The Earth is mostly water, and that water is mostly unexplored. The mystery of the ocean has fascinated divers for years. When diving, people are transported to a completely different world of plants and animals. Some they're familiar with, and others are unknown. They learn that just because the ocean is a natural and beautiful place, doesn't mean it isn't creepy. In fact, there might not be anything on Earth as creepy as the ocean itself.
Water-lovers of Reddit shared some of their creepiest experiences from their adventures in the water. From venomous sea snakes to various dead bodies, it's safe to say these stories will make you think twice before you go for a swim again.
Divers Describe the Creepiest Thing They've Seen Underwater,
Sea turtle swims after snorklers
"I was a teen and snorkeling with my dad in Hawaii. Really enjoying ourselves, tons of fish and some smaller sea turtles and no other people. All of a sudden a sea turtle the size of a Mini Cooper starts swimming towards us - came completely out of the dark of the ocean. Scared the piss out of me (literally). I've never swam back to shore so fast in my life. We got back to the shore, walked around to some cliffs, and could see the turtle's shell on the surface. It was easily the size of a small car."
Girl lands on top of a gator
"While water skiing on a lake in Louisiana, I flew off. I landed pretty much on top of an alligator. I kinda felt my leg hit him, and we were eye-to-eye when I gasped for air. Then he went under. The moments after that were the most terrifying moments of my life. I was so certain I'd feel him bite my foot any second, and drag me under. I started screaming, and couldn't stop until the boat was back to me. You don't realize how long 2-3 minutes is until you're alone in the open water. Never again for me."
Barracudas stalk swimmers in Florida Keys
"I spent a week snorkeling and diving in the keys. Barracudas are terrifying. I saw a couple sharks, and they ignored me. The barracudas though, they're curious. I vividly remember being a few feet underwater and looking over my shoulder to see a nasty row of barracuda teeth about four feet away. I swam away as calmly as I could for a full minute, stopped, looked over my shoulder, and the thing was in the exact same spot, four feet away, like I hadn't even moved."
Kayaker finds a creepy sunken speed boat
"I like kayaking when I get the chance, but one day in a lake up in Glacier Nation Park, Montana, I saw a small boat. A little, vintage looking, tiny motorboat. The little tiny mini speed boats you always see in '70s movies set in Miami or something. Just a few feet underwater, perfectly preserved. I could reach down and touch it. There were no signs of damage, no signs of why it sunk. It was eerie. I had to leave because for some reason it just freaked me out. The idea that something could sit, inches from the air but still submerged for years, probably. It made me so uncomfortable and I don't know why."
Three friends go out for a midnight dive...
"Me and two buddies were on a night dive in the Puget Sound hunting prawns. It was about one AM, and we're a good hundred feet deep- the darkest black you could imagine. We used to do this thing on night dives where we'd get in a circle, turn off our lights, then stir up the water and watch the bio-luminescence float around us like floating stars in a black watery space. Beautiful. Only this one time, we turn off our lights, stir up the water, and the water glows just enough to reveal a fourth person sitting in our circle.
We were at a dive resort, so it wasn't so odd to see another diver, only it was one AM--we'd seen no one else prepping a dive at the dock. He was also alone, which was odd considering the dangerous conditions of a night dive in those waters, and he had no fins or gloves. I don't know how he swam so well without fins, or didn't get hypothermia without boots or gloves. We wore dry-suits because it was so cold, but this dude was in a wet suit with exposed skin. We thought we saw a giant gash in one of the legs.
So the three of us all notice him, and we're too fucking scared to move. I can hear my buddies panting in their regs, and the guy just smiles, waves, then swims away. Whenever you think you're alone and someone just shows up, like in an alley at night, it's weird. 100 feet under water at night is terrifying."
Spear fisherman loses to a tiger shark
"I was diving a spear fishing spot about 30 miles off shore. I was 60 feet under water. There I was swimming along when I noticed them. A school of mahi mahi. There were about 30, maybe 40 of them. These fish were all between two and five feet long. They were so beautiful with their sides flashing all different colors. That's when I felt the tug on my leg. I looked down at my legs to see a 12 foot tiger shark pulling on my dive fin and taking me along for the ride. In a second, he had ripped the fin off my foot. The shark then swam away, but kept circling just at visual range. I think he was still curious about how I tasted. I kept an eye on him the whole time I was swimming back to the boat. Scariest moment I have ever had in the water."
Divers find a fisherman's glove and also hand
"I was diving with some friends and found a fisherman's glove with a hand still inside of it... We brought the glove to the local police and they told us that they hadn't received any kind of report of a guy with a missing hand."
Divers find body of missing surfer still preserved in wet-suit
"I was diving off the Florence, Oregon coast with some friends, and we found a body on the ocean floor in the creepiest condition possible. He was a surfer who'd gone missing a few days prior, so he wore a wet suit with his legs, arms, and head exposed. Crabs had eaten the flesh from his exposed bits, so, basically he was a torso with a skull and skeletal limbs."
Underwater cave inexplicably lights up
"I was diving off the coast of Fiji and we went through a natural tunnel (like a 10 meter cave/passage through a rock formation). So we start swimming through the cave and suddenly the light was weird, like the blue tint from the water has been replaced by a red one. Now all divers will know that this isn't only weird because the color changed, but also because red is the first color to disappear after a certain depth (usually between 30ft -10m- and 40ft -13m-), and we were over 70ft (23m) deep. Also bare in mind this was late morning on a sunny day.
So imagine this scene: me and my dive buddy are going through an underwater cave and suddenly everything, for no apparent reason, is tinted red, a color that you are literally supposed to be unable to see while diving at that depth during the day.
Upon exiting the cave, everything was back to blue. I thought it was just me so I didn't signal to go back up. After the dive my buddy asked me if I'd seen the water tint red too. We can't explain it and the folks from the local dive shop had no idea what we were talking about."
Swimmer brings a new friend back on the boat...
"I went snorkeling in Coron, Philippines in the shallow waters just enjoying the reefs. When I went back on the boat I felt something heavy inside my shorts. I thought it was just water caught up in there, so I shook my shorts and a snake fell out. I freaked out but my sister was able to take a picture of the (venomous) coral reef snake before it went back into the water."