to thrive. So if the oceans have been around for millions of years before humans, and humans developed to be such intelligent creatures, what does that tell us?

Food for thought.

All of these things, all of the talks, everything comes down to one thing. The ocean is freaking terrifying. We reached the surface of the moon, we reached the surface of other planets and came back to earth safely but we cannot physically explore our own planets to the fullest. Our universe is full of terrifying secrets. Some lie beyond the horizon far away from our planet, some, deep inside our own. Either way, I can be sure of one thing. Secrets found from both within our planet, and beyond, are going to be equally terrifying for us. It's like having a monster in your closet, but you cannot open the closet, until the monster wants to make its presence known. Whatever it might be, the best we can do is, well, nothing. Some things are just not in our hands. Hopefully we will explore and research the rest of the ocean, hopefully it's before the deep blue decides to explore the land.