50 Photos From The Ocean That Capture Why People Are So Drawn To Its Mystery

According to NOAA, it’s through ocean exploration (e.g., mapping the seafloor, disseminating data about ocean waters, etc.) that we can establish baseline information that’s needed to understand environmental change better.

This info can be critical for communities that live in coastal areas and which need to stay safe, resilient, and economically sound as sea levels rise, temperatures warm, and storms become more frequent and severe.

The ‘Oceans Are [Freaking] Lit’ subreddit was created just a few years ago, in March of 2022 and currently boasts 319k followers. According to the team running the online group, they are “proudly partnered” with the popular ‘Nature Is [Freaking] Lit,’ which has a whopping 17 million followers.

As per the mods, everyone who wants to post content on OAFL should, naturally, focus only on pictures, videos, and artwork of oceans. “Stick to the topic of the sub people, it shouldn't be that hard,” they say. They point out that the content they share should have a “wow factor” instead of being “some generic photo of a fish that pops up when you Google ‘fish.’”

Because there’s such a big focus on original and quality content, reposts are “highly discouraged,” even though they are technically allowed, so long as the content is at least a month old. What’s more, the OAFL community is encouraged to put some effort into their titles to make them descriptive. Meanwhile, if you’re into art, you can share ocean-related artwork and drawings only on weekends.

Which of these photos caught your attention the most, dear Pandas? What are your thoughts about the ocean, as a whole? Do you feel awed or a bit frightened by it (or a bit of both)?

What do you realistically think it would take for more researchers to focus on ocean exploration? We’re always happy to hear your opinions. Feel free to share yours in the comments at the very bottom of this post.