Top 10 Facts - The Ocean

Earth Our home Over the course of history we've constantly learned more and more about our planet Humanity's endless curiosity for the unknown has led us to explore the far reaches beyond the horizon When that wasn't enough we took to the skies and even ventured beyond it But there is one place one place that remains a mystery a place where darkness Brings a new meaning to the word The Ocean Seventy-two percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water yet ninety-five percent of the world below the surface Remains unexplored we have better maps of Mars and the moon than we do of the ocean floor Nearly 50% of all life on Earth is also found in the ocean But scientists estimate that at the very least a million more aquatic species have yet to be discovered which basically means that theoretically, no matter how unlikely or illogical it might be to us now, there is still a chance, a chance, that a talking yellow sponge-like creature is enjoying a delicious krabby patty right as we speak. . .

If you've ever flown with a commercial airline and tried to look out the window things will look pretty small obviously, but keep that distance in mind now imagine that you're on a boat and instead of seeing the ground from high up in the air, you see the ocean floor from the surface That's how deep the Challenger Deep is, at the depth of almost 11,000 meters, it's the lowest known point in the ocean The most amazing thing though is that we have been there Humans have actually touched the bottom of this place and not only that we did it in 1960 1960! That's over 50 years ago now! Humans would not visit again until 52 years later when in 2012 James Cameron the famous movie director actually ventured down to the bottom himself Marine animals have something called "cleaning stations", at these stations fish, sharks, turtles, "I like turtles!

" and other aquatic life congregate to be cleaned by smaller shrimp and fish-like creatures, when the animal approaches the cleaning station it will open it's mouth and position it's body in such a way as to signal that it needs cleaning, the cleaner fish will then remove and eat the parasites from the skin and even swim into the mouth and gills of any fish being cleaned For decades now scientists have been tracking a mysterious song heard in the depths of the ocean the song like sounds have been identified as belonging to a single male whale trying to communicate with others, the problem is that he produces sounds at the frequency of around 52 Hertz, but most other wave species sing at frequencies much lower, between the 15 and 25 Hertz range Thus his singing goes unnoticed no matter how hard he tries, and it's been named "The Loneliest Whale in the World" which coincidentally sounds like a perfect title for a Pixar movie It's been estimated that roughly three million Shipwrecks are right now resting at the ocean floor, as they slowly sank beneath the surface never to be seen again that they carried with them all their cargo, their gold, everything So as we speak, there are several billions worth of treasures waiting to be found at the bottom of the ocean In 2012 a video from an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico spotted a highly unusual and surreal-looking creature It was captured over 1,000 meters below the surface floating around like a sheet or a blanket in the water The creature was later revealed to actually be a form of a jellyfish, Deepstaria Enigmatica, to be exact which is an awesome name by the way, not much is known about the animal other than that it lives at a depth of between 1,000 and 2,000 meters There is something called Deep-sea Gigantism and it's exactly what the name suggests It's the tendency for deep-sea animals to display a larger size than their smaller more common relatives For example the Giant and Colossal squid, the colossal is the larger of the two and can grow up to 14 meters long the average length of a freaking bus! Another example is the Japanese Spider crab with a maximum leg span of almost four meters There's also the giant oarfish which can become over 17 meters long and the giant isopod which looks absolutely enormous compared to its smaller relatives. It's not exactly known what is causing the creatures' increased size It could be the result of adaptation for scarcer food, greater pressure, the extreme temperature and complete lack of sunlight, or for other unknown reasons In early 2013 3 days after a ship had capsized just outside the coast of Nigeria a team of divers were sent down to look for the dead bodies of the ship's crew, what they did not expect to find was someone still alive; the ship's cook Harrison Okene had in complete darkness survived for three days in a small pocket of air 30 metres below the surface, the only thing he had was a bottle of coca-cola His rescue was also captured on film and has gone quite viral ever since The Bermuda Triangle has long been considered to be a mysterious place with strange, paranormal activity, a place where ships and aircrafts alike can mysteriously disappear never to be seen again This is not the case at all Officially the triangle is not even considered to exist, in fact the Bermuda Triangle has as many disappearances as any other region of the ocean of similar size and a lot of the supposed mysteries about the place even happened outside of the triangle, the only reason is considered paranormal is the work of popular culture It should come as no surprise that water pollution is a big problem all around the world today; Our complete disregard for destroying something that is absolutely essential for life on this planet is nothing short of astounding, and it's not just about the life in the ocean It's about life on Earth humans included millions of marine creatures, birds, and terrestrial animals are killed every year as the direct consequence of pollution In China over 90% of the water in and around cities is polluted, which should come as a shock to no-one as they release around 60 million tons of waste into the ocean EVERY SINGLE DAY The issue comes down to our inability to account for long-term effects, the fact that what we do now, today!

could literally mean life, or death in just a few short years But let's not forget about our pollution of the skies Global warming has an enormous effect on the oceans as well, about 30% to 40% of the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere dissolves into the ocean, rivers, and lakes It reacts with the water to form carbonic acid and starts a process called "Ocean Acidification" Where slowly but increasingly turning our oceans into acid. Let me say that again just to let you know how moronic this really is: We are knowingly, knowingly destroying something that is crucial to our survival and probably the reason we even exist in the first place by turning it into fucking acid!