Someone Asks What's The Scariest Thing In The Ocean That Has Photo Evidence, And 30 People Deliver

The plastic patch

Are we just not going to talk about a telescope fish

The Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Leopard seals. It’s something about their eyes. They’re large, fast, basically silent predators outmatched in their environment only by the Orca. Their jaws open to almost 180 degrees and they have a bite force comparable to a bull shark. The sound they make fills me with a very primal fear. And in the right lighting their eyes are terrifying. I think it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing thing, but instead of a wolf it’s a flipping prehistoric water monster.

Edit: I have learned more horrible facts about the leopard seal, a creature I now worship out of fear there may be one under my bed. These snake-headed murder puppies are (on average) 10-foot-long 600-pound prehistoric killing machines that see any warm-blooded animal smaller than them as prey. Females have been measured to top 11.5 feet long and weighed at over 1,100 pounds of pure, flesh-ripping terror. The corners of their extremely long mouths are permanently curved upward and sometimes they smile. Shocking no one: this is usually a sign of aggression. Nothing can erase from my mind the image of these terrible fuzzy Jeff the Killer beasts *smiling.* Their heads average 14.5 inches long (awful), with jaws that can open to 160 degrees — significantly larger and any one human limb or head (I hate this). Their teeth? Guys? Holy f**k, their teeth? (TW: slightly gross uncleaned skull)

Their lower jaw is MASSIVE, even for a predator. Leopard seal skulls and bear skulls are too similar for my liking. Seal eyes have spherical lenses (what the f**k), giving them a field of vision of about 280 degrees. With both eyes, they can see basically clearly 360 degrees. Humans have about 130 degrees of visual field, and maybe 180 total degrees of vision. If you can see a leopard seal, it has already seen you. You can’t sneak up on these (need I remind you, virtually silent when hunting) murder monsters. They’re skilled at adapting to many climates and food sources, so much so that in a world where polar bears and orcas are struggling, leopard seals are considered “of least concern” on the endangered species scale. The way they eat penguins is to essentially catch them and throw them into the air until the penguin is fully degloved. They throw penguins *out of their skin*. They also have highly developed craniofacial musculature, allowing them tongue dexterity and a powerful bite force. They sometimes hunt by just… sucking prey into their mouths underwater.

Goblin Shark. Thing looks scary as hell and its jaw [jumps out and attacks]

The Lamprey is downright creepy AF!

The tongue-eating louse. A parasite that eats the tongues of fish and then just hangs out in their mouths.

I'd s**t myself if I happened upon a spider crab

Nah. The scariest thing to me is falling into a shoal of Humboldt squid. They hunt in packs (and can easily just think ooh human=food) and wrap their powerful arms (with 100-200 hooked suckers) around their prey and then bite down with this bone-crunching beak They grow to about 2.2m and 50kgs. And the worst part is that squid don't really care or seem to notice if the prey is still alive. And adult humans are usually too much to fill a squid stomach. Imagine getting a leg eaten off and then released only to descend lower and either have the process repeat with another squid or to slowly drift downward into the abyss Oh yea I guess you just drown at that point. But imagine you got gear or something. Terrifying. The Humboldt Squid is sometimes called the Red Devil. 

Caves in icebergs that constantly change while you are inside them

For me personally, ANY Anglerfish. Black Seadevil Anglerfish 

"The frilled shark” discovered in Awashima, Japan. It inspired the second form of Shin Godzilla, which is also pretty unsettling.

Siphonophores. Not individual organisms but colonies. by their 'design' no two will look *exactly* alike, & some are quite gorgeous, but others look like an artist render of Yog-Sothoth

Not the biggest or maybe scariest, but I'd argue the - Cookie cutter shark. Is the most ghoulish and depraved - using razor sharpe circular teeth to bore a gaping hole in its victim. Like something from a SAW movie. 

The colossal squid takes some beating... we have never seen one alive, presumably they live too deep to be spotted, but dead ones have washed up or been [cauight accidentally]. On hooks laid out for other fish. Up to 14m long and half a ton in weight they are bigger and meaner than the 'Giant' squid, big enough to prey on sperm whales, which we know because whales bearing gnarly scars from their beaks/hooks have been recorded.

Vampire squid

Phantom jellyfish I think are harmless, but they look terrifying and occupy a lot of space

This MF has always fascinated/freaked me out. The Barreleye fish 

Giant sea spider in Antarctic waters Polar gigantism is a hell of a thing

Mantis shrimp. We're so freaking lucky these things don't get very big.