Divers will usually give the same reason for wanting to dive to the darkest depths of the ocean: They all want to see something fascinating. Odds are you'll encounter something under the surface no one on dry land will ever witness. However, sometimes what you see will not always be pleasant.
Reddit user, u/mustardask, wanted to hear about the creepiest catches when they asked:
Divers and people who spend a lot of time underwater, what's the creepiest/ most unexplainable thing you've seen while in the depths?
That's One Way To Take Out The Trash
I've done a number of dives, and the strangest thing I ever saw was a large deep freezer with a heavy industrial chain wrapped around multiple times with about 5 cinder blocks attached. It was very very rusted and the deep freezer itself had to have been 30+ years old, probably more. This was about 90 feet deep just off Vancouver Island, Canada.
The situation gave myself and the other divers the newbie jeebies. Logged the gps and depth co-ordinates and notified the police. We were able to find out what was inside, since one of the divers had friends with local police. 10 porcelain dolls....
Ocean Cemeteries
Giphy
You can dive in man made lakes and check out what's left of old flooded homes and communities. It's pretty dark and spooky down there no matter what, especially when you think of all the big fish swimming around that are barely silhouettes until they're close.
My buddy likes to dive in lakes. He said the creepiest thing, by far, is finding cemeteries 100 ft + beneath the water in the dark, eerie quiet.
UrethraFrankIinA Future Premonition
I had a dive master that told me once he was diving somewhere and found a full skeleton wearing diving gear with the air on the tank turned off pretty deep down. If I remember correctly they said they reported it to the police and it was found out the man's wife turned off his air while they were on a dive to murder him.
A Physical Reaction Worthy Of The Situation
I once went diving in port Elizabeth, South Africa where it is quite popular to see sharks.
We begin diving and we are quite far from the shore, there's a cool looking structure under us, we swim towards it to get a closer look and I just start getting this cold cold cold cold feeling running through my body, and that's when a shark appeared and I physically shat myself from fear.
Just A Set Of Eyes Peeking Out
When I was a kid swimming in the lake at summer camp, I dove underwater and I swear I saw someone in SCUBA gear hiding underneath the dock watching us. I told the lifeguard, but he wasn't able to find anyone.
Taking Advantage Of The Kill
Neither creepy nor inexplicable but once on a night dive I had a seal tag along and take advantage of my flashlight to do some night hunting. It was adorable and the poor fish didn't stand a chance.
Also because the sea-sausage was completely comfortable and taking advantage of me they were all up in my business a bunch which was awkward because as a rule you're not supposed to touch the animals for their safety and yours. In this case I finally decided it was totally ok to push their fat butts when they were in my way.
Mistaken Identity
I was swimming in the ocean in California one day by the shore when a massive had to be a 1000 lb sea lion brushed my leg and surfaced next to me
thought it was jaws
A Hug From A Cow From The Sea
My mother and I would always Kayak in Florida where she lived. One time we pulled the kayaks up to go have lunch and when we came back my mother's was floating off the shore by like 500 yards.
I have been on swim team my whole life so I want in to get it and pull it back to shore. As soon as I got about 100 yards out there was a manatees swimming around me. My mom's Kayak was blue and I guess she has had issues with manatees trying to mate with it before but I never realized the true size of them until this guy was right beside me. He wasn't aggressive but he wasn't happy I was pulling his "girlfriend" away. I know fully understand why they are called sea cows.
Two Equally Bizarre Times
first, as I said in a comment above, was when training to be a rescue driver. We were in a canal where more than a few people drove into it. Looking at a VW Bug when a catfish that couldve downed me in at least 2 gulps showed up.
Second, dive certification wreck dive. Im the last to descend and everyone is staring at me, not looking around, to the point I get creeped out and make the decision to look behind me. I wish I'd liked earlier or later, maybe not at all but I turned and was literally face to face with the largest cuda I've ever seen. Thankfully it just sat there. Probably wondered why we were trespassing!
Did It Even Have A Driver's License?
I saw a sunken car with a mannequin in it off the coast of Cancun that I though was real
Student And Master Tales Of Oddities
I was diving in Lake Mead, and found a human skull floating attached to a chain about 40 feet down. It surprised me because it was murky water and I ran into it about 3 inches to my face.
My dive instructor also told me a story about finding a boot with a foot still in it. Also, I was diving in the Bahamas and came across and old dive site that was used for a James Bond movie, but all the old structures looked like heads on pikes from far away.
Reaching Out From The Darkness
We lost an anchor that was dropped without being cleated to the boat in a river in Pennsylvania. The rode was still attached so assumed it would unravel and run downstream.
Water was only 20' but no vis.
Recovery was like an arc search. My partner at pivot point and I swam diameter feeling for line or anchor.
We hooked a snag or something on the circ line at mid-point that cut my line length in half and brought me back to the initial pivot where my buddy was..
I grabbed a human arm in the dark water and it grabbed me back,..
Dodge, Dive, Dive, Dive, Dodge
My stepdads friend one of his friends where diving and looking for treasure in an area you're not supposed to be in. And the reason is because those huge party/travel cruisers pass through there.
They had looked at a schedule and no boats where supposed to be there at time. So they dive in and about 20 min later they start hearing a rumble that quickly got louder until the whole place started to vibrate.
They dived into the sediment och shoved their hands into the mud trying get hold of something while this massive boat passed what sounded like just a few meters above them and they could feel themself getting lifted from the mud.
Luckily nothing else happened, but they could just as easily had been sucked into the propeler and gotten shredded into nothing. As you might have guessed they did not look for any more treasue there..
The Sea Plays Tricks On Your Mind
I was just over 100' when I got narced (nitrogen narcosis) .
I was looking over the abyss, thousands of feet deep, when I heard both of my children scream, "Dad!" My blood froze. I stopped and looked around. My heartbeat a little faster and I let my partner know I wanted to move out of depth. It was a very uncomfortable feeling.
I knew it was an auditory hallucination, but I didn't want any more of that.
So Close...
When living off the coast some buddies and I would take regular fishing trips out to the oil rigs. We would always have some lines out and a few would dive down and try to spear some mangrove snapper or cobia. Once while I and two others were diving down checking out the structure we decided we needed to move due to lack of life around the rig.. we all get back in the boat and as one of my buddies is reeling in a line we had a red snapper baited on.. an easily 8-10ft tiger shark starts chewing on it right behind the prop, so close I could have poked his eye out.
The idea that massive animal was in the water so close to me and two of my friends but no one saw it is terrifying. I bet he was watching us the whole time.
And That's A Big NO From All Of Us
Giphy
I'm a commercial diver, and was once on a job cleaning a potable water reservoir. I'd been in other reservoirs before, but this was by far the biggest, at 40x80 metres. To get in you had to open a hatch in the ground (the whole reservoir was underground) and climb down a ladder. The hatch was in a corner, so when you were in the far corner of the reservoir, it was completely pitch black, and you just had to hope your light didn't go out.
I was about half way through a three hour dive when the batteries in my torch started going flat. I watched the beam get narrower and dimmer until it cut out completely. It's not a huge problem if you lose light, as you can just follow your umbilical back to the hatch.
Just as I started walking back, some obnoxiously loud banging started somewhere in the reservoir. I was the only diver in there, so it both confused and scared the shit out of me. Needless to say I ran back to the hatch as fast as I could. I ended up getting my torch changed out and doing another hour in the water, but didn't hear the noise again. I still have no idea what it was, but the combination of my torch going out and loud banging coming from somewhere gave me a hell of a fright.